Third Day, Tenth Avenue North at Elitch’s

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Mark Sat­ur­day July 16 down on your cal­en­dar. Third Day will per­form at the Elitch Gar­dens’ enter­tain­ment park in Den­ver with Tenth Avenue North and singer/songwriter Trevor Mor­gan. Already 19 of the 33 dates for this con­cert are already sold out. PS: There’s a free down­load on the Tenth Avenue North site.

Also at Elitch’s this sum­mer is Thou­sand Foot Krutch and Hawk Nel­son on June 18, anoth­er Sat­ur­day night gig.

Here’s the low­down on how to see the bands from the Elitch Gar­dens web­site:
Con­certs are free with admis­sion to Elitch Gar­dens Theme and Water Park. Wrist­bands are required for admis­sion to the con­cert and are giv­en out on a first-come first-serve basis in front of the are­na start­ing at 10am on the day of the con­cert. You must obtain a wrist­band and be in line by 6:30 pm in order to be guar­an­teed admis­sion to the con­cert.

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Third Day, Tenth Avenue North at Elitch’s

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Mark Sat­ur­day July 16 down on your cal­en­dar. Third Day will per­form at the Elitch Gar­dens’ enter­tain­ment park in with Tenth Avenue North and singer/songwriter Trevor Mor­gan. Already 19 of the 33 dates for this con­cert are already sold out. PS: There’s a free down­load on the site. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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Building 429 vs. Sanctus Real, The Afters

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Chris­t­ian music fans have an inter­est­ing dilem­ma tonight. See Build­ing 429 at Den­ver First Church in Engle­wood or Sanc­tus Real, The Afters and Stephanie Smith at South­east Chris­t­ian Church in Park­er. Which ever way you pick– you win. (Not like a Char­lie Sheen win.) It’s also K‑LOVE vs. WAY-FM. It’s too bad these are on the same day.

And since I’m into recy­cling, here’s a like to a sto­ry I did a while back on Build­ing 429.

I have no dilem­ma, I’m still recov­er­ing from the crud that is going around, so my choice is the sofa. 🙁 Please send in your obser­va­tions of the con­certs if you do go. I would love to hear them.

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Former newsboys Furler to release CD

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Peter Furler, the for­mer front­man of news­boys, is back mak­ing music.

Furler left the mul­ti-Dove Award win­ning band in 2009, appar­ent­ly sold much of his belong­ings — even shares in Inpop Records that he co-found­ed — and moved from his native Aus­tralia to the Flori­da Gulf Coast to surf, cre­ate art and play music for sim­ple enjoy­ment.

He was­n’t going to release any of the music he cre­at­ed dur­ing his reflec­tion, but it turned into some of the most joy­ful and uplift­ing music of his long career. And the result is “on fire” set to release in June 21.

Furler returned to Aus­tralia in April and per­formed at East­er­fest, per­form­ing “Reach” from his new CD in front of 20,000 fans. “Reach” is the first sin­gle from “on fire” and rep­re­sents Furler’s per­son­al rela­tion­ship with God.

“We all need to be remind­ed that God is per­son­al,” he said. “He cares for us indi­vid­u­al­ly, where we are.”

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Fake MLK quote and your emotions

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Eliza Marie

As the fake quote by Mar­tin Luther King Jr. — “I mourn the loss of thou­sands of pre­cious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an ene­my.” — goes viral it begs to ques­tion: How are you deal­ing with the killing of Osama bin Laden?

Do the cel­e­bra­tions mark­ing the killing of bin Laden both­er you? Are you con­flict­ed in your feel­ings? Did at first you rejoiced, then toned-down your cel­e­bra­tion? Are you cel­e­brat­ing Amer­i­ca and its resolve?

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Best national anthem: NHL’s Chicago Stadium

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Eliza Marie
[media-cred­it id=259 align=“alignright” width=“150”]Allison Baver short track speedskater[/me­dia-cred­it]

Wav­ing the flag at sport­ing events are a tra­di­tion. Alli­son Baver shows her alle­giance after an event last year. ~ Pho­to by John Ley­ba, The Den­ver Post

Best nation­al anthem I’ve ever wit­nessed was at a Wash­ing­ton Cap­i­tals vs. Chica­go Black­hawks game in Chica­go in the ear­ly 1990s. It was the first time that I had been at the are­na and I did­n’t know about the tra­di­tion of cheering/screaming dur­ing “The Star Span­gled Ban­ner.” It gave me goose­bumps.

Here’s a YouTube clip of the nation­al anthem before 1991 NHL All-Star Game in Chica­go.

