Copious Notes

Taliah Thornton, 4, of Lexington and Jonell Raglin enjoyed the 2008 edition of Questapalooza. Photo by Gabriel B. Tait.

After four years, you can safely say that if it is the Sunday before Labor Day, it’s time to party at Quest Community Church.

Questapalooza started in 2006 on a modest-but-­ambitious scale, inviting ex-dc talker-now-Newsboy Tait in to headline a day of music and youthful fun at the church grounds off ­Reynolds Road. Each year since, the event has upped the ante, bringing in bigger acts that attract bigger crowds.

This year, two legitimate headliners and Christian music icons in their own right, Third Day and Jars of Clay, top the bill as well as up-and-coming vocal act Group 1 Crew.

The wildcard is that you could open for Third Day.

Henry Shrader in the process of beating Kutless guitarist Nick De Partee in a Guitar Hero contest at Questapalooza 2008. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Questapalooza will feature the finals of The Fame, an American Idol-like singing contest that has been going on around town for several weeks and will culminate in semifinals on the main stage and the winner singing right before Third Day. Last year’s festival included a Guitar Hero competition, and winner Henry Shrader got to school Kutless guitarist Nick De Partee in the video game on the main stage.

“We wanted to give more of the community a way to participate,” Quest assistant pastor Justin McCarty says. There will be a chance to audition for the contest on the festival grounds early Sunday.

“Early,” this year, will be a little later than in the past.

While Although Questapalooza is getting bigger headliners and bigger crowds - more than 6,000 turned out last year - the event will actually dial back its hours, starting at 4 p.m. instead of 2, this year.

“We’ve found that period between 2 and 4 is the grayest part of the day,” McCarty says, meaning the crowd is smaller and activities aren’t quite as focused. “Moving it back gets us past the main heat of the day. We wanted to offer people the full experience for the whole time.”

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Danny Gokey visited Faith Builders International in Milwaukee May 8. Photo by Carrie Antlfinger | AP.

This year’s American Idol finals ­offered the nation 13 singers from across the country with ­different strengths, looks, backgrounds and styles. But six of them had ­something in common, aside from wanting to be the next American Idol: They all had experience as church worship leaders.

That included two of the final three competitors in the eighth season of Idol, which wraps up Wednesday with a two-hour season finale.

Danny Gokey, 28, was praise and worship leader at two Faith Builders International locations in Wisconsin.

Kris Allen performs Kanye West's "Heartless" on "American Idol" May 12. Photo by Frank Micelotta | PictureGroup for FOX.

And Kris Allen, 23, has worked with praise and worship teams at two New Life churches in Arkansas.

Gokey was booted Wednesday night, so Allen is the one who is going on to compete in next week’s final against Adam Lambert, long considered the front runner in this year’s race. And that was fine by several Christian music observers.

“I see the worship leader in Danny, but Kris has more of the ability to be artistic,” said Joanne Brokaw, a Christian music writer who brought the preponderance of worship ­leaders in this year’s Idol field to light with a Feb. 27 post on her Beliefnet.com blog that asked, “Is this the season of the worship leader?”

Other artists in this year’s final group who have Christian music backgrounds were dueling pianist Matt Giraud, blind musician Scott MacIntyre, oil rigger Michael Sarver and Memphis mother Lil Rounds.

“The thing that really struck me was not just that they were Christians, but they were church worship leaders,” said Brokaw, who has since ­predicted Allen will win the finale, already ­being ­characterized by some as David vs. Goliath. “These are people who have actively been ­working within their churches as musicians.”

And that work can give a singer a leg up on the ­competition. Read the rest of this entry »