Music world

GRAMMY-nominated rock band Pillar has unveiled dates for its 3-month, “For the Love of the Game” Tour, sponsored by World Vision, TVU and RadioU. Christian music’s leading rock band will kick-off its ninth headlining tour in Palos Heights (Chicago), Ill. on Feb. 22, 2008. Named for Pillar’s upcoming album, which will hit stores Feb. 26, 2008, the full tour line-up is: Pillar,

Building 429, Wavorly and introducing Brooke Barrettsmith. All dates are listed below and additional dates are still being added. For the most up-to-date schedule, visit www.pillartour.com.

Pillar has started 2008 in an awesome way: earning its first GRAMMY nomination (Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album for The Reckoning), having its music played on numerous ESPN sports programs, achieving its ninth No. 1 radio single (“For the Love of the Game”), and gearing up for the release of its fifth album (For the Love of the Game) and ninth headlining tour.

Pumped about his band’s ninth headlining tour, Pillar lead vocalist, Rob Beckley, exclaims, “I have never been so excited to get out on a tour! Over the last 10 years we’ve been on the road a lot, doing numerous headlining tours and we’ve had the privilege of playing in many types of venues, and for different types of crowds. This is going to be the most fun we’ve had on stage in our decade of touring – guaranteed!”

Word Records artist Building 429 debuted in 2004 with “Glory Defined,” a song that hit No. 1 on eight different charts and became BMI’s 2005 Song of the Year for Christian music. The band received four Dove Award nominations and was named the GMA’s “New Artist of the Year” in 2005. Building 429 has toured with Casting Crowns, tobyMac, Jeremy Camp and BarlowGirl, among others, and frontman Jason Roy acted as a spokesperson for 2004’s Redeem the Vote, with appearances on “Fox News Live,” CNN and ABC’s “Nightline.” The band’s third full-length record, Iris To Iris, released in May 2007. For more information, visit www.building429.com.

Wavorly burst onto the national scene in 2007 with their Flicker Records debut, Conquering the Fear of Flight. The highly-acclaimed album is a sprawling modern rock masterpiece. It blends elements of alternative, classic progressive, indie and hard rock with highly literate lyrics, a boldly imaginative use of strings and a sublime sense of melody. Go to www.wavorly.com for further information.

Christian rocker Brooke Barrettsmith captivates audiences with her passionate vocals and straightforward lyrics about faith and relationships. Growing up a pastor’s daughter in Chicago, Brooke first started singing in church with her siblings. Since then, she has shared the stage with artists such as Toby Mac, Audio Adrenaline, Jeremy Camp and Steven Curtis Chapman. As a top 40 finalist on “American Idol Season 5” in 2006, Brooke has been championed by local Chicago TV and print outlets and has received hometown support performing at various local events including White Sox games. Brooke’s debut album on Essential Records will be released in June. Visit www.myspace.com/brookebarrettsmith for further information.

Catch Pillar’s “For the Love of the Game” Tour in one of the following cities:

*Tour dates, cities, and venues subject to change without notice

Friday, 2/22 Palos Heights, IL Harvest Bible Chapel

Saturday, 2/23 Minneapolis, MN Club 3 Degrees

Sunday, 2/24 Ashby, MN Destiny Center

Monday, 2/25 Sioux Falls, SD Southern Hills United Methodist Church

Tuesday, 2/26 North Platte, NE Community Playhouse

Thursday, 2/28 Tulsa, OK The Otherside

Friday, 2/29 Fort Worth, TX The Door

Saturday, 3/1 San Antonio, TX Tri-Point Club

Sunday, 3/2 Weatherford, TX Faith Family Fellowship

Tuesday, 3/4 Joplin, MO The Foundry Music Theatre

Friday, 3/7 Knoxville, TN Knoxville Christian Center

Wednesday, 3/12 Prestonburg, KY Mountain Arts Center

Thursday, 3/13 Springfield, IL iWorship Center

Friday, 3/14 Orion, MI The District Venue

Saturday, 3/15 Cincinnati, OH The Underground

Sunday, 3/16 Van Wert, OH Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio

Wednesday, 4/2 Carlsbad, NM Walter Gerrells Performing Arts Center

Sunday, 4/6 Merced, CA Yosemite Church

Friday, 4/11 Seattle, WA Royal Brougham Pavilion – Seattle Pacific University

Saturday, 4/12 Portland, OR New Hope Community Church

Sunday, 4/13 Spokane, WA The Service Station

Since Pillar’s Dove Award-winning debut Above in 2001, the band has tallied nine No. 1 radio singles, 12 top five hits, a GRAMMY nomination, three Dove Awards, eight national headlining tours, covers of numerous national magazines and album sales approaching one million. For the Love of the Game

(Feb. 26, 2008) is the band’s fifth, full-length studio project. Pillar is: Rob Beckley, vocals; Lester Estelle, drums; Noah Henson, guitar; and Kalel, bass.

