CrossRock

Creation Festival going on tour; Twilia Paris back on the radio

doconnor — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:34:37 +0000

Couldn’t make it up to Creation 2008, or weren’t up for the idea of camping in the hills for three-plus days?
The festival is coming to you.
Well, sort of.
Plans have been announced for “Creation Festival … The Tour,” which will set off across the country this fall and will come closest to us on Saturday, Nov. 1, in Bethlehem, Pa.
All of the details haven’t been announced yet, but some of the bands who will appear have been.
It starts with Kutless, the Portland-based Christian band who once again impressed at Creation last week.
Also coming is Pillar, which gave an impressive show as well at Creation on Thursday afternoon, Thousand Foot Krutch, Fireflight, Worth Dying For and Run Kid Run.
Speaker will be Bob Lenz, the popular, truth-telling mix of humor and solid Biblical teaching that strikes a particular chord with Generation Y-agers.
Hosting the tour concerts is KJ-52, the popular Christian rap/hip-hop artist.
Three of his four titles have scanned over 100,000, the only Christian hip-hop artist ever to do that.
Sounds like “Creation Festival … The Tour,” will bring a great mix of the established and the newer (maybe a future top-notch name?) out on the road.
I still remember playing Kutless’ “Vow” on a compilation CD I bought on a whim several years ago, back when I had never heard of them.
And I was blown away by Jon Micah Sumrall’s powerful vocals, the excellent guitar sound of the band and their engaging, and most of all spirit-filled, lyrics.
Kutless was at that time just starting out, maybe like Fireflight or Worth Dying For is now.
The Creation tour also will have a “pre-game show,” as it were, with the bands Esterlyn and Capital Lights, half an hour after the gates open.
*****
In a different genre of Christian music, I also want to mention how good it is to hear Twila Paris back on the radio.
Her new song’s called “Live to Praise,” from her CD “Small Sacrifice” released the day after Christmas.
Twila, of course, is near the levels of Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman as a leading artist in modern CCM.
Even as she approaches age 50, she clearly has her trademark voice and passion to worship through song. And it’s a very good song, too.
Working at the newspaper like I do, I had the chance to interview her before she came to Calvary Church several years ago, and she is on my list of nicest people I’ve ever talked with. All of her fans from the 1980s and 90s, and newer ones, will be glad she’s on the radio again.

After Creation 2008 … Purple Door and Superchick are coming

doconnor — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:20:04 +0000

On this first day of July, with the Creation 2008 festival just concluded and the dirt not yet back in order at the Agape Campground, I hope it’s not too early to start looking down the road a bit.
Because in just six weeks, another popular festival many of us know and love, the Purple Door Arts and Music Festival, will return to Ski Roundtop on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 15-16.
And there’s a major artist batting cleanup for a great lineup of performers … Skillet.
If you missed the two-guy, two-girl band at either Lancaster Mennonite High this spring or last week at Creation, they return to headline Purple Door, always a great end-of-summer show in the hills of York County.
Skillet’s “Comatose” is rocking both Christian and some mainstream radio, with songs like “The Last Time” getting tons of airplay.
Other major acts scheduled for Purpe Door include Disciple, rapper John Reuben, Derek Webb (the former Caedmon’s Call member and prolific songwriter of such songs as “Bus Driver”) and, speaking of Creation performers, the newer band Seabird.
All those Caedmon’s fans who loved Webb’s efforts on the band’s “30 Acres” and his own solo work will welcome the return of the catchy-phrased songwriter with the plaintive Texas voice.
Purple Door’s speakers include youth-oriented motivational guy Bob Lenz and Kurt Weaver, who many of us remember and love from his days as the promotions guy at WJTL-FM.
Find out more at www.purpledoor.com or call Creation Concerts at 392-3206.
Further on up the road, there’s another bit of good concert news from Creation Concerts … the top-name pop-rock band Superchick, which released its newest album just last week, is coming to Lancaster Bible College for a show Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m.
“Rock What You Got,” released a week ago, is Superchick’s fifth studio album, and already is near the top of at least one Christian-music chart.
“‘Rock What You Got’ is basically the word ‘encouragement’ packed into one 30-plus minute recording. If one thing’s for sure, this record won’t get you down,” JesusFreakHideout.com wrote.

