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This is not a complete list of performers check back often for updates
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Erics BIO:
Eric Swackhamer has always been passionate in everything that he does. He grew up in Edinboro , Pennsylvania , and thoroughly enjoyed any type of athletic competition. During his later high school years he became more involved in his youth group and started to participate in the worship band. Over the next few years God worked in Erics life and has transformed him into the man of God that he is today. He now leads the worship for the student ministry of First Alliance Church in Erie , Pennsylvania , and has written close to twenty worship songs. You can truly hear his passion for God and the need for Him in his life in his songs Beside You and The Person Ive Become. Eric hopes that through his music people will truly see the importance of giving their entire life over to God.
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Warrens Bio:
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Warren Barfields sophomore album, Reach, is the result of a grueling internal struggle with catastrophic events. Grounded in blue-eyed soul and rich melodicism, its a 10-song collection of engaging hooks and gripping vocal work that demands involvement from the listener. And the album grows stronger with successive hearings, as the complex emotions in the lyrics become ever clearer. Reach effectively communicates the sensitivity and passion with which Barfield approaches his life and the timeless issues that accompany it.
Reach is the perfect title for the album. It symbolizes Barfields efforts at reaching for the proverbial brass ring as a creator, reaching out to the listener, reaching for answers about the purpose of life, and reaching for a place of inner peace no matter what answers those eternal questions bring. But the title also recognizes that Barfield has reached a new height in his career growth.
The Carolina-born singer-songwriter turned plenty of heads with his self-titled 2003 debut, delivering two top ten songs on the CCM charts, earning special recognition from Radio & Records magazine and contributing to a couple of Dove-nominated albums. Just as he was riding high, a combination of difficult events forced him to reevaluate that career, his life and his beliefs.
This record is talking myself through the last year or two of my life Barfield reflects. It's a lot of questions about things Ive faced in the career and the business world, a lot of things Ive faced in my personal life, things Ive faced with my family. Its just talking me through who I am and what I stand on.
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The messages may be grounded in personal experience, but theyre hardly confessional. There are no specific details of his unique journey. Instead, the songs are concessional, as he owns up to his doubts, his inadequacies and his fears. Barfield notes, My hope in all of this is that other people will go, Man, Im questioning the same things, and relate to it.
At first glance, it might seem difficult to think of Barfield as a man with reason for unease. After five years of self-determined apprenticeship in live venues across the country, he landed the deal that would launch his first self-titled album three years ago. The response to his voice - a commanding blend of Southern grit and bright soul-pop - was immediate. Within two months of the albums release, he topped the radio charts with My Heart Goes Out, following it with another Top 10 single, Mistaken. Radio & Records tabbed him as the #1 New Christian Artist of the Year, and he soon found himself on tour with Third Day, one of the bands that had inspired him on his rise from anonymity.
But life rarely goes smoothly, and Barfield encountered several potholes on his road to success. The most tragic one came in May 2004, when his sister, Rena, was involved in a catastrophic car accident. Her best friend of 13 years, who Warren says was like a member of their family, was killed instantly, her life ended before she reached age 28. Rena has since been told that she needs to have a leg amputated.
Man, he sighs, you get in your car to go to the mall, and in one instant, in one wrong decision on a road you have driven a thousand times before, everything you worked for in life, everything you thought you had, is gone.
Barfield saw the fleeting nature of circumstances not only in his personal life, but also in his career. His original record company folded just as he was beginning work on the second album. Another company resurrected the imprint, but the new label also fell by the wayside. Essential Records happily scooped him up, but even after he started on the album for the third time, the earlier disappointments hung over him.
A lot of the songs took on new meaning after all the uncertainty, Barfield says. Even when I started recording, I didnt have much confidence that I would get to finish the record. The history was that I was gonna get a phone call three songs in and have to stop, so when I got behind the microphone, I really went at it with a reckless-abandon kind of thing. I gave it everything I had.
As a result, Barfield grew significantly as a vocalist managing to walk the line between familiar and unique, infusing the material with pain, joy and urgency. Its an energy associated with classic soul, not surprising since that genre grew from a gospel tradition, the same kind of background that provided Barfields initial training.
I trace my sound back to growin up in Pentecostal churches, 'cause everybody sang real fiery, he says. My dad would sing standin on the pew with the blood vessels poppin out of his neck, preachin the lyric. When people say my music is soulful, I go Yeah, but to me its not Marvin Gaye soulful, its like Pentecostal. Really it comes from the same place. Its the same stuff It was through those churches that Barfield began his journey. His father was a minister at a succession of churches in North Carolina, and the entire family provided the music for those small congregations.
