Copious Notes

David Crowder and drummer Bwack bring their church music to Southland Christian Church on Nov. 6, 2009. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

NICHOLASVILLE — Yes, it was the Church Music Tour.

And yes, the guys in the David Crowder Band showed up dressed in their Sunday best.

And this sold-out concert did in fact take place in a church — Southland Christian Church, to be precise. But it was also Friday night, and that was the spirit Southland’s visitors from Waco, Texas, embraced the most.

Danyew frontman Phil Danyew performed before the David Crowder Band took the stage.

Throughout its career, David Crowder’s group has made complete albums, and Church Music is no exception. The band’s October release is a thorough exploration of contemporary music styles put together in an arrangement that mirrors a mainline church service. But DCB doesn’t tour albums. It tours its hit-heavy catalog. Like his albums though, Crowder arranges those hits into a concert as satisfying as his studio efforts.

New quickly mixed with old Friday night as early selections included the Crowder classic and worship staple There is No One Like You and the disco-drenched selection Church Music - Dance (!). The latter was yet another chance for Crowder to show his love of gadgets, employing the T-Pain ap on his iPhone to achieve a vocoder effect several band members demonstrated — guitarist Mark Waldrop singing Sean Kingston’s Fire Burning and bassist Mike D. invoking the prototype Autotune song, Cher’s Believe. A few tunes later, Jack Parker had the banjo out for the regular Bluegrass barn burner  I Saw the Light and I’ll Fly Away.

We’ve particularly gotten used to seeing that Bluegrass bit at the Ichthus Festival, but one of the coolest things about Friday night was Crowder’s close proximity to the audience, allowing for the exchange of several gifts including a McDonald’s toy pony and a bottle of Dr. Pepper that had indeed been shaken.

Seabird frontman Aaron Morgan at the keyboards.

What Crowder gave back was a whole new way to think about church music.

The concert opened with like-minded artists Seabird and Daynew who gave brief, rousing opening sets. Seabird’s portion closed with the evocative, defiant anthem Cottonmouth (Jargon) and included a winning new single, Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful, from the Dec. 15 release Rocks into Rivers. Phil Danyew’s set energized the crowd for the headliner, in large part thanks to drummer Brandon Lozano’s tireless and nuanced work.

Switchfoot’s This is the Sound rocks the new Blackberry commercial.

During the past year, there have been public signs that Christian pop music is on the rise.

Last spring on American Idol, a pair of openly Christian ­contestants vied for the title and one of them, Kris Allen, won. Your TV doesn’t have to be on long to hear the rumblings of Switchfoot, one of Christian music’s top bands, on commercials for BlackBerry’s new Storm2 smartphone. Late in the summer, when Christian rockers Skillet released their latest, Awake, it perched itself atop iTunes’ rock album charts and at No. 3 overall.

Pretty good stuff for a niche genre, eh?

But beneath the surface, there have been rumblings for some time.

Late in the summer, Gospel Music Association president and CEO John Styll stepped down, saying he was sacrificing his salary in an effort to stabilize the ­organization, which has laid off a number of staffers. Then, in October, the GMA held an all-star fund-raiser - we’re talking Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith ­heading a lineup that included Casting Crowns and other chart toppers - billed as “Save the GMA.”

Even though that $1,000-a-head event apparently was a success, raising more than $350,000, there were rumors late last month that the GMA was closing its doors.

The association’s troubles come on the heels of other setbacks in Christian music, such as the shutdown of the print edition of the industry’s ­flagship ­publication, CCM Magazine, which was founded by Styll, and ­attendance drops at some festivals.

Christian music also has faced the double whammy of the ­economic downturn and the ­effects of a rapidly changing music ­marketplace less dependent on major labels for distribution and increasingly challenged by problems such as digital music piracy. (Yes, people are stealing Christian music. Go figure.)

These are problems affecting the music industry as a whole, and you know that if the top of the pops is getting battered, the foundations of a niche genre really must be getting shaken.

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Diane Earle performs with the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra for "Kentucky Muse" on KET. Photos by Steve Shaffer | KET.

We tend to blow out the anniversaries of composers. Can anyone forget all the Mozart 250th hoo-ha a few years ago?

But what about the instrument many of those icons have composed on.