Creation 2008 … lots of highlights, lots of new memories

doconnor — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:57:33 +0000

Pam Brouse of Narvon worked once again in 2008 for the video production company at the Creation Festival, getting at most five or six hours of sleep a night, but still loving it.
She’s the second “of four generations of ‘Brouse girls’ to come to Creation,” starting with her mother-in-law Kitty at Muddy Run Park 29 years ago.
Her daughter Amy came to Creation as an infant in 1983, when the festival was about to outgrow Lancaster County, and now Amy also was working at Creation 2008.
Andrew Lewis of Millersville is 18, and he could be a lot of other places rather than working in the heat as part of the security team at the huge event.
But indeed there he was, giving directions to people and also jokingly asking other Creation-goers to stop and loiter near the stage so he, as a security guy, could ask them to please move along.
Not far away, Audrey Wandel of New Holland was in front of the stage, watching the sing-language interpretation of the band Pillar’s performance.
There were a lot of tired people in Lancaster County on Sunday and into today … but it’s a good bet they’re also still feeling the glow of their new trip to Creation.
The campers and trucks and church vans have packed up and left the nation’s largest Christian music festival for another year, and despite the heat and exhaustion over three and a half days last week, very few discouraging words are being heard in the wake of Creation 2008.
Highlights of the just-concluded festival? Lots of different ones for different people.
Some are going to talk about what was possibly the 30th Creation’s signature performance, a cross-generational effort that featured CCM veteran Amy Grant joining relative newcomers Hawk Nelson onstage Friday night for the band’s new song, “One Little Miracle.”
I heard others citing performances by everyone from Skillet to Kutless, or newcomer and soul and R&B singer Mike Farris.
The day I spent there, I liked Sanctus Real at the main stage and Stellar Kart over at the fringe stage.
But if you ask me, the true overall highlight was the return of the spirit that was expressed by Texas singer/songwriter David Crowder, who talked to us press guys after his band’s excellent show in the swelter of Thursday afternoon.
“We’re just happy to be the guys who try to say stuff to this community … it just seems pretty simple, but it’s really cool at the same time.
“It’s amazing how you can write a little song, and then you might bump into someone and they go, ‘Oh man, I was going through this or that at the time, and (a song of his) really rescued me.’
“Words and melody can pull us out of some pretty dark places sometimes, and that’s pretty miraculous, I think.” And a miracle he credits to God, not himself.

Interview with singer Britt Nicole

doconnor — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:20:12 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1gfNk2N0kA

Creation … Stellar Kart rocks on 1st full day

doconnor — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:01:19 +0000

There are millions and billions of things I want to tell you about after spending Thursday, the first full day of the 30th annual Creation Festival, in the picturesque hills two hours west of Lancaster.
Things like the awesome time of fellowship, the great music, some excellent worship and the exhortation from several speakers.
And some excellent performances on the main stage, like harder-core Pillar and the cool, less-intense sound of David Crowder and his band.
And all of the musical artists, to hear Crowder, Britt Nicole, the Parachute Band and others get interviewed in the press tent, came across as a humble, God-first bunch.
But all of that can come later … this day, with Creation continuing through Saturday night, the first thing I’d like to address comes down to two words:
Stellar Kart.
What a rousing, high-energy show they gave late Thursday afternoon over at the so-called “fringe” stage at the Agape Campground.
Stellar Kart simply writes catchy, high-energy, surf-guitar-sounding songs with a clear message, one that talks about walking one’s Christian faith in work, school, wherever.
And they perform them well … actually, excellently.
You might hear “fringe stage” and “high-energy” and think Stellar Kart is just a band for church youth groups, but au contraire.
And that might be one of the best things about their nearly hour-long show Thursday.
The crowd of a few thousand had a good many “adult-aged” people, maybe parents who wanted to see and hear what Stellar Kart was about, and they were clearly pleasantly surprised, and enjoying themselves.
The best of the songs was its biggest Christian-music hit, “Me and Jesus.”
During the song, which earned the Phoenix-based band its first Dove Award for best rock/contemporary song, frontman Adam Agree urged the Creation crowd to help sing along.
He did, “Someone loves you / even when you don’t think so / don’t you know …”
And the crowd finished the verse, loud enough for them to hear in Hershey, “… you got Me and Jesus!”
There was a great T-shirt spotted on several young people Thursday, reading, “I LOST MY MOM IN THE MOSH PIT,” and Stellar Kart lost its bass player (Brian Calcara) in the pit and crowd for a while.
Calcara could be seen heading around the back of the stage, white bass slung over him, then went running cheerfully out into the throng, and kept on performing while maneuvering.
He didn’t let the heat stop him, either. A great moment.
The rest of the set was chock-full of songs from the band’s excellent, newest album, “Expect the Impossible.”
The best was “Jesus Loves You,” which singer/guitar guy Agee said was inspired by a friend who just doesn’t get this whole Christian thing … and when all else fails, the title is all that matters, the frontman said.
He then sang,

“Tell me what do you believe in
Does your life have rhyme or reason
Something in your heart that makes you care
I hope that you don’t mind me asking
But I have got a burning passion
I need to know forever you’ll be there

I can’t make it clearer
Put it any other way
If you can’t see the simple truth I do
Then there’s nothing in this world that’s left to say
But Jesus loves you.”

