Music world

New Fervent Records female duo Cadia will deliver a pop/rock debut full of songs speaking to the reality of where young people live. Releasing Feb. 26, 2008, the new self-titled project offers songs of outward compassion, finding one’s identity as well as confidence in Christ, and God’s amazing redemption.

Produced by Otto Price (BarlowGirl, Sonicflood, dcTalk) and Rob Hawkins (pureNRG, Jackson Waters), Cadia presents an accessible pop sound that results in an infectious, passionate release packed with guitar-laden hooks and melodic piano pop sure to appeal to fans of ZOEgirl and Krystal Meyers.

The anthemic "Inside/Out," penned by Nichole Nordeman, captures the heart of Cadia as it sends a message of self-acceptance. The song and accompanying music video are the featured theme song/video for Women of Faith’s "Revolve Tour," geared toward teen girls.

"Most of these songs, like ‘Inside/Out,’ are our way of talking to God about the way we feel and the things we’ve been through," says group member Tori Smith. "But these are universal themes, more than just for young women. We are all trying to find out where we belong; we’re all looking for that unconditional love. The thing is, we already belong, we are already loved that way by God, and that is the message that Cadia shares."

"Cadia means ‘a place of peace,’ explains Courtney Myers. "Each song here is saying that there is a place of peace, a safe place to fall, in this life. We’re all trying to find ourselves, trying to hear God through all the noise, the pain, the insecurities, the lies people have told us about who we are and who we’re not. These songs are our way of saying, ‘You can let that all go and just give it to God. He is the source of peace. He is the One who made us. He doesn’t make mistakes.’"

The girls’ debut radio single, "Trust in Me Now," released to Christian Adult Contemporary and Christian Hit Radio on Jan. 4, 2008. The pair will additionally open for Avalon’s spring tour in 2008.

The duo looks to Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus," as a verse to live by and encourages young women to do the same.

Visit Cadia online at their website and MySpace page.

Taylor Swift will bring the drape down on this year’s CMA Music Fest.

Swift has been added to the Sunday lineup of the Nightly Concerts at LP Field for the June 9-12 fair in Nashville, Tenn.

Fans in Swift’s hometown will get to see a bit of the live show the 2009 Country Music Association performer of the year has been dispersal around the globe on tour this coil. Swift has been concerned in some way with the festival every year since 2006.

Sunday will be a runaway success night with Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton and Darius Rucker among the performers on the agenda.

Other performers scheduled Thursday through Saturday include Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Zac Brown Band, Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban and Sheryl Crow.

New York: Late King of Pop Michael Jackson’s famous estate ‘Neverland Ranch’ may be turned into a haven for teenage musicians. Colony Capital, which owned the ranch before the pop singer’s untimely death, reportedly wants to turn the ranch into a music organization modelled after Juilliard, a music school in New York City, according to a website.

The plan is to teach writing and performing for many different types of music to teenagers. Since the pop star’s death, many interested parties have floated different ideas for Neverland Ranch.

"I think Michael’s history is world history and I think it would become the No. 1 attraction for the state parks if we could pull it off," a daily quoted California NAACP President Alice Huffman as telling The Sacremento Bee at that time.

Before the teens start flowing back into the ranch, Santa Barbara County reportedly has to approve the plan and Jackson’s estate must allow his name to be used to endorse the institute. "It’s an interesting idea. And we’d be open to it," said a rep for Jackson’s estate.

Classical and rock music may not seem like a rational mix, yet from the Beatles forward, popular musicians have looked to classical music for motivation. Progressive rock bands such as Genesis and Yes utilize complex time signatures and active passages that at times seem more like the "long-haired" music of Beethoven and Mozart than fashionable rock and roll. Bands such as Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues have utilized symphony orchestras in their recording. Even Tom Petty has on the run amok orchestral versions of his big hits.

In this free series of music cross pollination videos, professional performer Scott Smith outlines the history of rock and classical music, and then discusses how these genres overlap. You will learn how to adapt melodic scores written for traditional classical instruments such as the harpsichord and organ to the contemporary electric instruments of rock and pop bands. He discusses how to change time signature and add the recognizable blues beat common to rock and roll music.

Relient K and House of Heroes bring their musical festive tidings to this year’s Christmas season on November 18th via digital music stores with three brand new holiday songs and an animated music video from Relient K, as well as label mates House of Heroes offering up their rendition of the classic “Silent Night”.

The three songs from Relient K will include “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “O Holy Night,” and “Silver Bells,” with an animated music video for the song “Sleigh Ride” coming as well. The Christmas anthems will be added to the platinum-selling band’s 2007 album, Let It Snow, Baby…Let It Reindeer, and upon purchasing online the customer will given a unique code and directions to download the additional three tunes. Fans can also anticipate extra gifts from Relient K upon purchase, including exclusive photos, downloadable wrapping paper, and a few other bonuses.

House of Heroes brings their powerhouse pop sound to “Silent Night” which is also available at all online music outlets on November 18th. The band, whose most recent album The End Is Not The End was delivered via digital stores, has seen an incredible response with the release making it to the #6 spot on the iTunes rock chart and #42 on the overall chart, with a #1 radio hit single and over 1 million plays on their MySpace page.

