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Please click on the images below to view videos and biographies of each of our artists...
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Skillet
Performing in Gatlinburg 1, Gatlinburg 2, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg 3
Classic rock riffs, swirling drums, monstrous hooks, and undeniably catchy choruses... hints of old school progressive rock mixed in with modern alternative flourishes... touches of classical influence as swelling strings intersect with sonic adrenaline rushes. It's indeed a fusion unlike any other, marking the latest chapter in the continuous evolution of Skillet, whose moniker couldn't be more fitting for their explosive new Lava/Atlantic Records release, Comatose. More than just making a disc packed with killer compositions, Cooper hopes Comatose's deeper meaning will strike a chord on all levels with listeners from any walk of life. "We live in a time where technology and information is so fast, but somehow we've never felt more alone," he sums up, referencing a line by Matthew McConaughey in Contact. "We're all so desperately trying to communicate with each other online with MySpace and instant messenger that no one gets to know one another, and they feel so alone with nobody to talk to about their problems. So I guess in Bono-esque fashion we're talking about how we need to wake up and come out of the sleep we're in and start reaching out to one another, getting it right in our own lives and actually being there for someone else."
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MercyMe
Performing in Gatlinburg 1, Branson, Gatlinburg 2, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg 3
Although praise & worship band MercyMe was founded in 1994, vocalist Bart Millard says that the group's birth was a process God began in him during high school. Millard recalls, "My dad and my older brother were both football players. So naturally, that's what I wanted to do as well. But I broke both my ankles in a high school football game and that ended my career." Due to the injury, Millard was left with an elective class to fill and reluctantly joined the only available option: choir. With the prodding of his choir director, he was soon actively involved. During Millard's first semester in college, he was faced with the death of his father to cancer. The loss caused him to look for a change and a fresh start. Millard's youth pastor, who had recently moved from Millard's hometown of Greenville, TX, to Lakeland, FL, invited him to work with the youth praise band. He accepted the offer and moved at the end of his freshman year of college. Millard says that the praise band involvement marked "the first time I had ever done anything with a band -- just a local youth group who played for a Wednesday night service. But I fell in love with it immediately." It wasn't long after that Millard became friends with keyboardist Jim Bryson. In the summer of 1994, the two traveled to Europe as part of a praise team. The trip caused Millard and Bryson to consider full-time music ministry. In August of 1994, guitarist Mike Scheuchzer made the duo a trio. The three, who now lived in Oklahoma City, formed MercyMe. From there the group begin to attract local promoters and found themselves opening for Audio Adrenaline. Following this, the band moved to Nashville, TN, and then to Texas. Their concerts grew to 200 dates per year. Bassist Nathan Cochran and percussionist Robby Shaffer joined the group, turning it from a trio into a five-member band.
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Newsboys
Performing in Gatlinburg 1, Branson, Gatlinburg 2, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg 3
One of the more media-exposed Christian rock bands of the '90s, Newsboys gained six number one singles on the Christian charts, and have been featured in more secular media outlets than the average Christian band. Step Up to the Microphone, their first album for major-label Virgin, followed in 1998; Love Liberty Disco appeared a year later. In celebration of the new millennium, the Newsboys also observed their own career with the greatest-hits package Shine...The Hits, issued in fall 2000. Their most elaborate work to date, Thrive, was issued in spring 2002 and led to one of their biggest CCM hits ever, "It Is You." Over ten years into their own career, that fall Newsboys Remixed was released, offering new takes on several of their biggest hits. The band issued Adoration: The Worship Album in April 2003. The record included both originals and Newsboy versions of well-known worship songs. Guitarist Jody Davis left the Newsboys in late 2003 in order to care for his daughter, Bethany, and Bryan Olesen took his place for a little over a year. He left in 2004 to work on his own band, Casting Pearls, just after the Newsboys released their second worship album, Devotion. Paul Coleman, an Aussie singer/songwriter, came aboard as the band's new guitarist, and the next two years found the band touring the globe and working on the songs that would become their first pop album in four years, Go. That album, released in October 2006, was the first to be released on the band's own Inpop Records. At the beginning of 2009, after a year of touring, Coleman left the band to go back to his solo career and Jody Davis returned. Furler announced soon afterwards that he going to scale back his involvement in the band, no longer touring with them but instead staying behind the scenes as a songwriter/vocalist. His replacement came from one of the other titans of Christian rock, namely Michael Tait of DC Talk. Before Tait took over entirely, the band released one last album with Furler as lead singer, In the Name of God, in May of 2009. By September of that year Furler was gone and Tait took over vocals for the band's next album, 2010's Born Again.