Us music critics get paid to write stuff like, “Stellar Kart’s sound is Dick Dale, ‘the king of the surf guitar,’ meets the Supertones meets All Star United.”
But it’s something more, something very much their own, and the kind of exciting new Christian music that Creation organizers had in mind as a showcase for new bands when they developed the fringe-stage idea.

Creation, Day One … and starting with a great lineup

doconnor — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:08:31 +0000

The Creation Festival is here, and within a few short hours the first bands and speakers will be starting. That doesn’t deserve exclamation point, but instead, it deserves 30 one for every year of the fest … !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew … alright, tonight’s schedule starts off pushing the ball up the field, with newcomers Flyleaf and starting-to-get-established artists Leeland, who we’ve raved about before at CrossRock, with Skillet and Switchfoot to end the evening. Sure to hear lots from two of the biggest-selling, and best, crossover successes of Christian music in the last decade, Skillet’s “Comatose” and Switchfoot’s “The Beautiful Letdown.”

Also in between will be motivational speaker and author Justin Lookadoo.

The fringe stage starts Thursday with the same format … two new bands (the anticipated Seabird and Dizmas), a speaker, then two more-known artists, Stellar Kart and Superchick.

Lots of great bands and worship-based artists on the main stage Thursday, with David Crowder and the Newsboys topping it off in the evening. A roaring start for Creation 2008 …

Creation: See how it’s grown, and keeps on growing

doconnor — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:06:59 +0000

In case you missed them, here are two items, a full-fledged article and a brief about the festival of 25 years ago, from Monday’s New Era about Creation 2008. As you’ll notice, the event has grown in its 30-year history!

And keep an eye out for more this week and then after the festival. Hope to see you at Creation!