Find more information at www.pillarmusic.com and www.myspace.com/pillar

Read our interview with Pillar here.

After a few changes in the tune and the lyrics, the much awaited and much delayed anthem of the Commonwealth Games is ready for release on Saturday. Music maestro A.R. Rahman has inserted the word ‘India’ a few more times in the lyrics and made the tempo peppier, sources said. The changes were made following suggestions from an Empowered Group of Ministers on Commonwealth Games, which gave the song, "O Yaaro! India bula liyaa" an in-principle thumbs up a few weeks ago.

The Delhi Games Organizing Committee on Thursday said the Oscar winner music director will be performing the song on Saturday. However, the venue has not been finalized. The launch of the song got delayed after the GoM asked Rahman to change it a little bit.

Queen, the British band, has signed a record contract with Universal Music Group after being with EMI for almost 40 years. They are also preparing to free remastered versions of their studio albums to hit store shelves next year.

Under the contract with Universal, the band will appear on the Island Records label starting January 1. Brian May, the band’s guitarist, said that they are very thrilled. After so long, they will be embarking on a new phase of their career with new dreams, new thoughts and a new record company.

Queen’s original lead singer, Freddie Mercury, passed away in 1991, and the group hasn’t been as accepted as it once was. However, re-releasing their albums could mean big business for them, while their result to sign with a new label comes as they are celebrating their 40th anniversary next year.

Island Records is already getting the remastered albums ready, which will comprise worldwide hits like Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, Another One Bites The Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Additional contenyt is also set to be added, with the first 5 albums being made accessible in March. Universal Music Group International chief operating officer, Max Hole said that they want to apply fresh novelty and thinking to the marketing and promotion of the group’s work.

The band is also set to be marked in a television documentary to be shown on BBC, while a Hollywood film will be made about them. Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian, will reportedly play Mercury.

The men and women in black and white come into view in Orchestra Hall on Saturday night for the first time after a corrosive six-month strike, having reached an agreement with management last week.

Detroiters broke up free tickets for the hastily arranged reunion. People stood in the back of the hall and a screen was set up for the run over. Dozens were turned away. Many appeared to be newcomers to the hall, and dress was a mix of ties, bandannas, pearls and T-shirts. Couples clutched hands and some in the audience teared up. Shouts of “Yeah!” and whoops and whistles sounded in the middle of the applause.

“Welcome home,” said the music director, Leonard Slatkin. “It’s been the longest six months,” a period to be and put in the past, he said. “This evening is about celebration. It’s about you.”

The moment was about amazing more than the end of a bitter labor argument. The sounds of music at the hall (along with the Tigers’ victory in their home opener on Friday) were like the chirpings of a bird in the bleak days of late winter. It finally meant some good news in a town so often explained as hollowed out, shriveled up and deserted.

The census figures in March were the latest dark development. They showed that over the past decade the population fallen by a quarter in Detroit, where a fifth of the lots are vacant, and the city’s leaders are knocking down 10,000 empty residential buildings.

At the least the orchestra stays alive, albeit with the phrase “near-death experience” repeated often. Detroiters are used to seeing businesses go bust, leaving workers — on strike or not — without jobs. The strike played out, sometimes cruelly and to a large degree over Facebook, as the governor in nearby Wisconsin sought to cut back on collective bargaining rights, fueling a national debate over the place of unions in society.

The strike ended a dispute over pay cuts that the players said would turn them into a second-class orchestra, along with changes in work rules that they said would detract from the mission of presenting top symphonic performances. Management said Detroit had simply run out of money to pay for an orchestra at its old level of spending. 

A number of other major orchestras — including those in Philadelphia, New York and Boston — are facing or undergoing negotiations for new contracts, and the outcome here will be scrutinized by musicians and their employers.