Along with igniting passionate vocals, Barfields recognition of his inability to remove uncertainty from his existence also provides lyrical depth and relevance to Reach. The opening Ill Be Alright and the earthy Head Held High grapple with defeat, the celebratory Unleashed and the freeing Shadow rechannel professional frustration into a constructive groove, while the reassuring Beyond The Walls and the exuberant Saved(co-written with country hitmaker Bryan White) find sense in the midst of confusion.
Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Marshall Altman, whod impressed Barfield with his efforts on behalf of singer-songwriter Marc Broussard, Reach makes its impact first as a musical statement, heavy on funk-pop and ingratiating melodies, with Barfield capturing the intensity of his concert vocals. Within that framework, Barfield pieced together a concise emotional journal that efficiently builds common ground with the listener.
If you listen to the first record, Im cramming so many words down your throat, he says. Every lyric, if you printed it out, would take up three pieces of paper. This time around, I wanted to be able to print three lyrics on one piece of paper. Instead of crammin all these words in, I was forced to really think about what I was saying. The words had to weigh more.
Given the bumpy road that Barfield traveled during the three years between his first album and Reach, he had plenty to communicate. His sisters accident and the weird twists in his business came with a series of emotional challenges. Strangely enough, in admitting his doubts and questioning his beliefs, Barfield tapped in to a stronger creative core. In the end, the songs confront the same uncertainty and disappointment in which most of the planet exists. But where others might view the tragedies and insecurities of life with despair, Barfield has never lost hope and that comes through convincingly in Reach.
Its been a crazy thing of What do I live for? he notes. If I live for success, if I live for a record deal, then Im probably gonna get a phone call tomorrow sayin the record label crashed. If I live for this record right here, the label could call me tomorrow and say its shelved, were not doin anything with it. If I live for even my wife, family, or friends, death could take them, and it can all be gone. What do I live for? I think thats a question Im still asking myself. Its a question I have to ask myself everyday. Thats what this record is about. I named it Reach because Im reaching to live for more than just temporary things. It is a struggle sometimes, but Im determined not to give up and sink down into the hopelessness. Reaching is an action. I want to reach up, to reach out, and to encourage others to do the same. The hope comes in knowing that were not the only ones making a move. He is reaching for us too.
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BIO: Tom Coverly
Tom Coverly is the "Cris Angel/David Blain" of Christian events. He has been performing magic illusions for 17 years and is founder of Holy Wow Ministries. Tom is a suburban Philadelphia kid, who never heard the name of Jesus until he was a teenager. Invited out to a youth event and seeing a Bible for the first time, Tom literally thought the youth pastor was swearing when he heard, "Jesus Christ". Tom soon discovered, that Jesus Christ is NOT a swear word but actually the Son of God and now Tom's best friend and savior God took a punk city kid who learned to handle everything with his fists .... to arming him with a Bible and now preaching to thousands about DECEPTION verses REALITY. Get ready to be blown away by what you see and hear. Tom makes it clear that magic is just an illusion and that Jesus is the only true reality.
Tom's inspiring life story will encourage you on how to live with passion for Jesus Christ despite our daily struggles and trials You will hear how God can take a MESS and turn it into a MESSAGE and a life of forgiveness for yourself and others He speaks with a creative edge that makes stories in the Bible come alive and seemingly leap out of the pages. Get ready to cry, laugh and be amazed all in one sitting. Having formerly been a youth pastor, Bible teacher, senior pastor and founder of a 44,000 SQ. FT non profit music venue and youth church, Tom understands people. His story will relate to your hurts, as well as those hilarious moments and victories we all experience Tom currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan and leads the divorce ministry at Mars Hill Bible Church.
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The John Jacobs Next Generation Power Force is blessed with a team of dedicated athlete-ministers on fire for the Lord. They bring a passion for the youth of this generation that reaches people where they are with the love of Christ.
www.johnjacobsnextgenerationpowerforce.com
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With the ever growing popularity of the X Games, Freestyle Motocross has become the fastest growing action sport in the world today. The Real Encounter FMX Team not only provides an amazing freestyle exhibition, more importantly, each member shares a love for Jesus and has a passion for pointing people to Him. Whether they are performing in a school or a community outreach event at a church, the Real Encounter FMX Team is sure to draw a crowd and leave them mesmerized!
http://www.premiereactionsports.com/
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BIO: Bob Holmes
Bob Holmes has played and beaten the Miami Dolphins, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Washington Redskins, the Buffalo Bills (three times), the Toronto Blue Jays, the New England Patriots, the Baltimore Orioles (with Cal Ripken and Jim Palmer), a first place beach volleyball team, Penn State, all the athletic teams of Texas A&M University, and many more.
Bob has faced more than 400,000 opposing players in front of more than three million people since 1986, and has conducted more than 5000 motivational assemblies. He has won more than 16,400 games with less than 400 losses.