Relient K, who has toured with the likes of Switchfoot and Good Charlotte, has a GRAMMY nod, and three RIAA-certified Gold albums to their credit. The pop-punk band has performed on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” with their video for “Must Have Done Something Right” receiving airplay on mtvU, MTV Hits, FUSE’s "Steven’s Untitled Rock Show," Nickelodeon’s The N, IMF and Music Choice. Relient K is comprised of lead singer/guitarist/pianist Matt Thiessen, lead guitarist Matt Hoopes, drummer Ethan Luck, bassist John Warne and guitarist Jon Schneck.

House of Heroes’ discography includes a 2005 self-titled debut and the re-release Say No More in 2006. Prior to signing a record deal with Mono Vs Stereo/Gotee, the band released an indie project What You Want Is Now (2002) to much critical acclaim and a large grassroots following. On the tour front, House of Heroes has opened up for the likes of Filter, Silverchair, Relient K, and MxPx, as well as full-blown tours with acts including Spoken, The Evan Anthem, Last Tuesday, Dropping Daylight, Love Arcade, and Kids In The Way. The band is Columbus-Ohio natives Tim Skipper (guitar/lead vocals), A.J Babcock (bass/vocals), Colin Rigsby (drums/vocals), and Jared Rigsby (guitar/vocals).

A growing number of schoolchildren are opting to pick up instruments such as the drums and electric guitar , a new report has suggested.

According to research carried out by Professor Sue Hallam and Dr Andrea Creech of the University of London, the musical taste of young people is being dictated to an extent by what they hear on radio, television and over the internet.

"The impact of technology … has been profound, with some instruments becoming ‘endangered’ in schools while requests to play others, such as the electric guitar, electronic keyboards and kit drums, have increased dramatically," their report stated.

However, folk singer Dafydd Iwan told Wales Online that other musical instruments may yet regain their popularity as trends move in cycles and young people are often very responsive when exposed to different genres of music.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the Hard Rock Cafe in Cardiif has teamed up with children’s charity The Sparkle Appeal to encourage more people to donate their old musical instruments to the non-profit organisation’s new centre.

Staying true to his heart and passion with the recent release, "Speaking Louder Than Before," BEC Recordings Artist Jeremy Camp launches new ministry aptly titled "Speaking Louder Ministries." The debut of this ministry is a direct correlation to the November 2008 release, which has already sold more than 120,000 units. In addition, digital downloads exceeding 100,000 singles of the emotional radio hit song "There Will Be a Day," which resonated strongly with listeners. This week the song remained at No. 1 for the 13th week at AC Indicator. It also stayed at No. 1 for 9 weeks at CHR.

The purpose behind "Speaking Louder Ministries" is two-fold: Bringing a raised awareness to the local outreaches in the cities that Jeremy Camp performs. Secondly, helping equip the church body and local community to get involved in ministry together impacting the needs of their community.

Last weekend marked the first outreach in the local markets for Speaking Louder Ministries. Jeremy performed concerts in Sioux Falls, SD, Minneapolis, MN, and Fargo, ND. At each local level, the partners with Speaking Louder promoted the concert and a local organization to meet the needs of the community. Through the site, volunteers were recruited and greeted concertgoers collecting the goods that were requested for the organization.

In Sioux Falls, SD, the Speaking Louder Ministries raised awareness for the McCrossan Boys Ranch. This boys’ ranch houses more than 60 young men ranging from ages 10-17 years old, who have been displaced by family or lost a parent. After visiting the ranch, Camp and the volunteers gathered winter clothes for the boys at the concert that evening.

The following night in Minneapolis, MN, the ministry joined with the Minneapolis Children’s Hospital. Camp visited with the children and families as well as performed songs at the hospital. The community was asked to bring Valentines of some form (stuffed animal, card, candy, etc). The overwhelming response generated in more than 30,000 Valentine’s items being donated. Such a huge amount collected that the local radio station KTIS was able to take items to needy schools and daycares. Finally in Fargo, ND, Churches-United Homeless Shelter received more than 1,000 pounds of food donated through the concert.

This ministry will be an ongoing outreach to the communities Jeremy Camp visits throughout the year and specifically as he tours in the fall. Beginning March 17th in Billings, MT, Jeremy will be touring on The Rock & Roll Worship Roadshow featuring MercyMe, Hawk Nelson and Tenth Avenue North and Addison Road. Tour dates found on Jeremy’s site.

Speaking Louder Than Before: The pinnacle of 2008 for this male vocalist was releasing his fifth studio album co-produced by himself and Brown Bannister. The album debuted on Billboard 200 at No. 38 along with the No. 1 new release on the Billboard Christian chart after street week. Digital purchases shot "Speaking Louder Than Before" to No. 11 on the overall iTunes chart and No. 1 on the Christian albums chart. Billboard also labeled this album as his "best work to date," which clearly fans agree as it has moved his career sales to over three million units.

