Jesusfreakhideout.com Music News: March 2002

March, 2002

*Friday, March 29th, 2002*

On Friday (today), March 29th at 8:20 AM EST, Steven Curtis Chapman will be on CNN Headline News with both an interview and a live performance. This appearance with help promote his best-selling album Declaration, new DVD and current Live Out Loud tour. On the show, Steven will also talk about the explosion of Christian music over the past year.

CeCe Winans and the Winans family will be guests for the whole hour on the Friday, March 29th edition of Oprah. The show will focus on the upcoming three-month spring "Winans Family Tour," which features the entire Winans family, and help usher in the Easter holiday. The original Winans group, Mom & Pop Winans, Angie & Debbie Winans, Daniel Winans and Winans Phase 2 will all perform during the show. CeCe will sing "No One" from her Grammy-winning CD CeCe Winans. Oprah Winfrey has gone on record as saying that BeBe & CeCe Winans are her favorite gospel singers.

Skillet will be featured this Easter Sunday, March 31, on PAX TV's Luis Palau Television special. The program, televised nationally at 3 pm Eastern and Pacific, 2 pm Mountain and Central, will broadcast portions of Skillet's performance at last year's Beachfest Santa Cruz (September 22-23, 2001) event. Happening just weeks after September 11, some 55,000 people packed the beach for Palau's annual Santa Cruz festival, one of the largest events ever staged on a northern California beach to date. During the two-day Beachfest, music fans listened to artists' references to the tragic events of September 11 through their songs, including Skillet's No. 1 CHR hit "You Are My Hope." In addition to a full Gospel message from Palau and Skillet's performance, other featured artists include Jaci Velasquez, Kirk Franklin, Crystal Lewis and dc Talk.

Known as the label home for top-selling artists like Jars of Clay and Third Day, Essential Records celebrates its 10-year anniversary. To mark the occasion, the label has developed "Essential Hits 10," a trade-and consumer-friendly campaign to be realized in partnership with retail, radio, media and Internet entities. Founded by Essential Records' President Robert Beeson in 1992 for the purpose of pursuing relevant music, Essential Records is a crossroads for conventionally divergent ideas, marking the spot where unique artistry meets commercial appeal and building community meets business success. Over the last decade, Essential has grown from a staff of one, Beeson, to an efficient team of 15. Battling a competitive corporate market, the label has experienced 15-20 percent growth over the last two to three years and in 2001 claimed the fourth largest Christian retail market share, according to SoundScan. Congrats guys!

Congratulations to dc Talk for their 1998 album Supernatural being certified Platinum (selling 1 million copies) on February 21st!

Dove Award nominee for New Artist of the Year Joy Williams recently appeared on the 10th Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Awards in Los Angeles, presenting the award for Best 2001 Movie for Mature Audiences and performing two songs from her debut album. The prestigious MOVIEGUIDE Awards were held at The Skirball Center in Los Angeles. Upon arriving on the red carpet, Joy was photographed with actors and producers and interviewed by such media outlets as the Hollywood Reporter, "Entertainment Tonight" "Inside Edition" and the New York Post.

Creative Trust Entertainment, the artist managers of Steven Curtis Chapman, Third Day and Mark Schultz, has announced the formation of a new record label, Creative Trust Workshop. The first recording on the new label is Traveling Light: Songs From The 23rd Psalm (a stand-alone companion to Max Lucado's best-selling book Traveling Light) which will release April 16. Traveling Light is co-produced by Dove Award winning producers Brown Bannister (My Utmost For His Highest, Steven Curtis Chapman) and Steve Hindalong (City On A Hill 1 & 2) who are both nominated this year for Producer Of The Year. The album features Amy Grant, dc talk's Michael Tait, Jaci Velasquez, Third Day's Mac Powell, Russ Taff, Sara Groves, PFR's Joel Hanson, Fleming & John, The Choir's Derri Daughtery, Adore, Ashley Cleveland, and platinum selling country artist Bryan White.