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www.beatbob.com
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Bio: Meredith Andrews
Beneath her youthful exterior and fresh-faced exuberance, Andrews is a focused artist who knows exactly what she wants to say. She creates music that serves as a personal conduit for those seeking to worship God, and she also wants to remind others of God's desire to reach them. " God is extending an invitation to you, to you personally, calling you by name," she says. He knows where youve been and he knows your background. He knows your family situation. He knows the things you struggle with, but hes calling you by name and hes inviting you to come in and to meet with him and to know him.
Andrews felt the call into music ministry very early in life. Growing up in Wilson, NC, she started singing in church when she was only six-years-old. I remember the first song I ever sang in church was I Love You Lord, she recalls. Then me and my mom would go around to other churches in our area and sing Southern Gospel music.
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Andrews childhood love of music matured into a desire to lead worship. She learned to play piano, began writing songs and during her high school years, she began leading worship at her church. On Saturday nights, young people from all over the area would converge. That youth group thing we had on Saturday nights was called the Potters House and it was one of the most influential things in my life, she says. I learned what it really means to worship the Lord. Ill never forget that time in my life. It was just so powerful. All the kids that would come were just so hungry for the Lord and we would worship for an hour and then my youth pastor would speak and then wed worship for another hour or more. I remember there would be nights that the power of the Lord was so strong that Id be under my keyboard playing because I just couldnt stand. I couldnt stand anymore, just being so humbled and in the presence of the Lord. It was powerful and I will never forget that.
Andrews attended Liberty University where she majored in family and child development, and planned on working in an orphanage after graduation. She was born an only child, but her parents provided homes for many foster children. We had about 20 kids come through our home in a period of about 10 years, she recalls. We ended up adopting three of the boys. They are my brothers now. I forget they are adopted.
Seeing the impact her parents and their faith had on other children was an inspiration to Meredith and she had planned on a life of service, working to help children. However, during her junior year at Liberty, God revealed His plan for her life. It was an amazing time of worship, Andrews says. Looking out at the student body with their hands in the air, you could tell that the presence of the Lord was so sweet in that place. It was like the Lord just dropped something into my spirit saying This is it. This is it! This is what I called you to do. I remember thinking, This is the thing that makes me feel most alive. It is also the thing that I feel like the Lord takes the most delight in and I feel closest to him when Im doing it. That doesnt necessarily mean being in an arena leading worship, it also means when Im behind closed doors. Private worship must precede public worship. If what Im doing on stage isnt first birthed behind closed doors, then its inauthentic. I cant take people where I havent been with the Lord.
While leading worship at Liberty, a pastor from Chicagos 12,000 member Harvest Bible Chapel heard her and recruited Andrews to join his worship team. I went up there in April 2005, which was a month before I graduated from Liberty, Andrews recalls. They let me sing with the worship team and I just remember thinking this is a place where I can really grow and that night, they offered me a job.
Just as God led Andrews to Liberty University then on to Harvest Bible Chapel, he opened doors in Nashville that led her to sign with Word Records. I wasnt really looking for a record deal. It just fell in my lap, says Andrews. Im so humbled by it all. Its obvious that its the Lords hand and not my own
Though Andrews music ministry is poised to impact a national audience with the release of The Invitation, she continues serve where she feels God has planted her - leading worship at Harvest Bible Chapel. Additionally, her desire to help underprivileged children has never waned and shes established Meredith Andrews Ministries to aid orphans and children in need.
Meredith Andrews has seen the impact music can have on peoples lives, but its not her agenda she wants to share. Her songs are laced with scripture because of her passion for sharing the word of God. I never want to write songs just to write songs. I always want them to be about conveying the heart of God to people, whether they are people who walk with the Lord or people who dont walk with the Lord, she says. think the best way to do that is to do it through His word. I always want my songs to be infused with the word of God because if its my words, its null and void. What do I have to say to people that is going to change their lives? Nothing! But if it comes from the Lord, its thats whats going to change them.
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Bio: Eric Samuel Timm
Hes part artist, part speaker, and all passion - this is what gives Rev. Eric Samuel Timm relevance in todays changing landscape. Speaking, painting, and performing to thousands each year, creating with purpose, Eric captivates his audiences with a communication style and live art performances that are each unique. He is sought after for his ability to present God's truth in ways that are attractive both to the church and to people who arent in a current relationship with Christ. Eric will stir up what lays dormant and leave his audience inspired. Eric resides north of Minneapolis MN with his wife Danielle.
