featuring Big Daddy Weave and Francesca Battistelli
Ticket Prices Before October 31, 2009:
$25.00 - Gold Circle (Rows 1-9)
$20.00 - Level II (all other seating)
Ticket Prices Beginning November 1, 2009:
$30.00 - Gold Circle (Rows 1-9)
$25.00 - Level II (all other seating)
Groups of 10 or more receive a 10% discount on each ticket.
NEWSONG
A touring legend and Christian radio hit-maker, NewSong is a Dove Award winner and GRAMMY nominee. The group has garnered 20 No. 1 singles, seven Dove Award nominations, numerous songwriting awards, and five of the Top 100 Christian radio singles of the past decade.
In 1994, they launched the first-of-its-kind Winter Jam Tour Spectacular (www.jamtour.com) concert series – multi-artist, ticket-less concerts that give thousands the opportunity not only to hear incredible music but to also hear the gospel message. Over 275,000 fans attended the 33 dates of the 2007 Winter Jam Tour Spectacular. Of the quarter of a million fans over 38,000 people made decisions for Christ and over 4,700 orphans were sponsored through Holt International’s (www.holtintl.org) Children’s Services “Waiting Child Program,” a monthly sponsorship program that brings sustaining hope and support to orphaned, abandoned or vulnerable children awaiting full-time adoptions.
NewSong has hosted some of Christian music’s all time greats on past Winter Jam Spectaculars, including Steven Curtis Chapman, Newsboys, tobyMac, Jeremy Camp, Audio Adrenaline, Relient K, Tait & Sonic Flood and helped break such new artists as Todd Agnew, Building429, Matthew West, and Hawk Nelson.
NewSong was initially founded in the early 80s when original members Eddie Carswell and Billy Goodwin along with several others served as the “house band” at their local church. Throughout the years, numerous talented artists have become NewSong “alumni” before launching successful solo careers of their own. Among those alums are Russ Lee, Charles Billingsley and Michael O’Brien.
Their holiday anthem, “The Christmas Shoes,” became a #1 mainstream radio hit and inspired a New York Times-bestselling book by Donna VanLiere and CBS Movie of the Week. The album of the same name was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album in 2003.
BIG DADDY WEAVE
... God's "I love you" was signed, sealed, and delivered to us when Jesus died on the cross. There's nothing we can do to affect His end of the deal! Now our "I love you" back is learning to simply trust and obey.
- Mike Weaver
Learning to “simply trust and obey” is a lot harder than it sounds, as the guys from Fervent Records’ band Big Daddy Weave can tell you. Sure, it may be easy enough when things are going great—just witness the last few years of the band’s career.
“Over the past few years and the other two Big Daddy Weave records [One and Only and Fields of Grace], all of the subject matter is based on our relationship with God. We write about all aspects of relationship with God,” says Mike Weaver, lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the band. “We were created— from Adam, in the beginning—to know and have a relationship with God. It was Creator and the created. That’s what we were made for. The reason why we’re walking and breathing and living on this earth is because of Him. We were made, not just to go do our own thing, but we were made for Him.”
Their sold-out, committed relationship with God has carried them far, as has their bond with each other. The five guys from Big Daddy Weave have formed a family of their own, extending past the blood brotherhood of Mike and bassist Jay Weaver, who are the basis for the band’s name. With Jeff Jones on drums, Joe Shirk on sax and keyboards and Jeremy Redmon on guitar, Big Daddy Weave has found nearly seven years of touring and recording that have bonded them in a way that is just as close as brothers can be.
Their debut project, One and Only, quickly became a fan favorite, debuting in SoundScan’s Christian Top 5, the highest debut for a new artist in 2002. A 2002 Gospel Music Association Dove Award nomination for New Artist of the Year started their career off with a bang, with hit singles like the upbeat “In Christ” and the worshipful “Audience of One,” the band’s first number one song (Christian Radio Weekly CHR chart). Fields of Grace was the band’s 2003 follow-up album, as the radio success continued with the hit title track from the project.
But when it came time to work on the band’s third project, the five young men in Big Daddy Weave were really tested in the “trust and obey” category. They came up against a few obstacles—more specifically, one large obstacle that went by the name of Hurricane Ivan.
The violent storm leveled the Weavers’ family home in Mobile, Alabama, stealing photos and memories and even ravaging the home office of Big Daddy Weave, which their parents maintain. Unharmed, the Weavers’ parents went to live with Jay and his new wife as they rebuilt, and the rest of the members of Big Daddy cleaned up damage to their own homes after the devastation.