If you’re won­der­ing about the tra­di­tion, here’s an NHL.com sto­ry that gives all the details with play­ers’ quotes on how stir­ring it is to hear the anthem before a Black­hawks game.

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Tim Tebow, teleprompter and poise

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Eliza Marie
[media-cred­it id=259 align=“aligncenter” width=“470”]Tim Tebow Doves 2011[/me­dia-cred­it]

Tim Tebow pre­sent­ed a Dove Award for the first Uplift Some­one Award on Wednes­day at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta. ~ Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Tak­ing a break from fig­ur­ing out how to train and pre­pare for the next NFL sea­son dur­ing the lock­out, Bron­cos quar­ter­back Tim Tebow took a time­out to be a part of the Gospel Music Asso­ci­a­tion’s Dove Awards in Atlanta on Wednes­day night. (The Dove Awards will be aired East­er on the Gospel Music Chan­nel.)

At the his­toric Fox The­ater on Peachtree Street, Tebow, wear­ing a light blue and white pin­stripe seer­suck­er blaz­er, pre­sent­ed the first Dove Uplift Some­one Award to Steven Cur­tis Chap­man and his wife Mary Beth for their involve­ment with adop­tion issues and their Show Hope min­istry.

The writ­ers for the show could not resist Tebow’s link to the Flori­da Gators and their SEC rivals, the Geor­gia Bull­dogs, in this col­lege foot­ball hotbed.

“I’m hon­ored to be in Geor­gia,” Tebow said as he greet­ed the audi­ence. “Well, you know, we did­n’t have too many prob­lems with Geor­gia, so it’s OK.”

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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Chonda Pierce at the Doves

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Come­di­an Chon­da Pierce got the audi­ence at the Dove Awards at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta rolling with her unprece­dent humor­ous look at wom­en’s under­gar­ments.

Spanx won’t be on her side of heav­en, as she said. As any woman would tell you these new-age gir­dles push and press your extra lay­ers into oth­er places. Such as the full-body gar­ments push your ankles up so high it cre­ates cleav­age.

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Sherri Shepherd hosts the Dove Awards

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Eliza Marie
[media-cred­it id=259 align=“aligncenter” width=“470”]Sherri Shepherd at the 2011 Dove Awards in Atlanta[/me­dia-cred­it]

Sher­ri Shep­herd is the host of the 2011 Dove Awards at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta. ~ Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Sher­ri Shep­herd of “The View” light up the media room back­stage at the Dove Awards at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta.

Dressed in a vibrant pur­ple dressed that was draped in the front, the Emmy Award win­ner was burst­ing by the fact she was at the Dove Awards.

“This is my first Dove Awards and hope­ful­ly not my last. I’m tak­ing singing lessons,” she said. “The first thing I’m say­ing on stage is ‘I love Jesus,’ and I don’t have to wor­ry about that three-sec­ond bleep.”

She said she is look­ing for­ward to hear­ing and meet­ing Toby­Mac, Mary Mary, Natal­ie Grant Kirk Franklin among oth­ers.

Shep­herd explained that Natal­ie Grant’s song “Held” has a spe­cial mean­ing for her. Shep­herd would hold her baby boy, who was born pre­ma­ture and did not have a good prog­no­sis at the time. “That song just helped me through,” she said.

On “The View” the rela­tion­ships among the hosts is like “sis­ters.”

“Do you have a sis­ter?” Shep­herd asked. “Then you know how our rela­tion­ship is. We respect each oth­er. We know we can­not because it would implode.”

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Mandisa moves beyond “American Idol”

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Man­disa came back­stage to the media room at the Dove Awards at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta.

The Amer­i­can Idol “los­er” looks great. Since her time on Idol she has lost 120 pounds, but not because of pres­sures from the “Hol­ly­wood” world. She says she lost the weight as a trib­ute to God.

“Our bod­ies are the tem­ple of God, and I want­ed to hon­or that,” she said.

Her new CD “What If We Were Real” was a long jour­ney for the singer. She said she cried and real­ly learned to walk with the Lord.

“I’m a dif­fer­ent per­son from when we start­ed the CD,” she said. “I took off my mask before God. I went through a peri­od where I did­n’t trust the Lord, and I was real with him about it. And He has brought me to a place where I am ultra depen­dent on Him.”

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Beautiful bounty at Dove Awards

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Den­ver-based band Gun­gor was nom­i­nat­ed for a Dove Award for ‘Beau­ti­ful Things” in the Rock/Contemporary Record­ed Song of the Year, but Michael Gun­gor and his wife Lisa fell short.

But beau­ty still won with NEED­TO­BREATHE’s “Some­thing Beau­ti­ful” out-point­ing Gun­gor for the Dove.

“Beau­ti­ful, Beau­ti­ful” by Francesca Bat­tis­tel­li took the Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Record­ed Song of the Year.

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A dozen Doves for TobyMac

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Eliza Marie
[media-cred­it id=259 align=“aligncenter” width=“480”]TobyMac at the 2011 Dove Awards[/me­dia-cred­it]

Toby­Mac gar­ners his 12th Dove Award since the breakup of DC Talk. ~ Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Toby­Mac’s “Tonight” gar­nered the Dove Award for Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year. It was his 12th Dove out­side of DC Talk.

“It’s amaz­ing to work with peo­ple that you love. Espe­cial­ly when they tell you the truth, even when it hurts,” Toby McK­ee­han said. “God just keeps deliv­er­ing songs to me.”

When asked about the hip-hop Chris­t­ian move­ment break­ing into main­stream media. TMac said: “We should be out there. Gospel has always been ahead of us, pen­e­trat­ing the wall of main­stream.”

McK­ee­han stressed that less is more when he writes music.

“I’ve always writ­ten real sim­ply,” he said. “I like to be out there and use peo­ple for my inspi­ra­tion — be it laugh­ing or fight­ing. I just ask God to keep breath­ing songs into me. God just keeps deliv­er­ing and I’m going to keep on.”

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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A tie at Dove Awards

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Eliza Marie

There is a tie in one of the first cat­e­gories pre­sent­ed at the Dove Awards at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta.

San­di Pat­ty’s “The Edge of the Divine” and Pat­ty Griffin’s “Down­town Church” tied for Inspi­ra­tional Album of the Year.

Some of the oth­er ear­ly award win­ners are: Israel Houghton for “Love God, Love Peo­ple,” for Con­tem­po­raty Gospel Album of the Year; Chris August for “No Far Away” for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year; Gaither Vocal Group for “Bet­ter Day” in the South­ern Gospel Record­ed Song of the Year; Lizzie Long and Lit­tle Roy Lewis for “Moun­tain­top” in the Blue­grass Record­ed Song of the Year; and The British are Com­ing for “Wait on the Lord” in the Urban Record­ed Song of the Year.

More to come.….

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Tim Tebow at Dove Awards

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Eliza Marie

Hel­lo from Atlanta. Or HOT­lanta as it’s known. For the first time the Dove Awards will be pre­sent­ed at the his­toric Fox The­ater in down­town Atlanta. The new venue is a beau­ti­ful old the­ater where “Gone With the Wind” was first shown to the Atlanta audi­ence.

I just found out the Bron­cos quar­ter­back Tim Tebow will be one of the pre­sen­ters tonight. (The Gospel Music Chan­nel will air the Doves on East­er). I’ve been promised a one-on-one inter­view with Tim. I’ll keep you post­ed.

Also I’ll keep you post­ed on Den­ver-based band Gun­gor. Michael Gun­gor and his wife are nom­i­nat­ed Rock/Contemporary Song of the Year.

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Moon rises over Switchfoot, The Calling

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Eliza Marie
[media-cred­it id=259 align=“aligncenter” width=“470”]Jon Foreman of Switchfoot[/me­dia-cred­it]

Jon Fore­man and Switch­foot per­form at Red Rocks with The Call­ing con­fer­ence. ~ Pho­tos by Eliza Marie Somers

A full moon peek­ing through the clouds greet­ed the apex of The Call­ing con­fer­ence, with Gram­my Award win­ning band Switch­foot run­ning on stage  Sat­ur­day at Red Rocks Amphithe­atre in Mor­ri­son.

It was an ide­al set­ting for the third annu­al con­fer­ence start­ed by a 22-year-old col­lege stu­dent with one pur­pose in mind: to let peo­ple know that they are capa­ble of achiev­ing their dream, a dream that God designed for  their life.

What was just  a dream for Col­orado Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent  Chrysan­dra Brun­son four months ago became a real­i­ty with the help of RGen­er­a­tion Min­istries and Bran­don Hei­de­mann, who stepped in and pulled off the fin­ish­ing touch­es for the conference/
con­cert.

[media-cred­it id=259 align=“alignleft” width=“222”]Jon Foreman and Switchfoot perform at Red Rocks with The Calling conference.[/me­dia-cred­it]

Jon Fore­man and Switch­foot per­form at Red Rocks with The Call­ing con­fer­ence.

Along with the Fore­man broth­ers of Switch­foot, The Call­ing fea­tured acoustic rock­ers Chasen, local musi­cian Lindsy Mor­ton and speak­er Rex Crain. An inter­est­ing mix that appeased the crowd of youth­ful tweens, high school and col­lege stu­dents, par­ents and baby boomers.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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