Copious Notes

Casting Crowns are Megan Garrett, Brian Scoggin, Mark Hall, Hector Cervantes, Chris Huffman, Melodee DeVevo and Juan DeVevo. Photo by David Dobson.

The first few chords of “Until the Whole World Hears” gave me high hopes for Casting Crowns‘ fourth studio album. The title track opens with a drum crash and grinding guitar intro that seems to portend the unlikely Christian chart toppers fully embracing and enjoying their role as musicians.

Casting Crowns’ story makes you want to root for the band: A church praise band, they caught the ear of producers with a demo CD and rose to the top of the charts with albums that spoke directly to mainstream evangelicals. But they reportedly still make sure they are back at their Atlanta-area church each week. Nice story, and they’ve recorded several strong albums marked by youth pastor-frontman Mark Hall’s plainspoken lyrics.

But how far will that carry you? On the latest album, Casting Crowns assigns itself the task of telling listeners about Jesus and stumbling into creative doldrums. That’s exemplified by “Joyful, Joyful,” Crowns’ effort to put their own mark on Beethoven’s timeless “Ode to Joy” melody and subsequent hymn by Henry van Dyke. Their mark is to load it with orchestrations and harmonies that predictably soar at the end. It’s a sense of grandure, but no sense of, uh, joy.

That’s “Until the Whole World Hears” in a nutshell. The musicianship is fine, as is the production by Mark A. Miller. The sentiments are valid, and frequently lovely. But it all sounds like stuff we’ve heard before from Casting Crowns and plenty of other contemporary Christian music artists. Most of the tunes sound like retreads of Crowns hits from the past. But they lack the urgency of songs like “What if His People Prayed?” the poignance of “Praise You in This Storm” or lyrical craftsmanship of “Slow Fade,” all songs that helped make Casting Crowns one of the top-selling acts in Christian music history.

With that kind of record, and artists from Steven Curtis Chapman to the David Crowder Band releasing vital, creative albums this fall, a routine CCM effort just doesn’t cut it.

Album No. 4 is often the one where artists ascend to another level, after getting a few albums and far too many tours under their belts. Unfortunately for Casting Crowns, this seems to be the album where the band is losing its voice.

David Crowder and drummer Jeremy Bush 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 Dodson 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 Danyew 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.

Musicians in the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Singers and UK Chorale settle onto the stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the Our Lincoln performance Feb. 2, 2009. Photo by Jonathan Palmer.

The presentation of Our Lincoln at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in February was undeniably a big deal for Kentucky arts and humanities.

Artists who live and work here were presented on one of the nation’s most ­prestigious stages along with hometown kids who have made good and a few international stars, such as violinist Mark O’Connor. A production conceived and produced in Central Kentucky went to an international arts showplace and acquitted itself admirably.

I sat with a Washington cameraman who went on at length about how great the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra is. It was one of numerous anecdotes about seasoned Washington arts observers who were impressed with Our Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln played by Jim Sayre of Lawrenceburg, left, and Henry Clay played by George MGee of Georgetown put the finishing touches on their costumes outside the entrance to the Kennedy Center.

But it is understandable that this might be lost on people who weren’t among the 1,463 people who saw the ­performance, given while the state was in the throes of an ice storm. ­Overseeing recovery ­efforts forced Gov. Steve Beshear to cancel his plans to attend.

But now Beshear and anyone else who would like to see the show can catch it in Michael Breeding’s PBS-quality DVD, which has just been released.

After raising the money to get the program to ­Washington, the Kentucky Humanities Council had to go back to the well for an ­additional $6,500 to produce the DVD, with the total costs to be recouped through sales.

What we can now see is that Breeding and his crew captured the proceedings in stunning detail, with shots that take the viewer onto the stage with the performers and also relay the grandeur of the occasion.

Read the rest of this entry »

Billy the Barber (Reginald Smith Jr.) is a key character in reminding Abraham Lincoln (Nick Provenzale) of his commitment to fight slavery. Photo from Sept. 29 rehearsal by Rich Copley, LexGo.com.

I’ve talked before at le blog about the challenge of reviewing University of Kentucky Opera Theatre productions because the collegiate company always double-casts shows due to singers’ needs for vocal rest — professional companies rarely put a show up on consecutive days for that reason — and to spread experience around.

It has its up sides, of course, but one downside is that only one cast gets reviewed by the paper. We simply do not have the time or space to review a show twice, and waiting for both casts to perform would hamper our efforts to deliver a timely review.

The same is true for UKOT’s world premier production of River of Time, which opened Thursday night at the Lexington Opera House. Nick Provenzale sings the lead role of Abraham Lincoln all three nights, but most of the primary singing roles are double cast. We reviewed Cast A (UKOT’s termionology) last night, which acquitted itself quite well in a new opera that had some big issues in story and pace.