Rather than heading to Nashville to work on the album, Big Daddy Weave brought recording engineers down to their hometown. There, amidst the chaos, the band finished writing the songs for What I Was Made For, and laid down the tracks for the project.
“From a recording side, there were a lot of things that all came together at once that allowed our album to be postponed past our deadline, including the hurricane,” says Jeremy. “It definitely put a halt on things—our worlds kind of went upside down there for a little while, in good ways and bad ways.”
“But God is faithful,” Mike says passionately. “At the end of the storm, making the album—I feel like all of us are at a better place than when we went into it. We can see the hand of God. We can see how God drew communities together in our area. In the middle of the abundant life He’s promised, in the middle of even the worst parts of that, honestly, He can turn disaster into something miraculous.”
In this case, something miraculous manifests itself in the soul-searching lyrics and dynamic musical performances on the band’s latest release. Having produced together previously, Mike and Jeremy again took the helm as producers for What I Was Made For. Working together was natural, say the two, and the band agrees that it was a perfect fit.
“When songs come to me, they come to me with things already in place—not just a chord progression and when the songs come, they already sound like Big Daddy Weave,” says Mike. “Jeremy understands me. In so many ways, he already knows what is inside my head. He knows how to really bring out the best in us.”
“Musically I think as a band we’ve just grown,” Jeremy says. “In some ways it is a little more guitar driven, a little bigger, more rock and roll. We’re definitely trying to figure out ways to use the same elements, like Joe and the sax. We’re trying to find new ways to feature it, like with the bass sax, which has such a cool addition to what he’s able to do with some of the heavier rock and roll stuff. It’s great to be able to bring in that element and still sound like Big Daddy Weave.”
The latest song to hit the airwaves is featured on both What I Was Made For and the compilation Absolute Modern Worship. “You’re Worthy of My Praise” is a classic worship song that the band has performed for years, made new with production by Otto Price and guest vocals by label mates BarlowGirl. With the popularity of both bands, it is no surprise that the song has become another No. 1 hit for Big Daddy Weave.
The band welcomes another very special guest, Fred Hammond, on “Killing Me Again,” a reprise from their early indie project. Described by the band as a fusion of Sting and Stevie Wonder, the song’s funky sound is punctuated by an intense message and Hammond in a unique role.
“The lyric is kind of hard core, because it is about addiction, about dealing with habitual sin,” says Mike. “The song is about this situation where somebody is sneaking around to participate in this secret sin, and then Fred comes in on the chorus like the voice of God, saying, When I see you running away, it makes me want to cry, When I see you reminding me of the day I had to die, Don’t you know that in my heart, I still can feel the pain, because when I see you, it’s like killing me all over again.”
Known as a powerful live band, Big Daddy Weave has been continually on the road, on tour with Rebecca St. James, FFH, Geoff Moore, Todd Agnew and label mates Exit East. With all the success and travel, you might think the band’s personal lives would take a backseat.
Instead, the Big Daddy family has grown even more in the year-and-a-half since their last album. Jeff and his wife Stephanie were the first to expand the Big Daddy brood with the arrival of their daughter Hannah in mid 2004. Not to be outdone, Joe and his wife Amanda welcomed baby Alana in early 2005. Younger brother Jay tied the knot in late 2003 with wife Emily, and the two welcomed a daughter in the spring of 2005.
With Jeremy already married, the newest addition means that all of the Big Daddies are now spoken for. May 2005 is set aside for the wedding of Mike and Kandice, with a match made in Christian music heaven, so to speak—she is the marketing guru for their label, Fervent Records.
“When Jesus said, I’ve come to bring you life, and life abundantly, it was like, that’s the gamut. It’s not just, I come to bring you the good days abundantly, which some people read into that. It’s everything,” says Mike. “And the biggest picture of that for me was that I ultimately found the girl I was going to marry literally the same time that the hurricane happened that tore apart my parents’ home.”
Brother Jay agrees. “Having gone through all the mess, I would still sit back and say I would much rather go through my darkest day with Him than go through my brightest days without Him. That’s been huge for us. For a while it was crazy. My wife and I in our first year of marriage, four months in, find out that there’s going to be a little one coming along, and then next thing you know, here’s mom and dad. She’s got the whole nesting vibe, and they’re living in the nest!”
As the boys in Big Daddy have seen, we all share life abundantly, from hit songs that change lives to hurricanes that change lives. But even in the bad days, there is good to be found in every situation when we let God’s hand take control—simply trust and obey.
