House of Heros

House of Heroes is an alternative Christian rock band from Columbus, Ohio. They have released four albums: What You Want Is Now (2003), House of Heroes (2005), The End Is Not the End (2008), and Suburba (2010). The band also re-released their self titled record under the name of Say No More. The band consists of brothers Colin Rigsby and Jared Rigsby, Tim Skipper, and A.J. Babcock (who doesn't tour).

The band got started in 1996 at Hilliard Davidson High School (Hilliard, OH), originally as a punk band called Plan B, with Tim Skipper, A.J. Babcock, and Nate Rothacker on drums. In 1998, Colin Rigsby replaced Nate Rothacker on drums and they changed their name to No Tagbacks, then later to House of Heroes. The band recorded early demos at Chris Lundquist's home studio LundquistAudio (formerly Lunkhead Studio). In 2003 they released their first album What You Want Is Now under the name House of Heroes.

Jared Rigsby replaced A.J. Babcock as the band's live bassist in December 2005, as Babcock had married and focused on a side project with his wife called "FlowerDagger". Babcock eventually rejoined the band as the live bassist and Jared Rigsby became an official member as the band's second guitarist. In 2009, Babcock stopped touring for the second time and has been replaced by a live bassist whose name is Eric Newcomer. He appeared playing the bass in the band's new video for "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." Babcock continues to be a part of the band, involved with songwriting and recording. In March 2010 Colin Rigsby was replaced by Josh Dun on drums as Rigsby felt he needed to spend more time with his family. As of October 2010 Colin has resumed drumming for the band.

Jars of Clay

Jars of Clay is a Christian rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. This band consists of Dan Haseltine on vocals, Charlie Lowell on piano and keyboards, Stephen Mason on lead guitar and Matthew Odmark on rhythm guitar. Although the band has no permanent drummer or bassist, Jeremy Lutito and Gabe Ruschival of Disappointed By Candy fill these roles for live concerts. Past tour band members include Aaron Sands, Scott Savage, and Joe Porter. Jake Goss was recently added to the band to play drums for their summer tour. Jars of Clay's style is a blend of alternative rock, folk, acoustic, and R&B. The band's name is derived from the New International Version's translation of 2 Corinthians 4:7: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Dan Haseltine, Steve Mason, Charlie Lowell, and Matt Bronleewe formed Jars of Clay at Greenville College, in Greenville, Illinois in the early 1990s. Charlie Lowell first met Dan Haseltine after noticing that he was wearing a Toad the Wet Sprocket shirt. Pursuing a career in music together was not necessarily their original goal, some of the first songs they wrote together were for music and recording classes they were taking at the time. Their second guitarist Matt Bronleewe joined some time later, and drummer Joseph Quevedo occasionally joined them for some of their early public performances. While in college playing together at local Christian coffee houses, Jars of Clay gained quite a reputation for their very original arrangement of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", which had been adapted to the tune of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

In 1994, the band submitted a demo to a talent competition run by the Gospel Music Association and were selected as finalists. They traveled to Nashville to perform and won the contest. Back in Greenville, they self-released a limited-run of the same demo, which they named Frail, after their song of the same name. The buzz from their performance in Nashville and the demo's popularity resulted in offers from record labels, so the band decided to drop school and move to Nashville. At this time, Bronleewe left the band to finish school and settle down with his fiancee. He was replaced with Matt Odmark, Lowell's childhood friend.

Third Day

Third Day is a Grammy award-winning Christian rock band formed in Marietta, Georgia during the 1990s. The band's name is a reference to the biblical account of Jesus' rising from the dead on the third day following his crucifixion.The band was founded by lead singer Mac Powell, guitarist Mark Lee and former member Billy Wilkins. The other band members are bassist Tai Anderson and drummer David Carr. The band was inducted in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame on September 19, 2009.



In 1992, Mac Powell and Mark Lee were playing at Lee's church the same night that David Carr & Tai Anderson were playing with their band called Bullard Family Singers. Once introduced, the group took to each other quickly and Carr & Anderson were invited to join the band. In 1993, while remaining in school, the band started playing a lot more around Atlanta and saved $3,000 to record a full-length album. During this time, Wilkins, who was working full-time as a school teacher, decided to leave the band. Third Day continued to work on their album, recording at Furies Studios in Atlanta.