As Memphis-based Brother's Keeper currently garners acclaimed media attention for its sophomore release, Cover Me, the band continues to build its relationship and support for Chick-fil-A, one of the nations largest quick-serve restaurant chains, and Christian Blind Mission International (CBMI), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals with sight disabilities throughout the world. Brother's Keeper recently performed before more than 1,000 Chick-fil-A operators during the restaurant's annual seminar held this year at Nashville's Opryland Hotel. The band impressed many restaurant operators with its similar mission of accountability, garnering a partnership for a major street-week promotion this week. Several Chick-fil-A markets will stuff more than 100,000 flyers into food bags with a $2.00-off coupon toward the purchase of Cover Me.

tobyMac, who is currently up for eight Dove Awards, will be making an appearance on the PAX televised show. He will be performing “J Train,” from his solo album Momentum. Rebecca St. James will also be filling a performance slot on the Doves, singing a portion of her hit single, “Breathe” during a tribute to the worldwide spread of Christian Music.

*Saturday, March 23rd, 2002*

The Newsboys will be performing an exclusive concert at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 25th in Cleveland, Ohio to launch the release of their new studio album Thrive, which will hit stores the following day. This release week concert special, tentatively titled "Thrive: Live from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame," will air in prime time on PAX TV at 9:00 PM CST on April 20th and will showcase songs from the bands new release as well as past favorites. In addition to the capacity crowd of 1,500 fans expected to attend, an additional 60-plus million households will be able to watch this concert event via PAX TV. This is the first Prime Time concert special for a Christian rock band on a national network of this size. For our take on Thrive, read the JfH review.

The OC Supertones will begin recording their new studio album in May with veteran producers Charlie Peacock (Switchfoot, Audio Adrenaline) and Brent Bourgeois (Bourgeois Tagg, Jaci Velasquez)! The new album will be released this Fall. In the meantime, pick up the Supertones Live, Vol. 1 album, which hits store shelves everywhere this Tuesday, 3/26! For our take on the live album, read the JfH review. Also, The OC Supertones were nominated for the Orange County Music Awards (to be held on March 30th at The Galaxy Theater) for best "pop rock" band. Other nominees included Project 86 for best "hard rock" band and Starflyer 59 for best "indie rock" band. There were hundreds of entries evidently, so many congratulations are in order for these great bands.

Jason & Julie Martin (Starflyer 59, Bon Voyage) just became parents to a baby boy. This is their second child and they were expecting a girl. Instead they were happily surprised with Charlie James Martin. Congratulations guys!

Fusion hip-hop artist tobyMac will be opening for the multi-platinum, award-winning group No Doubt at the fifth annual Best Buy Nashville River Stages on May 4th, one stop on his upcoming tour to support his successful solo debut, momentum. For the first time without his dc talk band mates, tobyMac will hit the road for nearly 30 dates this spring. The tour, featuring tobyMac’s 5-piece band, [including background vocalist Nirva Dorsaint, a scratch DJ and dancer], will launch on April 2nd in Wichita, KS. tobyMac also recently performed at the Fun In the Son Festival in Ochos Rios, Jamaica.

More CCM babies are on the way! In a recent Skillet newsletter, lead singer and founding member John Copper announced that his wife Korey is pregnant! " We decided this year that it is time for us to go for it," said John. Skillet life is probably going to change, but I'm excited to be a father." Congradulations to John and Korey!

Rebecca St. James is finalizing the cover of her new "Wait For Me" book will plans for release in August. Also, in promotion of her amazing new worship album Worship GOD, The Worship God Fall Tour will get underway mid-September. It will include Fusebox, Rivertribe (an instrumental worship band from Australia), Chris Tomlin and the Passion Band, plus Charmaine.