Abraham Lincoln (Nick Provenzale) tries to comfort Ann Rutledge (Julie La Douceur) in her final hours in "River of Time."

That said, I did get to catch Cast 1, which performs tonight (Oct. 9), in a rehearsal last week, and if you are holding tickets for tonight’s performance or are thinking of going, I don’t think you’ll be shortchanged.

Among the standouts set to go on tonight are Reginald Smith Jr. as Billy the Barber and Julie LaDouceur as Ann Rutledge.

Based on what I caught that evening, some of the different performers will likely bring different vibes to their work. LaDouceur’s Ann seemed sweeter and more whistful than Amanda Balltrip’s more feisty, jocular take. And Smith, whose voice will always get your attention, put a lot of comand behind his version of Billy, performed with tremendous empathy by Mark Elliott Golson II last night and Saturday.

So the takes may be somewhat different, but either way, you should expect some terrific performances.

Ann Rutledge (Amanda Balltrip) and Abraham Lincoln (Nick Provenzale) at a town dance in New Salem, Ill., in the world premier production of Joe Baber's "River of Time." Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Note: Space is finite in newspapers, really more finite than ever. This being a new opera, I wrote a bit longer than a usual review, and a little bit longer than the printed page in Saturday’s paper will hold. This posting of our River of Time review contains portions that will not be in the print edition.

No one in Abraham Lincoln’s home state has celebrated the bicentennial of the 16th president’s birth as well as the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre.

At the start of the celebration in 2008, the Opera Theatre teamed with the Kentucky Humanities Council to present Our Lincoln, a multi-faceted tribute to the Hodgenville native that eventually traveled to Washington, D.C.

Before that show was even conceived, UK Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey had commissioned an opera about Lincoln from composer Joe Baber and librettist Jim Rodgers.

That opera, River of Time, had its world premiere Thursday night at the Lexington Opera House. It’s not the unqualified success of Our Lincoln, but there is much to like and even potential for Baber’s opera to endure as a portrait of the president before he was presidential.

River of Time’s story takes Lincoln from birth through the death of his first true love, Ann Rutledge. Along the way, he fights with his dad, becomes a bookworm, grieves the deaths of the three most important women in his life and even wrestles.

That story makes for some great moments, including a slave auction in New Orleans where Lincoln declares that if he gets a chance to fight slavery, “I’m gonna hit it hard.” The scene, with a heavy dose of spirituals, is the grand opera spectacle of the show.

But for the most part, this opera strives for a soothing — sometimes too soothing — Midwestern feel, in the spirit of Aaron Copland or Samuel Barber. That’s exemplified in a small-town dance scene in which Lincoln and Ann realize that regardless of whether she is engaged to another guy, they are in love. Read the rest of this entry »

Relient K is Jon Schneck, Ethan Luck, Matthew Thiessen, Matt Hoopes, John Warne.

Review: Relient K, Forget and Not Slow Down

Direct comparisons between bands can seem a bit disrespectful, and maybe easy. But the parallels between the Beach Boys and Relient K are a bit too hard to avoid in light of the Canton, Ohio band’s recent offerings.

It’s not that Matthew Thiessen and Co. sound like the California boys, though their last album, Fivescore and Seven Years Ago (2007), did include some familiar harmonies. It’s more that this is a band that bowed with numbers like Sadie Hawkins Dance and other tunes that made them seem like a sonic confection — appealing as a cupcake, but not much to it.

And that’s a sound that has never gone away. But what has been growing in each ReK album, particularly since mmhmm (2004) is a musicianship and thoughfulness that make each album a richer experience. Occasionally it’s gone wrong — I was one who found Fivescore’s Deathbed a bit much — but each album has been a growth spurt, and little to nothing is wrong with Forget and Not Slow Down.

The immediate impression is this is a meditation on loss, but more about regrouping than moping. Therapy is the linchpin track, describing Thiessen’s very real experience of self isolation during the time he wrote the album — “You won’t take my calls, and that makes God the only one who’s left here listening.”

Thiessen has developed a knack for taking the spiritual and putting it in temporal terms without diminishing its gravity. He can also take a well-worn cliche and give it new meaning such as Part of It, where he invokes the phrase, “It’s not the end of the world,” and adds, “When a nightmare finally does unfold, perspective is a lovely hand to hold.”

The notes hold equal “Ah” moments like Candlelight where the jumpy pop melts into into a lilting, swirling finale evocative of the lyric, “A solar flare shines through her hair.”

