Music world

The new debut album of Mehrzad Marashi will be released on 11 June 2010. Its titled New Life and includes the singles Dont Believe and Sweat (La La La Long).

1. Don’t Believe
2. Everytime You Go Away
3. Roodie Roodie
4. You’re My Heart
5. Sweat (A La La La La Long)
6. You’re The One
7. Please Don’t Go
8. Saturday Night
9. I Love You
10. You And I
11. As Long As You Love Me
12. Here I Stand Mehrzad Marashi

The largest outdoor Christian music and teaching festival of its kind, Creation Festival is honored to announce that they have been named for a second time as CCM Magazine reader’s “Favorite Festival”. This accolade inspires the Festival even more to continue its tradition of featuring the hottest acts in Christian music, as well as highlighting up-and-coming artists and introducing audiences to the finest speakers across the nation.

Keeping their vision in mind, Creation is pleased to announce the line-up for its 30th Anniversary. “We are extremely honored and humbled to be voted the favorite festival by the readers of CCM, for a second time,” says Nick Kulb, Director of Marketing & Sales for Creation and its parent company Come Alive International. “Our staff works tirelessly year round to ensure we present two of the nation’s best festivals each summer – its always encouraging
to receive accolades along the way. 2008 will be no different, but will be even better!”

Creation Northeast will be held June 25th – 28th at the Agape Farm in the beautiful mountain ranges of Mount Union, PA., and Creation Northwest will be marking its 11th year at the amazing Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA July 23rd-26th. Tickets are available now through iTickets.com.

This year’s main stage line-up includes performances from a diverse array of artists such as Switchfoot, Newsboys, TobyMac, Jeremy Camp, Kutless, David Crowder Band, Skillet, Barlow Girl, Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche, Hawk Nelson, Leeland, industry veteran Phil Keaggy and new artists Fee, Worth Dying For and The Washington Projects.

Speakers include author Justin Lookadoo, Bob Lenz, Teen Mania Ministries founder Ron Luce, David Nasser and Jose Zayes.

The Tooth and Nail Records sponsored “X2008 Fringe Stage” will feature the best the in alternative Christian artists, including Superchic[k], Pillar, Sanctus Real, Stellar Kart, Red, Future of Forestry, The Afters, Ruth, Fireflight and 2007 “MTV2 Dew Circuit Breakout” winner The Myriad.

After the lights go down on the main stage, the entertainment continues at the Late Night Café. Wednesday night features comedian Paul Aldrich and critically acclaimed poet, Bradley Hathaway taking the stage on Thursday. A special event for Friday night will be announced soon.

An important focus for the Festival is worship and this summer is no different. Creation will partner with Integrity Music to provide an awesome time of praise and worship each afternoon. In addition, the worship tent will offer a training conference for worship leaders, musicians and writers each afternoon. With distinct seminar classes ranging from songwriting to hands-on training for bands, worship leaders and musicians will have a rare opportunity to come together
for teaching and fellowship.

The Creation Festival also strives to provide resources that will make the event an even better learning tool. Every afternoon there are special seminars on a variety of topics from keynote speakers. Again this year, Creation will team up with Interlinc to provide youth leaders with excellent seminars and other resources, including a daily afternoon seminar lead by Duffy Robins and Rich VanPelt, Talkback Sessions where Group Leaders can meet and have candid discussions with some of the most popular artists appearing at the Festival, and a VIP Youth Leader Tent, where leaders can get out of the sun, look through an assortment of free literature and other beneficial resources and share ideas with other Youth Leaders.

An event for the entire family, both Creation East and West also provide a Children’s Tent, which will feature a program geared especially for the younger attendees, including PureNRG, Phredd, Steven Courtney, The Reptile Guy and an array of puppets and fun music. Each afternoon, kids gather under the trees in the “Kids Grove” for a special craft time.

Special features for teens and adults include extreme games with climbing walls, spider jumps and sumo wrestling, a Skateboard and BMX ministry, a Gear Giveaway and a vendor Exhibit area with almost 200 booths with an assortment of merchandise and apparel available for purchase and ministries and colleges offering free literature and information.

“I am so excited and blessed to have been part of Creation for these 30 festival years,” exclaims Pastor Harry Thomas, co-founder of the Creation Festivals. “The public ministry of Jesus really began when he was thirty years of age. Likewise, I am praying that this year and future years are the most exciting and fruitful that we have ever seen for God’s glory.”

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary, the Festival plans to highlight special moments from the past three decades throughout the four-day event. Additionally, Festival planners are working on a few special surprises to be revealed at the event. An overview of memories from the past 30 years can be found on the Creation Festival website. A new addition for this year is the “Creation Road Crew”, a community where friends of the Festival can order promotional materials, see photographs, watch media, and earn Creation swag by telling friends about the Festival. Additional information about this street team and how to join will be available soon.

Read our review/photo feature of Creation 2007 here.
Visit the official Creation site for the full lineup here.

Female-fronted rock band Inhabited finds a new home at burgeoning indie label 7 Spin Music. The group is putting the finishing touches on its sophomore release, LOVE, releasing through 7 Spin Music on Feb. 26.

Downhere, one of Christian music’s premiere rock bands, is scheduled to release their first full-length holiday album, How Many Kings: Songs For Christmas, October 6, 2009. The new project was produced by Downhere and will be distributed by Word Distribution.

The idea to record their first Christmas CD grew over the years for Downhere as they performed several holiday concerts in their hometown of Franklin, TN, beginning in 2001. (Glenn Lavender is the only band member who still resides in Canada). Then the thought grew to fruition with the success of the single, “How Many Kings,” which went to #4 on the Christian AC charts in 2007, followed by the Bethlehem Skyline tour last year with their labelmates on Centricity Music.

How Many Kings: Songs For Christmas features the timeless classics of the Yuletide season that are recorded with the Downhere style. “Basically we made a giant list of Christmas songs and narrowed them down to our top choices, realizing that every one of them was at least a hundred years old,” says lead singer, Marc Martel. “We all really resonate with a love for good lyrics, the classic ones that are going to last, so we do a lot of really old Christmas carols. However, we also tried to make the old stuff sound new.”

How Many Kings: Songs For Christmas kicks-off with “How Many Kings” and flows into Christmas standards such as “God res Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Silent Night,” “What Child Is This,” and “We Wish You A Merry A Christmas,” to name a few. The songs are a mixture of fun and religious tunes but the majority of songs resonate with the true meaning of the season.

“We didn’t want to pack a whole Christmas record with ‘Jingle Bells,’ ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ or anything that was considered all that fluffy,” explains drummer Jeremy Thiessen. “We were very selective in wanting to pick songs that actually said something than simply ‘it’s Christmas let’s party!’ We’re just trying to get people to pay attention and unplug from all of the running around.”