The Kry are working on plans for a new album. Here's what they posted on TheKry.com: "While there are some things in the works, we are not keeping anything a secret... there are just no definite and final plans at this time. One thing we do know is that we would like to do a worship album. We are ready and willing to record the next album and God is doing some neat things to make us think that time may be soon."

If you've been in the GAP recently, you may have noticed that Superchic[k]'s song "One Girl Revolution" has been added to their in-store playlist. Superchic[k] has started working on their next CD, and their new song "Real" can be heard at some of their concerts. The band can also be seen on some TV broadcasts this weekend. The “Making The Band” episode using Superchick’[s] song “Not Done Yet” airs tonight Saturday, March 23, 9pm EST. They will also be the special guests on Real Videos, also tonight, at 11:30 PM CST. For more Superchick news including a list of new endorsements, check out their website at www.superchick.net.

The other half of the Dove Award host slot is now filled. NFL MVP and former Super Bowl winning quarterback Kurt Warner will work with the likes of Dove and Grammy winning artist Yolanda Adams as host for the 33rd Annual Dove Awards. The awards will air live on Thursday, April 25th on PAX TV at 9 PM Eastern. This will be the first live broadcast for the awards as well as the first live two hour pre-show sponsored by Dove Hits 2002.

dctalksolo.com has debuted a brand new Tait song entitled "Following Me" which will be featured on the Traveling Light: Songs From The 23rd Psalm compilation record which will serve as a stand-alone companion to Max Lucado's best-selling book Traveling Light. The album will also feature Amy Grant, Jaci Velasquez, Third Day's Mac Powell, Russ Taff, Sara Groves, PFR's Joel Hanson, Fleming & John, The Choir's Derri Daughtery, Adore, Ashley Cleveland, and platinum selling country artist Bryan White. tobyMac also aided producers Brown Bannister and Steve Hindalong in the songwriting.

Modern worship band Unveiled is currently in the recording studio. A six song EP titled Unveiled: Worship ExPerience is expected to release during the summer, with the full-length CD Unveiled: FACE releasing this fall. For more information about Unveiled, surf on over to www.unveiledface.com

Rumors have been floating around about this, but it has been confirmed that P.O.D. will be one of the headliners at this Summer’s Ozzfest. Hopefully the boys will use this as a chance to bring the Gospel to a highly unlikely crowd.

Charlie Peacock is now Interim Head of A&R at ForeFront Records. This will in no way hinder his solo music as well as production efforts.

Eddie DeGarmo of Degarmo and Key and Forefront Records fame is now the president of EMI Christian Music Publishing (EMI CMP). He will oversee business development signing bands, developing them, and working with copyrighting and catalogs. He will also work more with the label's music in film, television, and commercials as well as A&R teams.

MTV has asked indie pop rock act Pacifico to contribute a song for the soundtrack to the new television show The Osbournes. They had already given a few tracks to the upcoming show The Sausage Factory.

Harcore band Extol has signed to Century Media Records. This is arguably one of the biggest metal labels in the world.

*Monday, March 18th, 2002*

After Squint Entertainment went through some turmoil last year, with even losing its founder Steve Taylor, Sixpence None the Richer's long awaited follow-up to their 1997 self-titled record continues to be delayed. Now with the music basically two years old, the album, entitled Divine Discontent is set to release (hopefully) around June 18th this year. "Sometimes I wish that Sixpence was more of an indie band that could release a CD every year, that didn't have to conform to radio and the need for 'smash hits.'" founding member Matt Slocum told The Nashville Scene last month. "Our record is now 2 years old, and they are still asking for more... I'm not sure when we will see a release, but I'm certain it will be this year." It's being said that additional tracks may be added to the record to "freshen it up a bit," but the album will release exclusively on Squint to the Christian market.

Relient K's "Sadie Hawkins" (from their album The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek) will be featured on the WB's "Smallville" tomorrow -- Tuesday, March 19th. Check your local listing for times.