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Jeremy Camp
Performing in Branson
When you think of Jeremy Camp, the words "shy" and "quiet" don't come to mind. Energetic? Yes. Passionate? Definitely. Straightforward? Absolutely. Camp's thoughtful lyrics and booming voice have earned him legions of fans and accolades including 16 No. 1 songs, five Dove Awards, three ASCAP Songwriter of the Year wins and an American Music Award nomination. So why would someone so well known for his willingness to speak his mind and share his heart title his latest release Speaking Louder Than Before? After all, his message has always come through loud and clear.
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Tenth Avenue North
Performing in Gatlinburg 1, Gatlinburg 2, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg 3
We've all heard it said that music is the universal language, and it's so true. No other vehicle more powerfully captures our collective hopes and fears or more poignantly celebrates our dreams and triumphs. With one listen to the music of Tenth Avenue North, it becomes obvious that songwriter Mike Donehey and his bandmates have a gift for expressing truth in a way that simultaneously educates, enlightens and entertains. "Most of the themes in our songs are about truth and about the struggle to believe it," Donehey says of the music on the band's debut disc Over and Underneath. "I think we have to represent both sides of that coin. Jesus said, 'True worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth.' When we sit down to write a song, essentially we are dealing with two things: Truth and the struggle to accept that truth. Emotion without truth is just sentimental and truth without emotion becomes cruel. Hopefully in our music, we are talking about the truth of God, but marrying that with the struggle that is within every person to believe. I think it's a struggle that will last for our whole lives." It's that rare ability to tap into those complex emotions that is at the core of Tenth Avenue North's music. Its songs are intellectual, melodic pop/rock that listeners will find reminiscent of Jars of Clay, yet there's a vulnerability that makes its music even more accessible in many ways. "To me, the most amazing thing is the songs," says Jason Ingram, who co-produced the band with Phillip LaRue. "The songs are just rooted in so much truth and passion. Mike's ability to communicate, both as a singer and songwriter, is on an exceptional level. I'm still overwhelmed at the way God uses these guys to teach us and compel us into a greater understanding of the gospel."
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Newsong
Performing in Gatlinburg 1, Branson, Gatlinburg 2, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg 3
Newsong started out 30 years ago as a 9 member church band for Morningside Baptist Church in Valdosta, GA, never imagining that they would still be together in 2010. Founding member, Billy Goodwin, explains the group's faith attitude, "The commitment that we made was, 'God, we'll do this as long as Your hand is on it, as long as we see You working.' One of the joys in my walk has been learning that God is faithful even when things look impossible." Throughout the years, and changes in the group, they have had 17 #1 singles, six Gospel Music Association Dove Award nominations, numerous songwriting awards, and five of the Top 100 Christian radio singles of the past decade. They are known for their songs, "Arise, My Love," "Miracles," "Jesus To The World (Roaring Lambs), and "The Christmas Shoes," which is also the title of their first Christmas Album.
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Francesca Battistelli
Performing in Gatlinburg 1, Gatlinburg 2, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg 3
Golden voiced Christian pop songstress Francesca Battistelli began her musical journey at a very young age. When she was just six-years-old, the future singer/songwriter discovered an inborn desire to be a performer. It was after seeing a presentation of The Secret Garden on Broadway, with her parents that Battistelli set her sites on the stage. Both of Battistelli's parents come from the theater, so her decision was a surprise to no one. Musical theater training and dance lessons helped the singer form a stone solid work-ethic. At the age of fifteen, she spent time in the trenches with Orlando-based pop group Bella. After the group disbanded, Battistelli attended a youth ministry where she says God moved her in the direction of Christian pop music. The future Dove Award nominee began learning how to play the guitar and set out on a mission to write, in her own words, "soulful pop music that someone (plays) in the morning and says, 'now I can start my day, I feel encouraged'." Battistelli released an independent album, Just a Breath, in 2004. An EP titled I'm Letting Go followed in early 2008. Her major-label debut, My Paper Heart, arrived later that same year on Fervent Records. The disc produced the hits "I'm Letting Go," which hit the number three position on R&R's Christian Chart, and "Free to Be Me," a number one single on the same chart.