(1) It’s often “hard to believe how something that started at my kitchen table has grown to be this big,” the Rev. Harry Thomas said.
Nearly three decades ago, Thomas and Lancaster countian Tim Landis were planning a simple Christian music festival, offering people music, relevant teaching and a chance to get away from their day-to-day lives for a few days.
No one had any idea back then that Creation would become such a huge deal.
The 2008 event that starts Wednesday and runs through Saturday night in west-central Pennsylvania is many times larger than the one that started at Lancaster County’s Muddy Run Park back in June 1979.
The first year, they didn’t have a cleanup crew, so Thomas and other organizers did the trash patrol.
There was a gas crisis in 1979, and only about 20 percent of the gas stations in the state were open.
Despite the obstacles, God has blessed the event, co-founder Thomas said.
He emphasized that the goal of Creation, the huge Christian music festival now marking its 30th year, remains the same.
“From the beginning, we’ve put the word of God as central in our mission — we want people to not only have a great time and hear super Christian music, but also to have a relationship with God,” as he said Friday.
This week, more than 100,000 Creation-goers will load up their vans or campers or make day trips to a beautiful spot in the Allegheny Mountains of west-central Pennsylvania, about 100 miles west of Lancaster County.
There, for 3 1/2 days, they will listen to famous Christian performers such as the Newsboys, Chris Tomlin, Toby Mac and Switchfoot, or hear newer acts such as Tenth Avenue North and Stellar Kart.
There also will be a “fringe stage” for new artists and a “Late Nite Cafe” for night owls, preaching and worship.
(We didn’t have room to mention it, but there also will be a great kids’ tent with concerts and shows for children and families, organizers say.
And this year, the kids’ tent has more Lancaster County representation than ever before, with most of the performers and the host, Lisa Landis from WJTL’s Kids Cookie Break, from Lancaster.
Other performers will include Steven Courtney, Fred “Phredd” McNaughton, and Jesse Rothacker and his reptile friends.)
Creation outgrew Muddy Run, in southern Lancaster County, back in 1984 and moved to the Agape Campground near Mount Union.
It’s the nation’s largest Christian music and entertainment festival, and spawned a second Creation festival in the northwestern U.S. that started in 1998. That second festival will be held July 23 to 26 in Washington State.
Rain has forced the cancellation of two festivals, in 1995 and 2006, and the 1996 and 2003 festivals had to be moved to Hersheypark.
It also was causing some problems in 1989, when a new band from Australia, which had never been to Creation, pulled up in the hills of Pennsylvania with some gear to unload.
Their van got stuck in mud up to its axles, it was about 2 in the morning, and a guy that the lead singer later remembered as “looking like Santa Claus … white beard, jolly disposition,” helped them get unstuck.
The band was the Newsboys, now one of the most famous Christian music groups in the world, and they would find out the next day their helper was none other than Thomas, the festival director.
“That kind of says it all about Creation … that everyone, even the top guy, is there to serve the Lord and others,” says longtime Creation-goer Fred McNaughton, general manager and morning co-host of Lancaster Christian music station WJTL-FM.
“Even in the rain at 2 a.m.”
Creation is now starting to attract its third or even fourth generation of festival-goers, as moms and dads who took their youth-group-age sons and daughters back at the start are seeing those children bringing their youngsters.
Pam Brouse of Narvon, who has worked with the video-production company at Creation since 1990, says her daughter Amy is bringing her infant daughter Olivia to the festival — about the same age as Amy when Pam and her husband, Rick, brought her in 1983, the last year at Muddy Run.
And her mother-in-law, Kitty Brouse of Terre Hill, who turns 75 next month, started the family tradition, loading up teens and taking them to Muddy Run in the first years.
Creation is staged halfway between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s McConnellsburg/Mount Union exit, Exit 180.
The huge stage sits at the base of a 300-foot mountain, making for a natural amphitheater with room for a stadium-sized audience.
Thomas, who’s based in Medford, N.J., and will be 65 next month, said the core Creation audience is Christians who are there for spiritual renewal.
But it also draws many who aren’t church-goers but say to themselves, “Hey, I like camping, I like music, I’ll come out and see what this thing is all about,” and often are spiritually changed, Thomas said.
Making Creation work requires the help of the 2,400 or so volunteers who work at the festival.
Along with additions over the years like the fringe stage, “we always keep to the standards … the baptisms and the candlelighting services,” Thomas said.
The candlelighting began by accident back at Muddy Run in 1983, when a transformer blew out during Amy Grant’s performance.
Thomas remembered he had 10,000 candles in a trailer, unused from a festival in Florida, and Grant led worship while the crowd lit candles and prayed.
And each succeeding festival has had a Friday-night candlelight service.
(2)

CREATION FEST: Creation ‘83, billed by its organizers as the “largest outdoor Christian festival in the nation,” got under way at Muddy Run Recreation Park in southern Lancaster County. Featured guests were to include singers Sandi Patti and Amy Grant, speaker Tony Campolo and the music group Silverwind. An estimated 25,000 people were expected to attend the three-day event. (June 23, 1983)

Creation … T-minus 5 days

doconnor — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:21:45 +0000

To whet your appetites for Creation, the Agape Campground and the week in the hills of central Pennsylvania, here’s a reminder that the 30th annual Creation Festival starts Wednesday afternoon and runs through late Saturday night.

New bands to recommend? We talked about Tenth Avenue North earlier this week, and I can’t emphasize again how excellent their new CD, “Over and Underneath,” is (And in what journalist-type people call “full disclosure,” I pledge that I don’t know anyone in Tenth Avenue North or own any stock in them … it’s just a great effort).

A couple of Lancaster-area Christian music afficionados I know recommend these new, up-and-coming artists who also are to play next week:

Flyleaf, set to perform around dinnertime next Thursday, June 26.

Dizmas, at Creation’s fringe stage Thursday afternoon.

Seabird, also at the fringe stage Thursday afternoon.

And Mike Farris, who has overcome drug addiction and once sang for the band “Screamin’ Cheetah Willies” (!), who “is inspired by the sounds of New Orleans, Memphis and traditional Gospel. His voice is amazing!” the expert recommends.

Farris, whose new CD is called “Salvation in Lights,” is to perform the last day of Creation, late in the afternoon on Saturday, June 28.

The Creation Festival site is 100 miles west of Lancaster, near Mount Union, about 30 miles off Pennsylvania Turnpike Exit 180.