For those of you expecting its release in April, Stacie Orrico’s next project, Say it Again, has been delayed until August.

Multi-Platinum, multi-GRAMMY and Dove Awards winning band Jars of Clay has for the third consecutive time captured the No. 1 position on the SoundScan compiled Top Christian Retail chart with the March 5 debut of The Eleventh Hour. The recording also landed in the top 30 of the Billboard Top 200.

The September 11th tribute album for Todd Beamer has been pushed back... way back. Let's Roll will now be out on September 10th, 2002. It will definitely be worth the wait with the latest creation from dc Talk and Jennifer Knapp.

Our indie rock friends from Sanctus Real have officially signed a record deal with Sparrow Records. They are now in Nashville recording with Pete Stewart at Audio Adrenaline's own studio.

If you pick up the latest issue of Spin Magazine, you may see a familiar face. Sonny of P.O.D. will grace the cover after they were chosen as one Top 40 "bands that matter".

Adding to recent news on the band Redline: It was posted that the band had changed their name to Radium -- easier said than done. An independent California-based (also Christian) band already had the name for a few years but no patent was ever made. Hopefully no legal troubles will ensue. More news to come as it develops but there is no "official" name change as of yet. The older Radium website is www.radiumrock.com. Redline's site is www.redlineplanet.com.

tobyMac will be making a pretty cool Nashville appearance. On May 4th, he’ ll play the outdoors Nashville Riverstages, opening for No Doubt.

If you thought you were going crazy when you saw Mark Salomon and Neil Samoy, of Stavesacre, on the X-Ecutoiners video "What's Goin Down," you'll be just fine. The guys were invited by Joe Hahn, the song's director and DJ as well as the disc jockey for Linkin Park, to be at the taping. Be sure to check this video, out now, in current rotation on MTV2.

On July 2, you can pick up Contact, the sophomore release from The Benjamin Gate, as well as the new compilation album, Left Behind Worship: God With Us, which is simultaneously release with The Remnant, the tenth book in the Left Behind series.

Reunion Records welcomes southern California rock band Daily Planet to its artist roster. The debut album from Daily Planet, entitled Hero, is slated to release to the CBA market on August 20, 2002. Hero captures its modern rock/pop sound reminiscent of bands like Jars of Clay, Dave Matthews Band, Lifehouse, matchbox twenty and Creed.

Million-selling, Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Jennifer Knapp was featured in this past weekend's edition of the Wall Street Journal. In the article, the artist speaks honestly and boldly about her career, life and future. If you are a subscriber, you may also read the article online at www.wsj.com.

On April 2nd, Punk Goes Pop. Fearless Records will be releasing a compilation of that same title with covers of songs you love to hate from bands you love to love. Notable songs are Stretch Arm Strong - Pink's "Get This Party Started," Further Seems Forever - N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye," Element 101 - Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like A Bird," Noise Ratchet - Mandy Moore's "Crush," and Slick Shoes - Moore's "Candy." You can also look forward to Rufio, The Starting Line, Thrice, and much more as well as covers of Madonna, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and again many more.

There are two new members of the Tooth and Nail family. North Carolina hardcore wonderkids Beloved have signed to Solid State Records. They have an EP out on Vindicated Records; be sure to pick that up now. Also, Chad Johnson, head of Takehold Records has taken over the A&R Department for T&N. Takehold is not a distant memory, as of yet. T&N has licensed most of the material and Chad will hopefully keep the fine indie label going.

Hey Creation goers and MercyMe fans! It was announced last week that the pop band MercyMe has been added to the Creation East and Creation West festival lineups! For more information about these festivals, surf on over to www.creationfest.com!