The piano, at least from this vantage point, has had a fairly quiet 300th birthday. Kentucky Wesleyan College music professor Diane Earle is celebrating, however, and KET’s Kentucky Muse takes viewers on a tour of the instrument from her perspective at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The moment Earle appears on the screen leaning in and talking about her instrument, it is obvious producer Tom Bickel came up with the perfect advocate for the piano.

By the time she says, “Since I was 6 years old and my fingers first touched the keys, I have been absolutely in love with the piano,” that’s obvious. It’s no surprise the vanity plate on her little red sports car is “KEYS 88.”

Earle’s world revolves around those keys as a teacher, performer and even in hobbies such as collecting piano memorabilia.

She says the piano is her best friend. It has been a great relationship: Earle has played in seven countries and 27 states at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The Owensboro professor’s story is a nice basis for the larger story of the piano, which she appreciates for its wide range of expressive possibilities. It was originally named a pianoforte, “Italian for soft loud,” she points out, in recognition of that dynamic range.

In a quick half hour, Earle talks us through the instrument’s history in interviews and classroom sessions.

Most importantly, she plays through some of the great works for those 88 keys, sometimes accompanied by the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. The works from W.A. Mozart to Claude Debussy to Henry Cowell remind us why the piano’s 300th should be celebrated.

The David Crowder Band looking very dignified for its "Church Music" photo. Six Step Records.

The David Crowder Band Performs with Seabird and Danyew at 8 p.m. Nov. 6 at Southland Christian Church.

For David Crowder, there is a master plan.

That would seem to be a natural position for Crowder, one of the most popular Christian music purveyors of the past decade. But we’re not talking master plan in a cosmic, God is in control of all things sense. We’re talking about Crowder’s music. Specifically, we are talking about his albums, which have been custom-designed in title and content to follow a trajectory to … to … well, maybe we’d better let Crowder explain:

“I’m gonna geek out on you for a second,” Crowder says, when asked about the title of the David Crowder Band’s fifth studio album, Church Music.

“We’re in a three-record cycle,” he said. “We have three records, and then a second set of three records that are sort of mirror images or reannunciations of the first three records. Before we got into all of this, we had an idea for a seven-record kind of thing.”

Crowder grants that there have been EPs and remix albums thrown in. But for the band’s studio albums, they are executing the master plan of seven albums.

“We’ve been sitting on this title, knowing that it was coming as the mirror of the second title in the first three,” Crowder continues, referring to the band’s 2003 release, Illuminate.

Within all of this geekiness are things like number games: The first three albums were four syllable titles and the second are all three, because four plus three equals seven.

Out of all that complexity, the band has created numerous hits that contemporary worshipers know by heart, including Foreverandever Etc. and Oh, Praise Him. And writing songs for people to sing is, at its essence, what the band is trying to do.

But the structure, Crowder says, keeps them engaged and gives them direction.

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Edwin Schiff stars as Frank-N-Furter in Berea College Theatre Labaratory's "The Rocky Horror Show." Photos by Aaron Gilmour | Berea College.

Fans of Rocky Horror have two ways to see the show this Halloween weekend which as Mr. Tunis reminds us, is an hour longer on Halloween night.

The kids at the Berea College Theatre Laboratory are presenting The Rocky Horror Show, the original 1973 Richard O’Brien musical that started it all. Like it’s cinematic incarnation — we’ll get to that in a few sentences — audience participation is encouraged, and members of the Berea audience will actually receive participation bags with things like confetti for the audience to throw. Please do remember there are live people playing Dr. Frank and company, so don’t try to go and upstage them like you do at the movie. Tonight and Saturday, the students will put up two shows nightly at 8 and midnight at Berea’s McGaw Theatre. Tickets are $5-$10 and can be reserved by calling (859) 985-3300 from 1-5 p.m. Friday and one hour prior to curtain. Berea students get in free, but must present a valid Berea ID.

Anyone know if Transylvania University ever did Rocky Horror? Seems like it would be a lot of fun there.

Of course, the annual party at the Kentucky Theatre reconvenes at midnight tonight and Saturday for 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf and all the rest. Feel free to try to upstage Curry — just try. According to the Kentucky’s blog, Lexington ranked Numero Tres (I am probably phrasing that as competently as Chad Ochocinco says 85) behind only Chicago and San Francisco in Rocky Horror Halloween attendence last year.