 In 1995, the band started looking for a second guitarist and after hearing Brad Avery play with singer Chris Carder, Avery was asked to audition with the band. After playing Consuming Fire during their first rehearsal, Avery was officially asked to join the band.As the band completed its line-up, they started playing more steadily in venues around the Southeast. While playing in a Marietta, Georgia at the Strand Theatre, the owners offered the band a contract to sign with a new independent record label called Gray Dot Records. With recording contract in-hand, the band released the album Third Day, which ended up selling 20,000 copies. Shortly after, Reunion Records bought out their Grey Dot contract and signed the band to a multi-album deal.

Newsboys (;

The Newsboys have had a lot of changes in members along the years. The Newsboys' original members; bassist Sean Taylor, vocalist John James, and drummer Peter Furler, formed the band in Mooloolaba, Queensland in 1985 along with Furler's guitarist school mate, George Perdikis. The band's original name was The News, but once in the U.S. they changed it to The Newsboys to avoid conflict with the U.S.-based band Huey Lewis and the News. The band came to the United States in late 1987 after getting signed with Refuge Communications, and released the album Read All About It in 1988 in the United States.

Newsboys original members

In late 1997, John James announced he would be leaving the band. Furler moved from drums to vocals and auditions were held for the drum position. Eventually, Duncan Phillips, who had previously played keyboards and percussion for the band, moved over to the drum kit. From 1998 to 2003, the band's lineup of lead singer Furler, bassist Phil Joel, guitarist Jody Davis, keyboardist Jeff Frankenstein stayed constant. Late in 2003, guitarist Jody Davis left and was replaced with Bryan Oleson. In 2006, Oleson left to focus on his own band, Casting Pearls and was replaced by Paul Colman. In December 2006, Phil Joel announced that he would leave the band to pursue his own projects and albums. On 5 January 2009, Paul Colman announced he would be leaving the Newsboys to return to his solo projects. At the same time it was announced that Jody Davis would return to the band after 5 years.

Michael Tait. Yes, i totally took this picture(; Where you ask? WinterJam 2011!

 Peter Furler, having toured with the Newsboys since the band began in 1985, decided to step back into a support role continuing as the band's primary songwriter and producer. A replacement lead vocalist was required so the band could continue touring. On 9 March 2009, it was announced on the band's web site that Michael Tait would be the new lead singer. Which now leaves the current members of the band. They were pretty amazing at the WinterJam concert(: here are some pictures...

 Ahh how I love the faces he makes(;

 That went right over my head!

Psh! someone put there hand in the way!

Worthy is the Lamb! Happy Easter(:

So, I'm sure you already know that Easter is this Sunday. Last Sunday (Palm Sunday), I sang at my church. It was my first time singing and playing the piano at the same time, and I was so nervous. After praying through the whole service that my heart was in the right place to worship God, it was finally time for me to sing, during communion. The song I sang was Worthy is the Lamb by Darlene Zschech. The song is all about thanking God for sending his son to die for us. Thanking him for the nails in his hands and feet, for loving us enough to take all the weight of our sins on his shoulders.

 I think sometimes we get so caught up in the traditions of Easter such as decorating eggs or family get-togethers, that we forget the magnitude of what we are celebrating. Jesus, an innocent man, beaten, mocked, and hung on a cross, just for us, for our sins, for everything we do that isn't pleasing to God.

Here is a video of me singing in church. The whole song didn't record because the video camera ran out of memory ): But Anyways, here it is(:

Francesca Battistelli (:

Francesca Battistelli is a twenty-six year old Italian-American Christian singer from New York, NY. When she was fifteen years old, she joined an all-girl pop singing and dancing group called Bella. When the band broke up, Francesca picked up a guitar and started writing music. In 2004, she released her first independent album, Just Breath.

Francesca signed with Fervent Records in 2008, and released her first signed album, My Paper Heart. Her first single, I'm Letting Go, was released to radio stations during the spring in 2008, and was later named the 16th most played song on Christian radio stations.

This is one of my favorite songs from this album, called Beautiful Beautiful.

