Mary Mary grabs four Stellar Awards

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Eliza Marie
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Mary Mary starts 2010 strong with four Stel­lar Awards. Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

This week, Mary Mary walked away with four Stel­lar Gospel Music Awards, which hon­or African-Amer­i­can Gospel artists. The duo won song of the year for “God In Me,” group/duo of the year, con­tem­po­rary group/duo of year and urban/inspirational sin­gle or per­for­mance of the year.

Hezeki­ah Walk­er and Love Fel­low­ship gar­nered the most Stel­lar Awards with five, includ­ing artist of the year.

Da’T.R.U.T.H. grabbed the rap hip hop CD of the year. And, OK, I have to give a shout out to my home­town area and to Dr. Rev. Emory Andrews and the Oxon Hill (Md.) High School Choir, who won the chil­dren’s per­for­mance of the year.

For a com­plete list check out The Stel­lar Awards web­site.

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Heaven Fest 2010: July 31

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Eliza Marie
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It was a sea of faces at Heav­en Fest 2009. Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Mark your cal­en­dars for Sat­ur­day, July 31. That is the day Heav­en Fest will make its return in 2010. Last year, the out­door Chris­t­ian music fes­ti­val in Brighton drew more than 25,000 fans. Orga­niz­ers were ready to turn away fans at 2:35 p.m., but with the help of a local farmer who allowed the use of his prop­er­ty, the fes­ti­val con­tin­ued to grow.

You can vote for which bands you would like to see at this year’s event. And keep an eye on this site for an announce­ment of the line­up.

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Bebo Norman auctions guitar for Haiti relief

Posted on January 17, 2010 by Eliza Marie
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Bebo Nor­man says the lim­it­ed-edi­tion gui­tar, which was a gift from the mak­er, is price­less. Pho­to cour­tesy to The Den­ver Post

Chris­t­ian record­ing artist Bebo Nor­man is auc­tion­ing a lim­it­ed-edi­tion gui­tar on Ebay to help Com­pas­sion Inter­na­tion­al’s relief efforts in Haiti. The auc­tion start­ed Fri­day, Jan. 15 and runs through Fri­day, Jan. 22 (8 p.m. Cen­tral Time). ALL pro­ceeds will go to Com­pas­sion, which is based in Col­orado Springs.

“I hon­est­ly can’t place a val­ue on this gui­tar since it is Num­ber 00–01 in a very lim­it­ed pro­duc­tion (only 128 were made) and has been in my per­son­al gui­tar col­lec­tion as one of my pri­ma­ry ‘song­writ­ing gui­tars’ for 10 years,” said Nor­man in a press release. “This gui­tar has been the source of quite a few of my songs (“Noth­ing With­out You,” “Try,” “Bor­row Mine”), spent one year on tour with me, and is in absolute­ly amaz­ing con­di­tion. This gui­tar is price­less as far as I’m con­cerned.”

The hand­made Everett Lau­rel gui­tar was a gift from Kent Everett to Nor­man. The cur­rent bid as of Sun­day night was $2,650

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Switchfoot to play two Colorado shows

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Eliza Marie
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Switch­foot will play the Black Sheep in Col­orado Springs and the Ogden The­atre in Den­ver in Feb­ru­ary. Spe­cial to The Den­ver Post

The Cal­i­for­nia dudes are hit­ting Col­orado in Feb­ru­ary with two shows. Switch­foot is set to play at the Black Sheep on Thurs­day, Feb. 25 and the Ogden The­atre in Den­ver on Fri­day, Feb. 26.

Get your tick­ets fast as the band has been play­ing sold-out shows in sup­port of its new CD, “Hel­lo Hur­ri­cane.” Col­orado also is the band’s last stop before head­ing over to Eng­land.

Here’s a cou­ple of links for tick­ets, tick­etweb for the Black Sheep show and tick­et­mas­ter for the Ogden show.

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Improv prayer for Haiti 7 p.m.

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Eliza Marie

OK, now that we have had the improv pant­less train ride, let’s do some good with this improv thing and say a prayer for Haiti at 7 p.m. for the next sev­en days. It can be a few sec­onds, a few min­utes, even an hour ded­i­cat­ed to pray­ing for Haiti.