So, there it is: Live from Berea or on film in Lexington. But really, there should be time to get from Berea after the 8 p.m. show to Lexington for the midnight movie. I mean, if you’re not going to Time Warp twice on Halloween weekend, when are you going to Time Warp twice.

Don’t forget: The Thriller dance marches through Downtown Lexington again, tonight.

Mark O'Connor rehearses with University of Kentucky graduate student Jessica Miskelly and the UK Symphpny Orchestra on Oct. 28, 2009. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

It’s a typical rehearsal two days before a concert.

The University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra is on the stage in the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall with conductor John Nardolillo stopping occasionally to tweak parts, but mostly letting the music flow.

Centerstage two violinists trade increasingly virtuosic, knee bending phrases, somewhat reminiscent of a  little Peach State fiddle duel Charlie Daniels once sang about.

This is where things become less typical.

O'Connor and cellist Geoffrey Hershberger rehearse O'Connor's "Double Concerto for Violin and Cello."

One of the violinists is UK graduate student Jessica Miskelly. The other is Mark O’Connor, a classical music star who has distinguished himself by successfully bridging traditional classical music and American folk. He’s currently in the midst of a short residency at UK which will culminate in a Friday night concert featuring O’Connor, several of his compositions, the UK Choirs and several students sharing his spotlight.

“I’ve been doing more residencies the last couple of years at institutions,” O’Connor said in his dressing room, a few minutes before Wednesday’s rehearsal began. “Every time I show up at performances around the country, there’s all kinds of questions about, ‘Where’s this music going?’ and what your background is. There’s always some kind of educational component to it, so I just decided to expand that.”

In addition to UK, O’Connor works with students at the School for Creative and Performing Arts and the UK String Project, a primary school program, this week.

O’Connor has done his mini-residencies at prestigious schools such as the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the University of California, Los Angeles.

But he wanted to come to Kentucky.

In part, it was because of a growing relationship between O’Connor and the orchestra, which included another visit several years ago and a performance in February with the UK Symphony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Our Lincoln production.

“John Nardolillo has put a great emphasis on performance and getting the material ready,” O’Connor said, referring the UK Symphony’s director. “It’s just fantastic to see and hear . . . It’s going to be a darned good show for the audience.”

This visit also brings O’Connor close to Appalachia, a region he is strongly identified with thanks to his own music and several celebrated albums of Appalachian music with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bassist Edgar Meyer.

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Lexington Philharmonic music director Scott Terrell conducts a combined rehearsal of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras' symphony orchestra and the Philharmonic Oct. 19. CKYO director Kayoko Dan stands at the back of the orchestra, in a black blouse. Photos by Matt Goins.

When I moved to Lexington in 1998, one thing that immediately struck me about the ­local arts scene was the prominence of children and organizations geared toward children.

The Lexington Children’s Theatre’s shows rated the same sort of attention as productions at Actors Guild of Lexington and other area stages.

The Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras’ events and personnel moves were prominent news. There were two institutions - the Explorium (then, the Lexington Children’s Museum) and the Living Arts and Science Center - geared toward children’s arts, particularly visual arts.

The School for Creative and Performing Arts had a prominent place in town, but there were stage, art and music programs at other schools also producing talented graduates who went on to arts careers.

Children’s Health magazine recently ranked Lexington No. 6 on its list of the 100 best places to raise a family. The criteria included crime and safety, education, economics, housing, cultural attractions and health.

I’d be willing to bet that if someone wanted to rank best places to be an artsy kid, Lexington would rate high on that list, too. By virtue of what is offered, we tell our children that the arts are something to do and be respected for doing.

Students Madelyn Nelson, left, Sara Arthur-Paratley, and Mary Rollins-Mathews rehearsed with the Lexington Ballet on Monday in preparation for Youth Arts Day.

The Lexington Philharmonic, the Horse Capitol of the World’s flagship arts organization, will celebrate young artists with its Youth Arts Day family concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Singletary Center for the Arts. It will include young singers from SCAPA, Fayette County Public Schools and the School of the Lexington Ballet.