*Tuesday, March 12th, 2002*

Get The O.C. Supertones Live Vol 1 disc plus a limited edition DVD at BEST BUY and Berean Stores for a limited time! BEC / Tooth & Nail recording artists The O.C. Supertones will release their first live record March 26th! The O.C. Supertones have long been known for their energetic live shows and all of the energy and sweat have been captured on one disc entitled Live Vol 1. You can be one of the few people to own the limited edition CD/DVD package if you go to any Best Buy or Berean location on Tuesday March 26th. This special package includes a bonus DVD with 3 videos! But Hurry! Supplies are limited! You can also pre-order or order from BestBuy.com by clicking on the following link: http://www.bestbuy.com/MandM/ProductInfo.asp?ST=11120472&m=254

Superchic[k]'s "One Girl Revolution" is the opening theme song of Cadet Kelly, a Disney Channel original movie. "One Girl Revolution" is also heard again later in the film. The premiere was Friday, March 8 at 8:00 p.m. EST, 7:00 p.m. CST on the Disney Channel. Also, Superchic[k]'s "Not Done Yet" will close the season ending show of Making The Band on MTV. The episode airs Saturday, March 18 at 9:00 p.m. EST, 8:00 p.m. CST on MTV.

Alisa Girard, Chrissy Conway and Kristin Swinford, better known as ZOEgirl, have not slowed down since their sophomore release, Life, released in November on Sparrow Records. Life has already scanned over 173,000 units, and combined with their self-titled debut release, ZOEgirl has already scanned close to half a million units. ZOEgirl’s new high impact video for the song “Dismissed,” filmed in Hollywood, CA, was directed by Brandon Dickerson (Newsboys, Switchfoot, Delirious) and choreographed by Tony Michaels (Jennifer Lopez). Michaels also appears in the video with ZOEgirl along with their backup dancers from their concert tours.

Further Seems Forever is on the road again, this time with Hot Rod Circuit. When they get back home to Florida they are shooting a video for the song "Snowbirds & Townies". After that it's back to the studio with James Wisner to record their sophomore album.

From joyelectric.com: Joy Electric is preparing (in a little less than a month) for the first leg of The White Songbook tour. On that tour they will be selling copies of a new EP they are releasing on Plastiq Musiq called Starcadia. It's got 5 tracks on it and Ronnie says "The theme of the EP is very late 1970's, futurist, electro-disco. It's all 100% analogue as always, but with a very trashy, lo-fi sound to go with the era I was sort of emulating." Ronnie was interviewed and featured in the March 2002 issue of Keyboard magazine. Finally, Ronnie just completed an album for a new side band called Shepherd. The sound is ultra sparse, 70's influenced indie pop in the vein of Pedro The Lion, Red House Painters, Wheat, Fleetwood Mac... you get the picture. The album was produced and played by Ronnie with Frank Lenz on drums and Chris Colbert who engineered and mixed. There were no synthesizers used. The album, which is titled Committing To Tape will be released on Tooth & Nail sometime later this year.

PAX217 recently performed a show in New York City and were able to go down to see Ground Zero. “It was very powerful,” stated band member Bobby Duran, “you just couldn’t hold back the tears.” PAX217 is preparing for the release of their sophomore project, Engage. Look for it in stores on May 21st.

The final songs for Bleach's new record were mixed this past weekend, and mastering will take place this week. Richard Dodd is handling the mastering duties. The band is trying to work it out to put a few of the songs on a disc and have them to sell at summer festivals. If this happens, we can be sure get some appetizers before the full entrée later this year.

Solid State Records's Still Breathing will be featured in the next issue of Revolver Magazine. The magazine is doing a feature on women in metal and Still Breathing will be featured along side bands such as Otep and Arch Enemy. The band's Solid State debut, September will be on shelves April 23rd!

Life Today With James Robison will be dedicating an entire week of programming to Reunion Records artist Kathy Troccoli during this week. Running from March 11 to 14, the show's programming will focus on Troccoli's ministry to women. Three of the four shows incorporate special guests talking about how Kathy's ministry has impacted their lives, including author Beth Moore. Life Today With James Robison is broadcast each weekday to more than 120 million households in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia.