This is my all time favorite song by Francesca, called This is the Stuff, from her new album, Hundred More Years

The David Crowder* Band!

The David Crowder* Band was formed in Waco, Texas  in 1995 when David Crowder was attending a Christian University. He noticed that most of the students were not attending any type of church, so he decided to start a church of his own. From that point on, the church grew, and so did its band.

The band released two independent Cd's in 1999, which caused the band to gain quite a following of fans. Soon after, they signed with sixsteprecords/sparrow records and has released six more albums since.

The David Crowder* Band's current members are:

• David Crowder – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, programming, theremin, keytar, electric guitar
• Jack Parker – electric guitar, background vocals, Rhodes piano, mandolin, and banjo
• Mike Dodson – bass guitar, keyboard, cello,
• Mike Hogan – violin/strings, turntables, guitar, keyboard
• Jeremy Bush (aka "B-Wack") - drums, percussion, bells, programming
• Mark Waldrop – electric guitar

The Astrik (*) that is often placed after the word Crowder, was explained in a comentary  from the band's Cd "Church Music". David Crowder poked fun at his fellow band member, by saying it stood for David Crowder [is about to go insane because Jack Parker continually tries to sabotage the work of the rest of the] band"

This is one of the band's most popular songs, " How He Loves"

And their website link:http://www.davidcrowderband.com/

Gegory and the Hawk

Today I was having a hard time thinking a topic for this blog. So I thought I would talk a little about one of my favorite bands, Gregory and the Hawk. Their songs are so amazing! Not many people are familiar with the band, because their songs are not the typical pop, country, or rock. Each song deals with some aspect of life in a way that makes you wish you would have thought to describe it like that, which is pretty cool to me. Every one of their songs is like a poem, short and sweet, but gets the point across clearly and in an interesting way. Most of their songs remind me of a metaphorical poem, with we just learned about in English Class. (:

Here is the first song I heard by them (: hope you like it as much as I do!

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah. It's a fairly common word that people use when good things happen. The defenition of Hallelujah is "praise Jehovah". That really means a lot to me. Saying Hallelujah is a cry of praise to God, and, in my opinion, it should be used with care and for God only. I went to a concert last weekend, and Jason Castro from American Idol was there. One of the songs he sang was Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. I think some people tend to look over the awesome meaning in that song. The whole chorus of the song is the word Hallelujah over and over again, a cry out to God. It's a really powerful song, and its one of my favorites (:

When I was looking for a video of Jason Castro singing that song, I found his I Am Second video, where he talks about how awesome it was to get to sing Hallelujah to God in front of millions of people. Love him! <3

Nana!

   Grandmas are a real blessing. I have three of them. A lot of people aren’t as lucky as I am, in the fact that their grandmas are no longer living. I’m also very blessed that I have awesome relationships with all of my grandmas. My grandma that I call Nana (which is my mom's mom), lives next door to me. I often walk to her house to visit. I defiantly get my singing voice from her, and we love to sit down at her piano, flip through her song books, and sing whatever comes to mind. Here's some clips of us singing together. (:

My Nana really inspires me to sing to glorify God. She is very kind and compassionate, and really lets Jesus' light shine through her. I really hope that as I grow up, I will become as wonderful of a woman as she is. I love you Nana!

The Audition.

Today I was given the wonderful opportunity of auditioning to be a singer for the local Creative Arts Center's summer music program. The board members of the music program held individual auditions to decide who will be a part of this program. When I was informed about the audition and got all the details about it, I was asked to prepare three songs; a glospel song, a classical song, and a song of choice. The three songs I choose were Wonderful Merciful Savior, Song of the River, and A Living Prayer. They had four board members present and they called the audition " American Idol style" because they had me sing three songs, and gave me feed back and asked questions. When my audition was finished, I was told  they would make there final dicision after everyone else had auditioned. All of the board members were very friendly and made the audition casual and comfortable. Even then, I was nervous. I just had to keep thinking to myself, that God gave me my voice, and it's up to him how he wants me to use it. I just pray that everyone who sees me preform, will see God'd light shinning through me.

This is me singing part of one of the songs I sang for my audition. Excuse the piano playing... I'm just learning... (: