Copious Notes

The members of Too Many Drummers include multi-instrumentalist Josh Dahm, lead singer and guitarist David Abbott and drummer Collin Berner. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Too Many Drummers likes to play coffee shops, but there is one little problem: the drums.

“One of the challenges we have is Collin and I like to play loud - too loud for coffee shops,” lead singer and guitarist David Abbott says of himself and the band’s drummer, Collin Berner. “There’s this thing about drummers: They kind of set the ceiling for a band’s sound, so however loud he plays, we all have to be that loud to be heard.”

Bassist Erik Rishel performs with Too Many Drummers on the opening day of the 40th annual Ichthus Festival.

And when you’re in a relatively small room like a coffee shop, and it starts getting loud, “That’s no fun for anyone,” multi-instrumentalist Josh Dahm says.

Fortunately for the seemingly aptly-named band, small rooms have not been a big issue lately.

Too Many Drummers recently spent a few days playing at the Ichthus Festival in Wilmore. The opening day, the group was one of nine acts in the Ascenxion Scout Competition. Then, on the festival’s closing day, the band took the main stage as a reward for winning another competition prior to Ichthus.

July 11, a month in the spotlight will continue for Too Many Drummers as the group opens for Sanctus Real and Tenth Avenue North at the Summer Slam concert at Winchester’s George Rogers Clark High School.

For the band, events like Ichthus and Summer Slam are chances to get in front of audiences that otherwise might not hear them, or anyone like them.

The men in Too Many Drummers describe their sound as, “melodic art rock.”

To a newcomer, it can sound kind of jam-band oriented, as they launch into things like the Reckless Love Trilogy, which the group played at the Ascenxion competition.

But, the band members point out, most of TMD’s music is written, much of it by Dahm, a classically-trained musician who studied at Asbury College and is now the music director at Mt. Freedom Baptist Church in Wilmore.

The group started at Asbury, but is by no means a college band. Abbott and Dahm initially got together at Asbury in 2002, played together for a while, and then reunited years later.

“We were playing coffee shops and praying for a bass player and a drummer,” Abbott says.

They met Berner to form a trio in January 2008. With the addition of bassist Erik Rishel, an old Asbury friend, in the spring, Too Many Drummers’ current lineup was complete.

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Wilmore-based Rookie is Landon Cunningham, Abe Parker and Grant Ebright. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

WILMORE — The trio Rookie did a lot of the right things when they started performing together.

They picked bandmates they liked hanging out with. They defined a sort of jazzy edge to their sound that they say makes them different from most other Christian rock acts. They jettisoned a meaningless name, Auburn, for one that said something: Rookie, they say, is a commentary on the clumsiness with which most people go about their faith.

And they got the director of the Ichthus Festival to come see their show.

OK, that last element isn’t necessarily part of the prescription for most bands. And a few years ago, it might not have yielded much.

Kevin Young of Disciple performs on the main stage at Ichthus on the festival.

But, while Ichthus’ calling card is still chart-topping international Christian bands such as Skillet and Family Force 5, Kentucky musicians have had a growing role in the festival, whether it’s competitors in the fest’s 3-year-old battle of the bands, local rockers invited to perform on secondary stages, area church leaders playing during late-afternoon worship sessions, or the occasional national artist who resides right here in the Bluegrass.

“My family got to come out,” Disciple frontman and Central Kentucky resident Kevin Young said of the band’s Thursday main-stage set. “That’s why I like Ichthus a lot, because I actually get to do this and my family is close by. My daughter is 81/2 months old, and yesterday was her first Disciple concert. I didn’t get to see her face, but my wife said she was kicking a lot, so apparently she liked the music.”

The biggest concentration of local talent was earlier that day on the worship stage where bands competed in the third annual Ascenxion Scout Competition. The first year of the competition, three bands were selected in an online competition to play Ichthus stages. The past two years, the competition’s finals have been live the opening morning of the festival, meaning even if they don’t advance, all the competitors can say they played Ichthus.

They included 16-year-old Radfordville resident Allison Stafford, who said when she saw Christian rocker’s BarlowGirl at Ichthus two years ago, “I decided I wanted to do that.”

Playing a festival like Ichthus gives local acts, as well as other less familiar bands, a chance for people to run across their music as opposed to concerts or club dates, where a lot of people who come are already familiar with the band.

“We got a really good crowd response,” Landon Cunningham, Rookie’s drummer, said the day after their Friday set on the Edge Stage. “It’s great that they are providing this kind of opportunity to local bands,” he added, noting some other area acts such as Wilmore’s Shane Tracy Project also got moments in the spotlight.

A few locals even got main-stage shots: The Lee Roessler Band, which won the Ascenxion Scout Competition, and Lexington’s Too Many Drummers, which got there via another competition.

But possibly the most prominent local musicians on the Ichthus stage this year were area worship leaders who led devotional times late each afternoon.

Amaris Blevins sang with the worship "all-star team," at Ichthus on June 12.

A group from Quest Community Church and then a worship “all-star team” — comprising musicians from churches such as Southland Christian, Centenary United Methodist and Southern Acres — took the stage in the evenings, where nationally known artists used to play.

“It’s different from church,” said Amaris Blevins, a singer at Southland who was part of the team. “It was a lot more people and a different energy from church.”

And while the worship all-star team isn’t looking for a recording contract the way bands might, the musicians did appreciate the opportunity.

“I like that they’re getting more locals involved,” Jonathan Mckeowen, a guitarist with the group, said. “It used to be kind of hard to get in here.”

The first day of Ichthus 2009, the 40th edition of the Wilmore Christian music event, included rain and mud, a battle of the bands with mostly Kentucky acts, and an evening bill of Family Force 5 and Hawk Nelson.

Nathan Dickerson (in yellow) and Clayton Allender (white) of Maysville, joined Brittany Strong and Jillian Krouse of Lexington to dance and cheer on the Lee Roessler Band, which won the Ascenxion Scout Competition. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

There’s plenty of pressure in performing in a battle of the bands in front of top record executives for the chance to play on the main stage at Ichthus and go on to another competition that could put you in line for a deal with a major label.

Add to that being woken up at 4:30 in the morning by a severe thunderstorm that makes you throw all of your stuff in plastic bags and sleep — if you can call it that — in your car for the rest of the night.

“Our campsite was flattened,” said Christina Conyers, one of the singers in CrossLife, one of the nine bands that competed in the Ascenxion Scout Competition Thursday morning at Ichthus.

Jones Beene, guitarist for Athens, Tenn. band Calling Glory, was in an actual home. But still, the thunder roused him around 5 a.m., and he decided to go ahead and get up.

Jacob Allen of Wisdom's Call in the Ascenxion Competition.

But that is not all the competing bands had to deal with. Since the campsite was closed due to weather issues until after 10 a.m., the competition, which was supposed to start at 9 a.m., was moved to one of the worship stages in the campground and didn’t start until nearly 10:30.

“The good thing was we were too busy running around to get to the new place to have any time to get nervous,” said Eric Draine of Versailles based Eyesuponus.

The competition did offer up a variety of Christian pop styles, from the worship set of CrossLife, to the atmospheric sounds of Calling Glory, to the metal of Elizabethtown-based Wisdom’s Call.

The bravery award had to go to 16-year-old Allison Stafford of Radfordville, who took the stage and said, “I don’t have a band, but I’m going to get up here and sing anyway.”

Allison Stafford, 16, of Radfordville performed by herself in the competition.

She was a lone girl with a guitar in the middle of a bunch of dudes with bands, and she confessed it did intimidate her, but, “I knew God was with me.”

Stafford said she had been inspired by seeing BarlowGirl at Ichthus a few years ago, and she said, “I want to do that.”

She got onto the Ichthus stage via an online competition that narrowed the field down for the live showdown, that was really cordial for something billed as a, “battle.”

The ultimate winner was the Lee Roessler Band out of Alexandria, in Northern Kentucky.

“It’s great,” said Roessler, the head of the trio. “But I don’t view it as a competition. We’re all out here just praising God.”

It was a competition with a prize. Roessler will play the Ichthus main stage at noon Friday. Calling Glory, the runners up, will play the Edge Stage at 6:20 p.m. Saturday, and third place finisher’s Wisdom’s Call will play the Edge at 3:10 p.m. Friday.

Ichthus was in part delayed because of preventative measures festival organizers took to prepare for bad weather, which they are used to.
“It’s easier to put a tent back up when it hasn’t been riped to shreds,” festival supervisor Doug Baker said. Several tents were taken down last night when it was clear overnight storms were heading to Wilmore.
That had workers from Goff Tent company putting up giant yellow and white-striped tents as the festival gates opened shortly after 10 a.m.
Despite the delay, the festival started getting into gear with the Ascenxion Scout Competition kicking off aroud 10:30.

Last night’s storms have put Ichthus a bit behind in getting started. Security guards at the main gate say that the rough weather left some areas unsafe, and they are currently being assessed. Several vendor tents were blown down. A canopy was down on the Edge Stage where the Ascenxion Scout Competition was set to take place at 9 a.m. It has been moved to the Worship Stage in the campground.

Review: Newsboys, In the Hands of God

Out of the weirdness that has been the Newsboys of recent months comes a new album — a new album with the old guy on lead vocals. Or is he the old guy, or just the singer who will no longer travel with the group? It’s a murky picture, but what we do know is the Aussie group has released its first album since frontman Peter Furler announced he would not be touring with the band anymore and former dc talk member Michael Tait took over the mike.

In the Hands of God was recorded before that, and it is unmistakably Newsboys in sound and tone. You get the feel of an act wanting to take one last sweep through its current state before everything changes, such as the late-90s humor in The Way we Roll and the more recent worshipful nature of the title track. Problem is it all sounds like classic Newsboys, but nothing is quite as compelling as the best of the band’s catalog. Maybe it was time for a change.

Review: Sarah Reeves, Sweet Sweet Sound

Sarah Reeves could have titled her debut album “Getting to Know You,” if she didn’t have a nice little title tune to bing off of. Her short debut — maybe EP most accurately describes this offering — is a sextet of nice personal songs co-written by Reeves that leave a strong impression of a young woman very devoted to worship and looking for direction in how to use her gifts.

While none of the tunes are terribly distinctive or instant classics, the 19-year-old Alabamian had a pretty cool opportunity to write with longtime hitmakers Ed Cash and Matt Brownlee. And the voice we hear is young, earnest and full of hope. With Sweet Sweet Sound, we can say we’ve been introduced to Sarah Reeves, and we hope to hear more from her.

Ichthus tick-tock: Time is running out on two things you can act on with Ichthus.

1. The latest ticket-price increase is being held off until May 22. So, until then, full weekend tickets are $98, single-day tickets are $53, single evening tickets are $56 and children ages 7-10 are $57 for the weekend and $37 for a day. After the 22nd, the weekend adult tickets pop up to $108 and all other tickets increase too. You can order tickets at the festival website or by calling (859) 858-3001. Ichthus is also advertising payment plans for tickets.

2. There are only a few days left in voting for the Ascenxion Scout Competition. The Top 5 acts will be on the Deep End Stage the first day of the festival, and the top act, as chosen by judges during those performances, will get to play Ichthus’ Main Stage July 12 and the Deep End July 13.

The 8 Kentucky acts in the 13-band competition are:

Versailles’ Eyesuponus

Paintsville’s 7:13

Owingsville’s Crosslife

Paintsville’s Battlelion

Bradfordsville’s Allison Stafford

Alexandria’s The Lee Roessler Band

Wilmore’s The Shane Tracy Project

Lexington’s Too Many Drummers

Voting ends May 15.