Essential Records artist FFH teamed up with Missouri-based ministry Basket of Hope, St. Louis radio station JOYFM and the Kurt Warner First Things First Foundation to bring music to children diagnosed with cancer or other serious illness. The group recently performed a special concert at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis, where Rams quarterback, and FFH enthusiast, Kurt Warner and his wife Brenda stopped by to visit with the children and hear the band.

Kirk Franklin's been making his rounds on television. Kirk brightened up a chair on the show Politically Incorrect on March 5th. Also, last night he made his appearance on the Late Night with Jay Leno show!

After years of planning and prayer the birth of a new gospel label, Slave Records was unveiled in January with much expectation. Slave Records was conceived from a passionate vision held by gospel legend, Andraé Crouch, who will serve as President of the label. Crouch has been a giant in the music business for over thirty years. His credits, awards, and the artists he has worked with reads like a virtual “who’s who” in the music industry. His music is known and loved around the world. With the launching of Slave Records, Andraé Crouch will be taking his influence in the industry to a whole new level. Drawing from his rich resources and innumerable gifts, the future of this new label will certainly be an exiting one.

*Thursday, March 7th, 2002*

Rebecca St. James appears to be just what TV's been waiting for. Oxygen network's Daily Remix on Saturday, March 23rd (at roughly 11pm Central), "Wait For Me" will be the show's "Video Birth". This is the last show of the season and then it goes into repeats, so you're guaranteed to see at least 2 airings! Also, the WB Network wants in on the action. The video will air on their network of owned stations, not all of the broadcast stations - estimated audience of 7.5 million homes. The video will air during their afternoon kids programming between 3:30-5pm and will be the "day's featured video". Many mainstream artists have had their videos aired in this segment, so this is very cool! The show receives a lot of emails related to these video airings, so if you happen to catch the video, make sure that The WB knows you're glad they aired the video! We'll keep you posted on times and dates for the airing!

PAX-TV will present a second airing of "Celebrating America's Musical Heritage - A Salute to Gospel Music" Saturday, March 9. President George W. Bush and Laura Bush hosted the concert at the White House in the East Room on February 14. The Gospel Music Association (GMA) is producing the program for the White House. Recording artists CeCe Winans and Michael W. Smith serve as emcees for the concert which features performances from fellow gospel artists Shirley Caesar, Blind Boys of Alabama, Gaither Vocal Band, Jump5, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jaci Velasquez, The Martins, Twila Paris, Yolanda Adams and the D.C. area Ministers of Music. PAX-TV's expanded two-hour presentation of this event will be shown on Saturday, March 9, at 10 p.m. EST/PST (9 p.m. CST).

Two-time GRAMMY Award winner and 11-time nominee, Michael W. Smith, met up with musical legends Billy Joel and Tony Bennett at this year's 44th Annual GRAMMY Awards . (All three artists appeared on the live telecast which aired February 27 on CBS.) The nominated Smith presented the last musical performance of the evening, featuring a tribute to this year's Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Reverend Al Green. The all-star Gospel performance included Smith, Brian McKnight, CeCe Winans, Andre Crouch, and Reverend Green himself. For shots of Smitty hanging with the celebs, choose from the following: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

28-year-old percussionist Lori Peters, from Ardent Records' 2002 multi-Dove Award nominated and top rock band Skillet, will be a featured artist in Modern Drummer. With 15 years of experience, 2 years professionally with Skillet, Peters' drumming skills will be highlighted in the June issue's "On the Move" section. "This is a great opportunity to further Skillet's image as a relevant and positive rock band," says Peters. "I am privileged to represent Skillet and what it stands for. Our music passionately reveals our love for God and our goal as a band is to tell people of all ages that Christ can change their lives if they're willing to lay it down-then we rock in their faces Skillet style!" With an endorsement from Vic Firth, the largest drumstick manufacturer in the world, Peters hopes to build relationships with other highly regarded percussion companies throughout her career. She will continue to standout as an elite drummer as Skillet constantly tours, with more than 200 shows per year, across the U.S. and throughout the world, including such countries as Canada, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. Rock on, Lori!