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Unhindered
Performing in Gatlinburg 1, Gatlinburg 2, Gatlinburg 3
Every once in a while, you come across a group of people who refuse to let things stay the way they are. Fueled by a passion for what they believe, they cannot sit by and watch culture consistently walk down the wrong path — they are mobilized to action. Without these people, society would never change. Enter Unhindered, a Christian worship band cased out of Atlanta, GA. More than just a group of musicians playing together, Unhindered is a community that is dedicated to tirelessly laboring to lead people to God. A band that has been forming since some of its’ members were in high school, Unhindered released their first CD (City Streets. independent) in Fall of 2005 and have since sold over 10,000 copies. With a passionate heart for engaging students in worship, the band now travels across the United States declaring that not only does God want to be involved in students’ lives while they are at church, but He also desires to play play a huge part in their every day activities and decisions. “The same God that you sing to now, in church,” says Patrick (Pat), “wants to play a part in every decision you make tomorrow at school, with your friends, at your job, wherever you are, in everything that you do.
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Superchick
Performing in Branson
Superchick first appeared in 2001 with Karaoke Superstars (Inpop), a peppy mix of popternative grooves and CCM positivity. Led by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Max Hsu (ex-Church of Rhythm), the band also included vocalist Tricia Brock, her guitarist/vocalist sister Melissa Brock, fellow guitarist Justin Sharboro, drummer Brian, and bassist Matt Dally. Extensive touring followed the band's debut on wax, and high-profile song placements (in Legally Blonde, for example) upped their profile while promoting their message of empowerment via Christianity. Superchick returned in October 2002 with Last One Picked, a collection of crunchy pop-punk numbers. The remix album Regeneration followed a year later.
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KJ-52
Performing in Branson
Raised in a rough-and-tumble suburb of Tampa, FL, KJ-52 (real name: Jonah Sorrentino) was the product of a broken home, and eventually found himself mixed up in drugs, drinking, and chasing skirts. At 15 a family member challenged him to take up Christ, and being born again gave him the strength to move on. But rather than give up hip-hop and its tacit endorsement of sin, KJ poured his faith into his hip-hop. Even his name was a devotional. "KJ" was an abbreviation of his old rap name, but "52" (pronounced "five-two") represented the miracle of the five loaves and two fish. KJ-52 believed he was spreading the word of the Lord in much the same way Jesus shared the food in the story. But his road to Christian hip-hop heaven wasn't easy. While still a teenager, KJ began working in youth ministry at a Florida inner-city church. He also recorded a demo, but it was largely ignored. Christian or not, getting your music noticed is tough. It wasn't until KJ met a young, likeminded rapper named Golden Child that things began to move forward. The two young men formed Sons of Intellect and began performing throughout Florida. Soon Golden Child moved on and the Sons dissolved. But that brief bit of success in the Christian rap game had whet KJ's appetite, and in the summer of 1998 he stepped down from his youth minister position to pursue his Christian rap dream full-time.
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The Museum
Performing in Branson
American bands don't usually name themselves after events surrounding the twentieth century Romanian revolution, but how BEC Recordings' newest signing would come to be known as The Museum is indicative of what's on display in this compelling foursome. For The Museum, reaching out to the world in need was a priority long before it had the platform that a record deal provides. Geoffrey lived in Belize for many years with his missionary family, and Ben imagines Josh—who recently earned a commercial pilot's license—will someday fly mission workers and supplies into remote areas. Together, the band partners with Overlooked, a company that donates proceeds from t-shirt sales to provide clean water to children in Africa, help free young girls from sexual slavery, which is a global issue, and feed victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Let the revolution begin. The Museum is now open.
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Will Goodwin
Performing in Pigeon Forge
This powerful worship leader best describes himeslf from his blog: "I am a nobody. Only by the grace of God and His power through me do I have any good to offer the world. The many hats I wear are centered around my love for music, song-writing, my family, and my deep desire to passionately pursue only that which pleases my personal Savior. I am unashamed of who I am in Christ and want nothing less than to boldly proclaim who Christ is in me. I have zero desire to become the next big thing on the Christian music scene. I write and sing songs that flow out of my own personal study of the Scriptures and draw me to personally worship God deeper and more intimately. I just so happen to love to lead people to do the same." - Will Goodwin
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http://www.skillet.com/