The prominence of youth-oriented groups here is quite a bit more than other communities that I have lived in or observed. Over the nearly 12 years since I arrived, it has become clear that a big reason for that is quality.

Take the Children’s Theatre: In a town that has struggled with the concept of professional theater for adults, the Lexington Children’s Theatre has established itself with its own building on Short Street and a professional staff, including actors. What’s more, Larry and Vivian Snipes have developed a national reputation for the theater by being a venue that presents and creates new work. And the primary beneficiaries are kids.

And it really wasn’t terribly surprising that when the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras went looking for a new music director at the same time that the Lexington Philharmonic was trying to fill a similar job, it ended up attracting and hiring Kayoko Dan, also a candidate for the Philharmonic post.

CKYO has graduated numerous professional musicians, including Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Nathan Cole and hard-to-categorize cello soloist Ben Sollee.

Outside of groups directly geared toward kids, Lexington arts groups have been generous to kids.
Look at Paragon Music Theatre, which routinely loads the stage with kids, including Hello Dolly! this weekend, and even makes a place for them in its cabaret shows.

During years without a professional company, the Lexington Ballet featured its students in productions, and it and Kentucky Ballet Theatre, which has always had a pro troupe, always find ways to present students. Former Ballet Theatre dancer Adalhi Aranda Corn saw such value in Central Kentucky’s young artists she left and formed Bluegrass Youth Ballet and eventually built CulturArte, an arts facility that acommodates a variety of disciplines.

Possibly one of the biggest statements about valuing student artists was when the Lexington Singers’ ­Children’s Chorus was invited to perform in the Our Lincoln performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington in February.

And now LexArts has formed a Youth Arts Council to help focus young artists in the area.

Clarinetists Andrew Burton, 14, left, of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras and Mike Acord of the Philharmonic rehearsed together Monday.

Full disclosure: My children have participated in some of these groups, and one is in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, although not the ensemble performing Sunday with the Lexington Philharmonic.

In addition, I’ve gotten to know many other kids who participate in groups. Maybe the most important thing these groups engender is enthusiasm for the arts they are participating in. I hear spirited discussions about play rehearsal and genuine interest in Bach sonatas.

Like anything, Lexington’s youth arts scene isn’t perfect. I remain baffled, for instance, why SCAPA does not have a theater of its own. Then again, SCAPA regularly solves that problem by putting its kids on stages usually graced by adults and pros.

It occurred to me as I left a CKYO rehearsal last week with my daughter that by virtue of her participation in the orchestra, she’s on the University of Kentucky campus every week. Most of us didn’t get used to being on a college campus until we had enrolled.

That’s just one of many ways that through our youth arts, regardless of whether the students pursue arts careers, by supporting such substantial programs, we’re preparing our kids for the rest of their lives.

Horace Vandergelder (Greg Wilson, center in yellow shirt) and the men at his Hay and Feed store sing "It Takes A Woman." Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

If you can walk out of Hello, Dolly! saying, “That was fun,” then mission accomplished.

This is not one of those musicals that are supposed to help you realize deeper truths about life and the human condition or to leave you enraptured by compelling drama. Dolly is a little confection that says we take life a bit too seriously.

And Paragon Music Theatre has accomplished the mission of offering a fun evening with its production of the Jerry Herman-Michael Stewart musical, which opened Thursday and runs through Sunday at the Lexington Opera House.

Director Robyn Peterman-Zahn has created a traditional rendition of the show with some impressive set pieces designed by Josh Hurley and backdrops designed by Liz Weyer.

Much of the fun of this evening can be attributed to the leading actors and the men of the ensemble.

Alicia Helm McCorvey as Dolly makes the part her own.

Alicia Helm McCorvey is not your Dolly Levi from Central Casting. If your deep desire is an idiosyncratic performance along the lines of Carol Channing or Barbra Streisand, this is not that. Then again, I don’t know who would be the Dolly from Central Casting in Lexington.

When you don’t have that obvious option, the thing to do is give the role to a terrific performer and let her make it her own, which is what McCorvey does.

Her Dolly is wistful, fanciful and maternal. McCorvey’s operatic voice also soars higher than traditional Dollys, presumably with some custom orchestration by music director Ryan Shirar. McCorvey has an instrument that’s different from that of anyone else on stage, but that’s fine, because Dolly is set apart from the rest of the characters.