FRANCESCA BATTISTELLI
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”—E.M. Forester
So, what do you want to be when you grow up?
It’s a question that takes many people years and years of trial and error and self-discovery to figure out. But for singer/songwriter Francesca Battistelli, her mind was made up when she was only six years old. After seeing “The Secret Garden” on Broadway with her parents, the decision was ultimately a no-brainer. “There was just something about live theater—especially musical theater—that has always resonated with me,” Francesca says. “So I thought that was it. I was going to be Mary Lennox in ‘The Secret Garden’.”
Of course for anyone who knew her family, Francesca’s passion for life on the stage wasn’t all that surprising, given her mom and dad’s extensive theater background. In fact, they met when her dad was the assistant conductor for the national tour of “The King and I,” while her mom played Anna, the show's female lead opposite Yul Brynner.
Like any girl with dreams of grandeur, Francesca knew carving out her own path in the ultra-competitive arts world wasn’t going to be easy. But with her Broadway aspirations in the back of her mind and an insatiable work ethic, she stayed focused. Instead of signing up for the typical extracurriculars like cheerleading or sports, Francesca’s life revolved around dance classes and musical theater training.
And when Francesca was 15, she put her skills to good use in an all-girl mainstream pop group in Orlando, an experience that helped pave the way for what she does today. “We traveled all over and performed at Hard Rock Live and House of Blues a couple of times,” Francesca recalls. “It was good for what it was because it tied together two things I loved: singing and dancing.”
But when the gig eventually ended, Francesca says she was thankful for an opportunity to clear her head. “Not long after, I recharged my batteries by going to this youth ministry that I absolutely loved,” Francesca shares. “It was there where the Lord really captured my heart for Christian music. I started playing guitar and really longed to bring something authentic to the scene that even non-Christians could listen to.”
Armed with her passion for writing and hope for a hurting world, Francesca put pen to paper and crafted heartfelt, personal reflections on life and faith for what’s now her major-label debut, My Paper Heart. Inspired by everyone from the jazz greats her dad introduced her to as a kid, to contemporaries like John Mayer, Sara Bareilles and Nichole Nordeman, Francesca set out to write “soulful pop music that someone pops in the morning and says, ‘Now I can start my day, I feel encouraged.’”
One of the first tracks Francesca wrote upon moving to Nashville, her first single “I’m Letting Go,” not only highlights Francesca’s expressive vocals but her overarching desire to encourage her peers not to settle for anything less than what God has for them.
“I’d just moved to Nashville, and I was sort of letting go of everything that someone can at 22 years old,” Francesca shares. “And it’s far better and different in more ways than I could’ve expected. There’s a line in the song that says ‘I feel like I’m falling/And that’s what it’s like to believe.’ Walking in faith is like free-falling, yet that’s the best place to be. But so many of us are afraid to do that.”
On the title track, Francesca tackles another universal fear—the fragility of the human heart. “This has been the hardest, scariest, most rewarding year of my life. I have known sorrow, and I have known joy,” she shares. “God has spoken quietly the words of His heart, and He has shown me colors in the grayest hues of winter. He has sung songs over me in solitude, and He has never let go of my fragile, paper heart. He knows every corner of it—the tattered, torn, and untouched places. He knows the songs that move it, the words that pierce it, and the people He uses to change it. I am forever safe in His hands.”
And while pouring out your heart doesn’t always come easy for some, the songwriting process has been both cathartic and fun for Francesca. Describing it as “the most fun she’s ever had professionally,” Francesca’s enthusiasm can’t help but find its way into her music. In fact, whether she’s talking about the spirited, funk-laden title track or the buoyant, accept-yourself-as-you-are anthem “Free to Be Me,” Francesca bookends her commentary with “I really love this song. It’s so much fun to sing.” And that pervasive joy, along with Francesca’s adventurous musicianship and relatable songwriting make My Paper Heart an impressive debut. But even more important to Francesca than offering up a collection of catchy songs for the masses is speaking a message of truth and purpose.
“Ultimately, I want to be an encouragement as an artist and a fellow believer,” Francesca says. “The Lord has continually called me to do things that are outside my comfort zone, whether it was accompanying myself on guitar for the first time in front of seasoned players or packing up and moving to Nashville last year knowing hardly anybody. Still, He's never left me, and He constantly shows me that it's worth it. I have parents who pray and encourage me to be bold and to take bold steps for Christ. I don’t think that’s common enough in the Christian culture. We have these big dreams, but many aren’t willing to take the steps to go after them. Yet this is the moment. We’re not promised tomorrow. So today’s the day.”