About Jeremy Camp: Since his debut BEC Recordings’ project in 2002 (Stay), Jeremy Camp has made a definitive mark in the industry with his ability to compose hit songs and capture audiences of all ages selling more than three million records. Following his Gold-selling debut, Camp has released four additional studio projects (Carried Me: The Worship Project, Restored, Beyond Measure and Speaking Louder Than Before), which have garnered a total of three RIAA Gold-Selling albums. With 17 career No. 1 radio hits under his belt, Jeremy Camp is clearly a powerhouse on the radio waves nationwide across all formats (CHR, AC, INSPO, and Rock). Jeremy is now the artist with the most consecutive No. 1 singles at AC Monitored since 2003 when R&R began their Christian chart. He also received the No. 2 Song of the Year in 2008 with "Let it Fade," which remained in that No. 1 position for more than 10 weeks. His most recent single "There Will Be A Day" hit the top on three formats on AC Indicator, CHR and AC Monitored. Jeremy Camp has also been honored with multiple Dove-nominations and five awards, a 2007 American Music Award nomination, and three-time ASCAP Christian Music Awards "Songwriter of the Year" (2008, 2006, 2005) winner including "Song of the Year" (2006). In 2008, Jeremy Camp was voted for the fifth consecutive year in a row by readers on Christianity Today’s music site as the "Best Male Artist."

DARWIN’S theory states that music had its – starting point "in the sounds made by the half-human progenitors of man during the season of courtship" seems for many reasons to be scarce and flawed. A much more conceivable explanation, it seems to me, is to be found in the theory of Theophrastus, in which the origin of music is featured to the whole range of human emotion.

When an animal sheers a cry of joy or pain it articulates its emotions in more or less clear-cut tones; and at some remote period of the earth’s history all primeval mankind must have expressed its emotions in much the same manner. When this inarticulate speech developed into the use of confident sounds as symbols for emotions – emotions that or else would have been expressed by the natural sounds juncture by them —then we have the beginnings of speech as distinguished from music, which is still the universal language. In other words, thinker development begins with articulate speech, leaving music for the phrase of the emotions.

To be a sign of the sounds used to express emotion, if I may so put it, is to weaken that expression, and it would naturally be the strongest emotion that would first feel the inadequacy of the new-found speech. Now which is the mankind’s strongest emotion? Even in the nineteenth century Goethe could say, "’Tis fear that constitutes the god-like in man." Undoubtedly before the Christian era the soul of mankind had its roots in fear. In our superstition we were like children beneath a great tree of which the upper part was as a fuzzy and mesmerizing mystery, but the roots holding it firmly to the ground were tangible, palpable facts.

The primordial savage, looking at the world subjectively, was merely part of it. He might love, hate, threaten, kill, if he willed; every other creature could do the same. But the wind was a great spirit to him; lightning and thunder endangered him as they (lid the rest of the world; the flood would destroy him as ruthlessly as it tore the trees asunder. The elements were breathing powers that had nothing in common with him; for what the brains cannot explain the power of imagination magnifies.

Fear, then, was the burly emotion. Therefore assisting aids to express and cause fear were necessary when the speech symbols for fear, drifting further and further away from expressing the actual thing, became words, and words were inadequate to express and cause fear. In that formless groping for sound symbols which would cause and express fear far better than mere words, we have the beginning of what is gradually to develop into music.

We all know that savage nations convoy their dances by striking one object with another, sometimes by a jangling of stones, the pounding of wood, or perhaps the clashing of stone spearheads against wooden shields (a custom which extended until the time when shields and spears were discarded), meaning thus to express something that words cannot. This meaning altered naturally from its original one of being the simple expression of fear to that of welcoming a chieftain; and, if one wishes to push the theory to excess, we may still see a shadowy nostalgia of it in the manner in which the violinists of an orchestra applaud an honored guest — perchance some famous virtuoso — at one of our symphony concerts by striking the backs of their violins with their bends.

To go back to the savages. While this clashing of one object against another could not be called as the beginning of music, and while it could not be said to originate a musical instrument, it did, nonetheless, bring into existence music’s greatest prop, rhythm, an ally without which music would seem to be impossible. Suffice it to say that the sense of rhythm is highly urbanized even among those savage tribes which stand the lowest in the scale of civilization to-day, for instance, the Andaman Islanders, of whom I shall speak later; the same may be said of the Tierra del Fuegians and the now extinct aborigines of Tasmania; it is the same with the Semangs of the Malay Peninsula, the Ajitas of the Philippines, and the savages inhabiting the interior of Borneo.

Up to this point it is reasonable to assume that primordial man looked upon the world purely subjectively. He considered himself merely a unit in the world, and felt on a plane with the other creatures dwelling it. But from the moment he had invented the first musical instrument, the drum, he had created impressive outside of nature, a voice that to himself and to all other living creatures was elusive, an idol that spoke when it was touched, some-thing that he could call into life, something that shared the supernatural in common with the elements. A God had come to live with man, and thus was unfolded the first leaf in that venerable tree of life which we call religion.

Man now began to feel himself something apart from the world, and to look at it impartially instead of intuitively.