It’s one of numerous moments that could make a listener wonder how long Thiessen will find the pop band format sufficient for conveying his ideas.

One way that Relient K does not mirror the Beach Boys is in popularity. While they are one of the biggest bands in Christian rock and a significant player in the modern rock scene, sales of one Beach Boys hit probably equal ReK’s entire catalog. Forget and Not Slow Down will not change that. Despite its excellence, it may be the band’s least radio-friendly effort ever. But it is an effort that should make serious pop music listeners, Christian and otherwise, take notice.

David Crowder*Band CHURCH MUSIC Intro from sixstepsrecords on Vimeo.

Review: David Crowder Band - Church Music

If this album were coming from any other artist, the title would rightfully lead you to believe this was a worship or hymns album.

But this is David Crowder Band, a group where nothing easily fits into a category.

The group comes across as very rootsy, but the music often sweeps over us with an electronic wash. Crowder has this idiosyncratic sense of humor, but his music and the message are delivered with incredible seriousness — he’s the artist who can take a stage with a keytar or Guitar Hero controller, joke about it, and by the chorus make you completely forget he’s playing a silly instrument.

Church Music is neither a collection of old hymns or easily digestible choruses. It is, in the tradition of Crowder’s Collision albums, a complete experience. There are songs that will ride on their own, but it is an album that is best experienced as a complete package and will take you in some interesting places like late in the album when steer into Church Music - Dance, a song that could have been played in Studio 54 in its heyday, and the blistering rock of God Almighty, None Compares. The album makes a progression from contemplation to celebration, like a well-planned church service.

David Crowder Band has a lot of great hits like No One Like You and Foreverandever Etc. But complete packages like this count as the Crowdster’s most satisfying work. Just revel in the contradictions.

Wondering how Crowder will handle this album live? Well, you can find out when Crowder plays Southland Christian Church with Seabird and Danyew at 8 p.m. Nov. 6.

Two concerts that we mentioned in recent posts have been cancelled.
■ Derek Webb, whom we profiled in the last rc talk, will not play Lexington next week. The Dame, where he was scheduled to play, has closed, and he has not secured another venue. Webb’s publicist said he hopes to schedule a Lexington concert later.

■ Starlit Platoon, which was scheduled to play South Elkhorn Baptist Church on Oct. 10 has broken up, so that show is scrubbed.

Jeremy Camp listens for the audience to sing back the chorus to "Tonight" during his Thursday night performance at Quest Community Church. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

After nearly an hour of performing rousing rock ‘n’ roll (and encouraging the audience to “dance like nerds” with him), ballads and worship, Jeremy Camp sat down at an upright piano Thursday night and sang a spiritual.

“Give me Jesus, give me Jesus,” he sang, bathed in lavender light. “You can have all of this world. Give me Jesus.”

Hunched over the keyboard, his face shielded from the crowd, Camp’s voice filled the room with the same kind of power that seemed to exist in his biceps — toned by px90 workouts — and simultaneously had the tremor of a young man who’s already endured some trials, including losing a wife to cancer and an unborn child in a miscarriage.

Natalie Grant delivered a surprisingly rockin' set Thursday at Quest.

Whether in recordings or on stage, there is nary an un-genuine moment from Jeremy Camp, which is a big part of why he can so seamlessly rock, worship and sing empathetic ballads — I’ll Take You Back is still his best tune, which he performed Thursday with a bit more fire than some acoustic renditions he’s delivered in the past.

The new sanctuary at Quest Community Church proved to be an ideal venue for Camp, as the 2,400 seat auditorium would probably be great for any artist seeking a midsized room. That describes a lot of Christian artists. It’s not clear whether Quest intends to use its facility as a Christian concert hall — this show was booked by an outside promoter — but you have to think word will get out about the room, which you had to keep reminding yourself is a church.

And there were two other artists on the bill to testify for it. Natalie Grant played right before Camp with a more rock oriented show than you might expect and a moving rendition of God of This City, and Bebo Norman opened the night flanked by a superior sideman in Gabe Scott, who flipped between guitar, keyboards and hammer dulcimer.

Bebo Norman (right) and multi-instrumentalist Gabe Scott (left) opened Thursday night.

Quest Community Church was hosting its first concert in its new 2,400-seat auditorium.

Harlan County native Phil Stacey. Photo courtesy of Reunion Records.

Listening to Phil Stacey’s Into the Light, you think, if this guy wasn’t on American Idol, he should have been.

His debut on Reunion Records under the guidance of legendary Christian producer Brown Bannister sounds very Idol, with songs that showcase soaring choruses and emotional lyrics, and Stacey definitely has the chops to deliver them.