Kevin Max recently “crossed the pond” to promote Stereotype Be and his autobiography, Unfinished Work in Europe. Beginning this past Monday, Kevin headed to London and will also visit Holland, Norway and Germany over the course of 11 days.

The Benjamin Gate are still enjoying mainstream success in Sweden! After being added to several mainstream radio “A” playlists, the Gate’s video for “All Over Me” has just been added to one of their top video programs, Voxtopp. Not only is their video being played on this station, but the video has made it to their Top Ten list which is voted on by their viewers. According to overseas sources, to their knowledge, they do not believe an international Christian band has ever been on Voxtopp’s Top Ten list before!

To add to the Grammy winners list, Yolanda Adam's record, The Experience, won for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel album.

On April 9th, Sparrow Records will release Dove Hits 2002: 16 of the Year's Best Dove Award-Nominated Artists and Songs. A definite highlight will be the song "In God We Trust." Inspired by the events of September 11th, it was written by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Mark Heimermann and features vocalists Amy Grant, Audio Adrenaline, CeCe Winans, dc Talk, Jaci Velasquez, Michael W. Smith, Phil Keaggy, Point of Grace, Steven Curtis Chapman, ZOEgirl, and many, many others. For a complete list of artists, as well as a chance to download the entire track, go to http://www.todayschristianmusic.com/igwtspecial.htm

Reigning Gospel Music Association "Artist" and "Group" of the year and seven-time Dove Award nominee on the 2002 ballot, Third Day has now logged 11 sellouts on its 51-city Come Together tour that launched Feb. 15 in Greensboro, NC. In addition to attending the concert, Third Day fans are helping the band raise money for Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI). With each ticket purchase, they are assisting Third Day and HFHI, a non-profit ecumenical Christian housing ministry, to build eight homes worldwide during 2002. Third Day has committed to building three of these homes in cities across the United States, including Nashville, Tenn., West Palm Beach, Fla. and their hometown of Atlanta, Ga. Fans are further joining the cause by signing up to volunteer for HFHI in their local communities. Third Day members are also putting their own muscle into the work of HFHI. While back in San Antonio on Feb. 25 for their second encore concert appearance, band members put sweat equity into a brand new Habitat home alongside a group of college students from Minnesota who gave up their spring break to work on the project. For a picture of Brad Avery and David Carr in action, click here!

Known for developing a new standard of worship music that spurred on to what is now known as the 'modern worship movement,' Sparrow Records group Delirious is hitting the road with the Deeper USA Tour along with opening act Worship Together artist Matt Redman and newcomers Everyone. In support of their recent release Deeper: The D:finitive Worship Experience, a collection featuring their modern worship classics, Delirious will visit 20 key markets including Chicago, St. Paul, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, and Orlando, to name a few. The band unveiled their Deeper Tour in the UK in January of 2002. The US leg kicks off this weekend and will include live performances in key markets in Canada as well.

Steven Curtis Chapman fans can now get a strong dosage of SCC in a small package. Check out Sparrow Records new vPop service! This mini website features information on Chapman's latest project Declaration as well as his brand new DVD/video collection The Videos which released last week. As if that weren't enough, there are also photos, wallpaper, AOL buddy icons and more! Check it out here!

Slick Shoes will be featured on Blink 182's May Atticus clothing line compilation on Side One Dummy Records. They will be with the likes of Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, Green Day, Alkaline Trio, and many others. It is rumored that Slick have become friends with Blink 182 seeing as they are endorsed by Atticus Clothing. They may appear on the upcoming Pop Disaster tour, which will feature Blink, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, and Saves The Day.