McCorvey’s voice seemed to provide a particular challenge in the sound department: She frequently overpowered the microphone. If she is going to be miked, she needs to be more smoothly mixed with the other voices.

And there are other great voices on stage. With Dolly, Paragon continues a trend of making discoveries, principally Greg Wilson as Horace Vandergelder, Rebecca Rudd as Irene Molloy and Evan Pulliam as Barnaby Tucker.

Wilson sparks the show to life when leading the men in the ensemble in It Takes a Woman. He naturally steps to the front of the stage and engages the audience, and that is essential to soften Horace’s rough exterior.

Rudd was luminous in her rendition of Ribbons Down My Back. And Pulliam was a bolt of energy, elevating Barnaby above the role of simple sidekick.

This brings up one frustration: the lack of cast biographies in the program. I really wanted to know more about each of these new faces.

The familiar names of Jan Hooker and Adam Richard Fister rounded out the lead ensemble, and whenever any combination of that group was on stage, the show was fine.

It also was in great shape with the men, in Horace’s shop in Act I and as the staff of the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant in Act II. They had loads of personality and were a collective triple threat. It was in the large ensemble scenes that some of the air came out of the show. The movement felt confused, but the real letdown was a lack of vocal power, particularly in the opening number, Call on Dolly. The Act I closer defied that problem, again with a lot of help from the principals.

And again, the overall sensation was fun, which is exactly what a production of Hello, Dolly! should be.

More Dolly:

• Adam Richard Fister is an extrovert on stage only.
• Hello, Dolly! slide show.

As promised, here’s the slideshow from the first act of Paragon Music Theatre’s Hello, Dolly! Oct. 22-25 at the Lexington Opera House.

Feature story: Adam Richard Fister has become a staple of Lexington musical theater.

Ronan Tynan has recorded a lot of classical and pop hits. He may want to consider adding the Pink Floyd song One Slip to his repertoire, because an offhanded anti-Semitic remark is costing him dearly.

Ronan Tynan. 2007 AP photo by Don Heupel.

The tenor, a mainstay at New York Yankee games who performed at the Singletary Center with the Lexington Philharmonic Oct. 10, was with a real estate agent showing an apartment building when the incident occurred. According to the New York Times, the real estate agent joked to Tynan that the prospective tennant, New York University physician Gabrielle Gold-Von Simson, was not a Boston Red Sox fan.

Tynan’s shocking reply: “I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish.”

Gold-Von Simson contacted the Yankees, who in turn contacted Tynan. As soon as Tynan admitted the remark, Yankees spokesman Howard Rubenstein said Tynan was disinvited from singing at Friday night’s opening game of the American League Championship Series and will not perform again at Yankee Stadium this season. The Yankees are one of four teams remaining in the hunt for a World Series championship, this year.

Since games following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, it has been a tradition for Tynan to sing his distinctive rendition of God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch at post-season games and other special games at Yankee Stadium.

In Saturday’s Irish Times, Tynan said he was distraught, and that his offhanded comment about some other prospective tenants was misunderstood. He told the paper the roots of the comment were in a visit by other potential residents three weeks before:

“Two Jewish ladies were coming to view it and the agent said, ‘They are very particular’. And I said, ‘I don’t know how they will deal with having a singer beside them, practicing all the time. That could be scary.’ We laughed about it.”

According to the Irish paper, his snappy reply was, “At least they’re not the Jewish ladies.”

Tynan, a Kilkenny, Ireland native, told the paper he has never been anti-Semitic and that three members of his band are Jewish. According to the Yankees spokesman, Tynan did call the doctor and apologize to her satisfaction. He also made a contribution to a charity of her choice: KiDs of NYU, an organization that supports children’s health services at the university’s Langone Medical Center.

Tynan also apologized to Major League Baseball Saturday, telling the Associated Press, in part, “Several days ago I made a joke that was insensitive. My attempt at humor was inappropriate and hurtful to the person who heard it.”

Still, the comment has cost Tynan his treasured Yankees gig for this season. The Yankees say he may be invited back in future seasons.

Other impacts to Tynan’s career remain to be seen.