It also sounds very contemporary Christian — hence, Idol’s friendliness to Christian singers the last few years. That’s also what makes Into the Light a little disappointing.

His post-Idol debut on Lyric Street records was a refreshing sound for the Christian market, introducing some country songwriter cleverness in songs like It’s Who You Know, and bringing some genuine energy to the project. But Stacey says he was miscast as a country guy and pop was always where his heart was, hence the move to the Christian pop label and embrace by Christian pop royalty — Michael W. Smith is his labelmate.

The result is a solid album with catchy tunes like Inside Out and soaring worship ballads like One. He also pulls out a great Rich Mullins cover, Hard to Get, that could serve to show some younger listeners there’s more to the Christian pop legend than Awesome God.

What’s really missing here is any sense of Stacey’s own individuality, which seemed to be so present on that 2008 debut. With Into the Light, Stacey has been embraced by the Christian music establishment. On future efforts, he needs to avoid sounding like a generic contemporary Christian artist.

Is the GMA in trouble?: My fellow Christian music blogger Joanne Brokaw has an interesting post about recent cuts and layoffs at the Gospel Music Association and the just-annouced $1,000-a-plate Save the GMA fundraiser. Is Christian music’s umbrella organization in danger of going under?

Close, but not quite here: Yes, we do have Jeremy Camp coming Thursday night and Casting Crowns in a few weeks. But there are two Christian tours of interest not quite getting here, but they will be close if you’re the road tripping type.

~ If you’ve wanted to see Newsboys with Michael Tait out front, they get as close as Wilmington, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati, Nov. 15. Click here for Newsboys tour itinerary and ticket links.

~ You may also have heard plenty of TobyMac and Relient K live, but still find the concept of their Winter Wonder Slam tour together irresistible. It hits Louisville Nov. 29.

University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra director John Nardolillo, shown conducting a rehearsal in March. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

More than a decade ago, Everett McCorvey started building the University of Kentucky’s opera program into a nationally recognized boutique for training young voices and presenting exciting programs. The middle of this decade, John Nardolillo took over the UK Symphony Orchestra and a similar ascension quickly began.

Friday night, those two success stories came together as the voice department’s newest teacher stepped in front of the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra for its season opener in the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall.

Soprano Cynthia Lawrence, shown at a rehearsal on Tuesday.

Soprano Cynthia Lawrence took the stage to open the second half of Friday’s concert in a billowy black gown which sparkled like this was Live from Lincoln Center or something. And when she opened her mouth for a performance of Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs, it sounded that way.

Though Lawrence, who now holds UK’s endowed chair in music (voice), was making her big debut as a faculty member, Four Last Songs is not a diva show-off piece in the sense of rafter-rattling high notes, ornamental trills and the like. It doesn’t even give the soprano a big finish, as the orchestra closes the piece as if the sun has set on the voice.

But if you are looking for interpretive skills, Strauss gives the singer a chance to put those on full display, and Lawrence did. She encourages listeners to read the work’s poetic text, but the poetry was in her voice Friday night. Through masterful phrasing and control, she gave the audience a very clear idea where this piece was going. And yes, she did have moments of spectacle and sublime beauty that left you marveling that this woman was not an imported guest soloist. She is UK faculty.

What’s more, she aggressively went after the job after spending a few weeks here working with singers at UK last fall. That an artist of Lawrence’s caliber — a celebrated soprano at the Metropolitan Opera and many, many other stages — vigorously pursued a post here says as much about the growth of the School of Music as the Met audition wins and concerts at Carnegie Hall.

What was really striking was how the orchestra responded to Lawrence. Her performance followed good though unremarkable performances of W.A. Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro overture and Symphony No. 39 in the first half.

When Lawrence started singing though, the orchestra followed her lead, including several passionate solos from violinist Jessica Tzou, flutist Aaron Sexton and others.

And the passion continued into the concert closer, Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration. With all hands on deck, the orchestra unleased a powerful performance that convinced you that its Dec. 3 performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 “Titan” should not be missed.

Then again, the way things have been going, you could say that about the whole season.

Prior to the concert, Narolillo and UK President Lee Todd announced a gift from the family of Jan Karon, a master violinist and violin maker who died last year, which will add $400,000 to the orchestra’s endowment established by Keeneland and Maker’s Mark. Karon was a native of Poland who survived Nazi concentration camps in World War II and played in orchestras in Warsaw, Krakow and Houston, where he was concertmaster. After retirement, he settled in Lexington. The gift from his daughter Dr. Magdalene Karon and her husband Dr. John Stewart, will underwrite the concertmaster’s position, which has been renamed the Jan Karon Concertmaster. Tzou is the first to hold that chair.