Matthew: 18:19–20
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about any­thing you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heav­en. For where two or three come togeth­er in my name, there am I with them.”

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Switchfoot at Rose Bowl, NCAA title game

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Eliza Marie
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Switch­foot is one of two bands invit­ed to play at the Rose Bowl tonight for the NCAA BCS title game. Pho­to cour­tesy to The Den­ver Post.

Don’t look now but Switch­foot is back in the band’s home state of Cal­i­for­nia and mak­ing the rounds.

The band will play tonight at the NCAA foot­ball BCS title game between No. 1 Alaba­ma and No.2 Texas at the Rose Bowl.

On Mon­day, Switch­foot appeared on “The Late Late Show with Craig Fer­gu­son” per­form­ing “Always,” from their lat­est CD “Hel­lo Hur­ri­cane.” Here’s a clip on YouTube.

“To Save a Life,” by Samuel Gold­wyn’s Films to be released Jan. 22, is using Switch­foot’s “Mess of Me” in its trail­er.

Ear­ly in 2009 I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to chat with the band and here’s a lit­tle sto­ry I did on them.

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Brandon Bee offers free download

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Eliza Marie
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Bran­don Bee is also a music pro­duc­er who has worked with Sta­cie Orri­co.
Pho­to by Greg Lutze, cour­tesy of Save the City Records

Bran­don Bee wants to thank his fans by offer­ing a free down­load of “Your Holi­ness” from his debut album “This is The Rev­o­lu­tion” via itickets.com. The offer runs until Jan. 11, so get it quick.

Bee’s “Sur­ren­der,” which is only avail­able online, reached the top 20 on the iTunes Chris­t­ian Albums chart over the Christ­mas hol­i­day.

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MercyMe hits nail on the head

Posted on December 20, 2009 by Eliza Marie
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Bart Mil­lard of Mer­cyMe. Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Have you ever had an injury or ill­ness that sets off a light­bulb in your head that makes you real­ize that you are luck­i­er than most?

I went under the knife for “minor” shoul­der surgery a few weeks ago and came out with “major” surgery when the doc­tor dis­cov­ered a com­plete tear of the rota­tor cuff. I went from 3–4 weeks total recov­ery to 3–4 weeks in a sling and 4–6 MONTHS recov­ery.

But as I’ve been com­ing to grips with this loom­ing reha­bil­i­ta­tion and dis­abil­i­ty that I did­n’t plan for, I real­ize that it’s only a minor incon­ve­nience in the scheme of life. Espe­cial­ly when I see peo­ple in wheel­chairs, or folks with miss­ing limbs. My life is only turned upside down for a few months, not a life­time. I’m thank­ful for this lit­tle rain and it brings to mind Mer­cyMe’s “Bring the Rain.”
Here’s some of the lyrics:

And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am Yours regard­less of
The dark clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain

Have a Mer­ry Christ­mas and don’t for­get to count your bless­ings.

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Free Switchfoot CDs

Posted on December 18, 2009 by Eliza Marie

Still need a Christ­mas present with time run­ning out? I have my hands on Switch­foot’s new release, Hel­lo Hur­ri­cane, and I want to to give them away. Just be among the first to send me a note at lsomers@denverpost.com and you could win a CD. I’ll let you know if you are a win­ner.

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Switchfoot on Conan O’Brien

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Eliza Marie
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Switch­foot is cur­rent­ly tour­ing in sup­port of “Hel­lo Hur­ri­cane” its sev­enth stu­dio album. Spe­cial to The Den­ver Post.

Switch­foot made an appear­ance on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” on Wednes­day night, play­ing its new song “Mess of Me” that deals with pre­scrip­tion drug abuse. Switch­foot is cur­rent­ly tour­ing in sup­port of its sev­enth stu­dio album, “Hel­lo Hur­ri­cane.” Right now the tour does not include a stop in Col­orado.

OK, this if fun­ny: Right after Switch­foot played NBC aired an ad for Sun­day night NFL foot­ball, fea­tur­ing Skil­let’s song “Hero.” So much for Chris­t­ian music not being main­stream.

And if you missed it, Switch­foot chat­ted with me and I fea­tured them in this sto­ry on High­er Note.

Switch­foot’s song, “This is Home,” was fea­tured in the sec­ond Nar­nia movie, “The Chron­i­cles of Nar­nia: Prince Caspi­an.”

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Mary Mary grabs American Music Award

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Eliza Marie

Gospel duo Mary Mary earned the hearts of fans and an Amer­i­can Music Award on Sun­day.

Mary Mary beat out Bran­don Heath and Jere­my Camp for Favorite Artist in the Con­tem­po­rary Inspi­ra­tional cat­e­go­ry for their album “The Sound.” The award caps a stun­ning year for the group, who won a Gram­my Award, a Dove Award, a BET Award and an NAACP Image Award.

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Heaven Fest needs your vote

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Eliza Marie
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Mary Mary, at the 2009 Dove Awards in Nashville, Tenn., would make a nice addi­tion to Heav­en Fest. Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Heav­en Fest is look­ing to you — the fans — to pick the bands for the 2010 line­up. Just vote online at www.heavenfest.com
Hmmm, a few bands come to mind: Mer­cyMe, Bran­don Heath, Group 1 Crew, Mary Mary, Pil­lar. Boy, I could go on and on. So cast your vote.

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Free Skillet CD

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Eliza Marie
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You can grab this CD just by e‑mailing lsomers@denverpost.com

I just got my hands on two FREE Skil­let CDs. E‑mail lsomers@denverpost.com and if you are among the first I’ll send you free music. And thanks to Atlantic Records for the swag.

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Skillet sets fire to Denver

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Eliza Marie
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Gui­tarists Korey Coop­er, left, and Ben Kas­cia get the par­ty start­ed Fri­day night at the Para­mount The­atre. Pho­tos by Eliza Marie Somers

Skil­let con­tin­ued its assault on “Pan­heads” at the sold-out Para­mount The­atre on Sat­ur­day night. It should be ille­gal the way the band elic­its whiplash and laryn­gi­tis. Some­thing front­man John Coop­er tru­ly enjoys — even more rea­son for all-points bul­letin.

The hard rock Chris­t­ian band went over the top dur­ing its Den­ver stop of its lat­est “Awake and Alive” tour that also fea­tured Cana­di­an pop band Hawk Nel­son, met­al rock­ers Decyper Down and new­com­ers The Let­ter Black.

Open­ing their set on hydraulic lifts, gui­tarists Ben Kasi­ca and Korey Coop­er got the crowd roiled up while being raised to the rafters and belt­ing out their hit “Comatose.”

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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Skillet gets a sporting chance

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Eliza Marie
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Skil­let will be at the Para­mount The­atre Fri­day, Nov. 7 for a 7 p.m. show. Tick­ets can be pur­chased at tickethorse.com or 866–461-6556. Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

By grab­bing the atten­tion of the NFL, Skil­let is bridg­ing a large gap in the music indus­try. It’s the chasm between main­stream rock and the much maligned Chris­t­ian rock sec­tor. And it’s a bridge the band’s lead singer John Coop­er enjoys walk­ing.

“It gives us cred­i­bil­i­ty,” Coop­er said of the NFL using the band’s song “Hero” to pro­mote its Sun­day night foot­ball games. “Some peo­ple think that Chris­t­ian music is cheesy, but with the NFL pick­ing us up, maybe it will change some people’s mind.”

The thun­der­ous, hard-rockin’ style of Skil­let also drew con­verts from the NCAA and the Atlantic Coast Con­fer­ence, with the ACC play­ing clips and inter­views with the band dur­ing con­fer­ence foot­ball games.

“I real­ly don’t know how it all came about,” Coop­er said. “But rock ’n’ roll and sports are meant to be togeth­er. It’s like choco­late and peanut but­ter. It’s des­tiny.”

Coop­er and his wife, Korey, who plays key­board and gui­tar, didn’t know about the sports con­nec­tion. They heard about their band’s com­mer­cial suc­cess by acci­dent.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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