Christian music legend Phil Keaggy, back at Creation again

doconnor — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:43:12 +0000

What I first think of is his enthusiasm for performing, even though he’s been in front of people a few thousand times over 40-plus years.
That’s Phil Keaggy, who’s always among the most admired guitarists and Christian artists around.
Many people have heard “the Jimi Hendrix story” about Keaggy, where the late rock legend supposedly fended off a complimentary question (”How does it feel to be the world’s best guitar player?”) by answering, “I don’t know … you’re going to have to ask Phil Keaggy.”
Keaggy, now 57, grew up in the same era as Hendrix and his fellow late, legendary guitarist Duane Allman.
Keaggy, one of the grandfathers of modern Christian music, next week returns to where he’s played countless times before, the Creation Festival in west-central Pennsylvania.
Keaggy is admired for his lightning skill on both acoustic and electric, and mixes and performs easily with younger performers, like when I saw him at Lancaster Mennonite High with fellow guitar virtuosos Scott Dente and Wes King a decade ago.
Sometimes called “The Man in the Cap” for his perpetual beret/head covering, Keaggy likes to playfully remove it and act like he’s combing his hair to primp for the crowd, even though the hair is long gone.
Keaggy is to play at the 30th annual Creation around midday next Friday, June 27.
He was a little before my time in following Christian music, but it’s not hard to see why people of his “Jesus Music” era consider him the standard, both in terms of the songs he writes and then how he performs them.
His skills also open up the doors for a lot of non-church music fans who no doubt wonder, Who is this guitar hero, and why have I never heard of him?
My own first thought was, “Is this Paul McCartney singing?”
Keaggy’s excellent songs range from “Sunday’s Child” and “Your Love Broke Thru” to maybe my own favorites, “The True Believers” and “John the Revelator.”
His solo career has spanned more than 30 years, and has included over 50 solo albums, both vocal and instrumental, as well as eight releases with his band, Glass Harp.
There will be a lot of Keaggy’s fans at Creation to hear him perform, as well as many who weren’t yet born when he started making music close to 40 years ago.
But both groups would do well to listen, and then to tip their own hats to the man in the cap.

Creation 2008: One week away, and a great new band is coming

doconnor — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:02:15 +0000

Just a week from today, the hikers, and all the campers and vans and other assorted vehicles packed with Christian music fans will (weather permitting, of course) finish their trek and settle in for four days of music and spiritual renewal somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Creation 2008? Again, already, you’re probably asking.
But the huge Christian music fest indeed starts next Wednesday three or so hours west of Lancaster.
(If you’re one of those people who’s already packed, your priorities are misplaced and I’m praying for you! OK, I digress, and I AM kidding …)
But along with the time of fellowship, the hearing of familiar artists and other blessings of Creation, you hear a lot of people say how getting to hear new or up-and-coming bands is one of the best things each year at the festival.
I remember Kutless, who I knew just a little bit about, playing on opening afternoon four years ago.
Veteran Creation-goers remember the Newsboys in the late 1980s or DC Talk (coming in on helicopters!) in the early ’90s.
Its’ now 2008, and one of this year’s most-anticipated young acts is Tenth Avenue North.
The four-man Florida outfit just last month released “Over and Underneath,” and after just a few listens this week it’s starting to sound, at least to me, like one of the best records so far in 2008.
A lot of Christian music fans know the heavy-airplay song “Love Is Here,” and the first song on the new CD deserves the play it’s getting.
But there isn’t a bad song on the small frisbee (my name for a CD … hey, we all need a nickname to replace “disk” for vinyl, don’t we?).
“Over and Underneath,” on Reunion Records, sounds a lot like Switchfoot, By The Tree and some other much-praised Christian music CDs.
But mostly what Tenth Avenue North offers is its own sound … and a pure, sometimes raw, often very moving, group of songs that sound like one big honest prayer to God.
Fueled by lots of bright guitars by Mike Donehey (also the singer) and Jeff Owen and a constantly cool beat from drummer Jason Jamison and bass guy Scott Sanders, Tenth Avenue North paints pictures with words of us humans who fall short of God’s goodness, and need His grace absolutely every day.
Along with “Love Is Here” (it’s the song that starts “Come to the water …” and you’ve likely heard it on the radio), it’s hard to choose from the 10 other songs, but the best to me sound like “Lift Us Up to Fall” and “Hold My Heart.”
Consider the last song and the power of this last song’s lyrics:
“One tear in the dropping rain,
One voice in the sea of pain,
Could the maker of the stars, hear the sound of my breakin’ heart?
One light, that’s all I am,
Right now I can barely stand,
If You’re everything You say You are,
Won’t You come close and hold my heart?”
“Over and Underneath” is simply a tremendous CD, and you’d do very well to grab it at a merchandise tent at the Agape Campground.
If you’re at Creation, Tenth Avenue North is playing the main stage next Saturday morning, June 28.