www.nooneunderground.com
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Bio: Iaoel
The story of Iaoel (eye-o-well) is a story about God, and his plan for the restoration of all things. The members of Iaoel have labored extensively to present God's plan of redemption from Genesis to Revelation through the experience of sound. Throughout history God has given his people visions or insight into the plans he was going to accomplish according to his own purpose. Simply put, thats what these songs are: visions that God has bestowed on his people describing what was, what is and what is to come. His plan for his glory. Iaoel's music cannot simply be dumbed down to the allocation of commercialism's panoramic status quo. Rather, it can only be described as an experience, one that is intensively passionate in its own conviction
www.Iaoel.com
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Michael Barnes (vocals)
Jasen Rauch (guitars)
Anthony Armstrong (guitar)
Randy Armstrong (bass)
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Still riding the momentum of its huge-selling Grammy-nominated debut album End of Silence, Red returns with Innocence & Instinct, a provocative new album forged in a perfect storm of inspiration and catastrophe. From the literary spark of Dante's Inferno to the bloody aftermath of a 75-mph highway crash, Red absorbed a flood of ideas and emotions that empowered the band to create next generation rock songs. Finding the sonic sweet spot where epic and primal converge, Innocence & Instinct features animated dynamics that super-charge its innocence vs. instinct theme.
Innocence & Instinct is about the duality of man, explains guitarist Jasen Rauch. The album examines the fight between our childlike innocence and the instinctive side that makes us do things we shouldnt.
The groups debut, which sold over a quarter-million copies and earned several awards and nominations, focused heavily on personal struggles. Bringing back Silence producer Rob Graves and mixer Ben Grosse (Sevendust, Disturbed, Depeche Mode), Innocence & Instinct goes a giant step further by tackling the fight itself. Its about the dueling impulses that wage war within our souls.
In writing the album, Red found Inferno to be an illuminating guide. The literary classic, which starts with Dante and Virgil standing before the Gates of Hell, illustrated ways in which the band might tackle deep issues in a more poetic way. And if Dante enhanced the storytelling, a highway crash in late 07 accelerated the bands emotional core. As the tour van smashed into a guardrail and violently slid sideways across the highway, the band experienced new heights of horror that they channeled into Innocence & Instinct.
It brought an intensity and depth that we couldnt reach without going through this experience, Rauch reflects. In the months after the accident, it felt like everything was in overdrive.
In a split second, it changed our lives adds six-stringer Anthony Armstrong, whose twin brother Randy handles the bands basslines.
Setting the tone early, Fight Inside rides beautiful piano keys to an unforgettable chorus as glaring agitation builds to a savage finish. The song epitomizes the albums effortless transitions between simmering angst, melodic hooks and pretty major-key resolves, while its inner-monologue sets up the lyrical theme by cursing the frail duality of innocence and instinct. Death of Me furthers the first-person schizophrenia as vocalist Michael Barnes cries You tear me down and then you pick me up against a backdrop of deafening guitars, sweeping symphonics and nerve-rattling screams. Shadows, co-written by Ben Burnley of Breaking Benjamin, pushes against the darkness while Out From Under could be called Fight Club with guitars.
There are moments that switch between never feeling so close to someone to never feeling so abandoned, but that's part of the human experience, says Rauch. These extreme feelings, these paradoxes, coexist all the time.
While several songs veer toward an internal apocalypse, Never Be the Same personifies Innocence with optimistic reflections poured out over lush fields of electric and acoustic guitars. The piano-powered Start Again addresses the conflicted remorse of a failed relationship, while Mystery of You ponders the inexplicable over industrial-strength loops and keys. Innocence & Instinct even features a juiced-up cover of Duran Durans utopian Ordinary World.
Formed in Nashville, Tennessee over four years ago, Red made an immediate impact with its 2006 debut, End of Silence. The Grammy-nominated disc, featuring the radio hits Breathe Into Me (Top 10, Active Rock) and Already Over (Top 15, Active Rock), introduced the sonic layering, rich orchestration and visceral dynamics that became Reds signature sound. The album steadily built momentum cracking the Billboard 200 a year after its release as sales steadily broke out to hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Not surprisingly, the album became a hit with other bands as well, leading to tours and shows with Papa Roach, Sevendust, Three Days Grace, Flyleaf, Buckcherry and Seether, among others. These opportunities contributed to the bands impressive 500+ live show schedule between albums.
Heading into Innocence & Instinct, Red had no shortage of creative sparks. A near-death accident ignited their emotions, a literary masterpiece spurred their creativity, peer support lifted their spirits, heavy touring empowered their performances and fans challenged the group to do even more to impact their lives. These experiences infused Innocence & Instinct with layered narratives, heightened sensibilities and an artistic boldness that dramatically raises the bar for new millennial rock n roll.
In Dantes Inferno, the Gates of Hell read, Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. But when the Gates finally face Innocence & Instinct, Hell wont know what hit it.
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