Despite the Saturday night love fest serious problems remain. Even with the cost savings, the symphony is projecting a yearly deficit of $3 million and labors under a $54 million debt from the music center that was built to supplement its hall, a 1919 gem that seats 2,000 people.

Award-winning Sparrow Records acts Matthew West and Sanctus Real will join WAY-FM and World Vision for the organizations’ first-ever national tour. Designed to bring World Vision’s ministry to the local station level, “The WAY-FM/World Vision ’09 Tour,” also featuring special guest Jason Gray, will kick off Jan. 28, 2009 in Charleston, SC, and visit 12 WAY-FM radio markets through Feb. 20, 2009.

“I’m ready to hit the road this spring with Sanctus Real,” says Matthew West. “WAY-FM has some of the greatest listeners in the world, and it’s going to be a blast visiting all these WAY-FM cities. Of course, the chance to team up with an outreach like World Vision is an honor, and we hope these concerts will be more than just music but a chance to change the world by teaming up with such an amazing ministry.”

“As we’re getting ready for the ‘WAY-FM/World Vision ’09 Tour,’ we see this as a unique opportunity for us to reach a whole new audience with our music,” says Sanctus Real frontman Matt Hammitt. “We’re great friends with Matthew West and so appreciate the ministry of both WAY-FM and World Vision. To be partnered with such great people is an honor and a pleasure. We know this will be a great tour on all levels and hope a ton of people come out and join us!”

“As the World Vision – WAY-FM partnership came together, we realized a national tour would be a great way to bring the story of the ministries of both organizations directly to our audience,” says Lloyd Parker, WAY-FM Chief Operating Officer. “Because both Matthew West and Sanctus have a heart for what we do, and they also receive a lot of airplay on WAY-FM, having them co-headline the tour made sense.”

“The World Vision Artist Associates Department has hoped for a tour with WAY-FM for many years,” says Jenny Lockwald, World Vision channel/product executive director, artist associates & volunteer programs. “This year along with the World Vision radio department we have produced a tour specific to the WAY-FM markets in conjunction with Maxx Live. The tour features Matthew West and Sanctus Real and introduces Jason Gray. We felt that the combination of these artists in concert would be attractive to the WAY-FM audience, as well as share World Vision ministry and need in serving the vulnerable and needy in over 100 countries on a daily basis.”

The FIREPROOF songs that you’ve fallen in love with are available in one place: The FIREPROOF Original Motion Picture Soundtrack!

The soundtrack features the full score, which was composed by Mark Willard, Sherwood’s musical minister. And it has these songs from popular artists that you hear in the film:

Leeland’s "Brighter Days"

Third Day’s "This Is Who I Am"

Casting Crowns’ "Slow Fade"

John Waller’s "While I’m Waiting"

Grey Holiday’s "You Belong To Me"

Warren Barfield’s "Love Is Not A Fight"

There’s even a special bonus track: the FIREPROOF Remix of John Waller’s "While I’m Waiting," which features sound clips from the film interspersed with John’s beautiful song.

The FIREPROOF Soundtrack is available starting today, July 14, at your favorite Christian store and online retailer. Be sure to let your friends know by utilizing the Soundtrack banners, available online.

“New Day,” from Sparrow recording artist Robbie Seay Band, will be featured on episode three of “Oprah’s Big Give,” which will air this Sunday, March 16 at 9 pm ET on ABC. “New Day,” showcased on Robbie Seay Band’s critically acclaimed 2007 release, Give Yourself Away, is slated to be the group’s next Christian radio single, following their Top 5 hit “Song of Hope.”

The March 2 premiere of "Oprah’s Big Give" drew 15.7 million viewers, the largest audience in primetime that week for any program other than "American Idol," according to Nielsen Media Research. On the show, participants compete to find the most creative ways to multiply a given amount of money and other resources before giving them away to help others.

In addition, FOX recently featured Robbie Seay Band’s “Rise” on four national television promotional spots for its hit show “American Idol.” The song was used in promotion for the seventh season of “American Idol,” which premiered January 15 and 16.

Give Yourself Away released August 28 and was one of the top 25 Christian albums downloaded on iTunes for over 18 weeks. The album features the hit single, “Song of Hope,” which charted 18 weeks in the Top 5 on R&R’s Christian CHR National Airplay chart and Top 10 on R&R’s Christian AC National Airplay chart. The song was also one of the Top 20 Christian CHR/pop singles of 2007, according to CRW’s year-end charts.

Read our review of Give Yourself Away here.