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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Seminar
in the Rockies 2002
by John Wilson The Gospel Music Association hosts an annual seminar in Estes Park, Colorado that features classes for aspiring artists and songwriters, vocal and instrumental competitions, and nightly concerts featuring artists from across the spectrum of Christian music. This year's Seminar in the Rockies was filled with more of the fun, learning, and networking that keep people coming back each year. One of the highlights of the week is meeting people, and arriving in line several hours before the concert is always a good place to do that. Out of the dozens of unique, sometimes colorful people I met, some of the most notable were Katrina and Corinne, who entertained the line with renditions of songs from any number of artists, and Chad and Katie, a couple from a small Colorado town who impressed everybody by showing up almost six hours early for the Jars of Clay/Tait concert. Nor were the people out front just concertgoers. Several of the artists came by and stopped to chat and pose for pictures, including Tait, members of Third Day, and Jars of Clay. Mac Powell of Third Day impressed everybody, as he took the time to greet everyone in line and talk to them for a while. GMA president Frank Breeden stopped to chat with some of the people hanging around outside, but the artists were more friendly than most of the GMA staff and volunteers, who ranged from merely ignoring the crowd to being downright rude. Audio Adrenaline blew the place apart with an electric set that never took time to mellow out. The crowd didn't seem to mind, as they yelled and jumped their way through "You Still Amaze Me," "Mighty Good Leader," "Get Down," and Audio A's most recent hit single, "Ocean Floor." The songs from Lift came across much more aggressive on stage, On their encore, "Big House," lead singer Mark Stuart pulled a young boy out of the crowd and carried him around Tait, one of the three dcTalk's solo progenies, now has a five-piece band which played a tight variety of songs off their album, along with dcTalk's cover of Charlie Peacock's "In The Light." Michael Tait's stage charisma was turned on full force, and the crowd was on their side almost instantly. He opened with mid-tempo cuts "Bonded" and "All You Got," but then cranked up the amps for a version of "Spy" that rocked harder than almost anything else all week. Jars of Clay played a somewhat subdued acoustic set that disappointed some fans. They didn't work from a set list, opting to instead take requests from the audience. A great concept in theory, but the crowd could not agree on one song at a time, so Jars just made it up as they went along. They played "I Need You," "Something Beautiful," and "Fly" off their latest album, and "Worlds Apart" and "Love Song For a Savior" from their debut, ignoring calls for Much Afraid and If I Left The Zoo. Their encore was an acoustic version of "Flood," which brought the unusually stoic crowd to their feet. Third Day had to play their set without guitarist Mark Lee, who had overslept and missed his flight from Nashville. That didn't seem to bother the band, though, as they ran through several hits, including "Come Together," "My Hope Is You," and a rocking "Agnus Dei." The highlight of their set, however, was during "Consuming Fire," when they invited a 12-year old audience member up to play Lee's guitar part. Other highlights of the week
included:
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