LITTLE ROCK — Some of the biggest names in Christian music will be performing, for free, at Central Arkansas CityFest with evangelist Luis Palau in North Little Rock in October.
The roster, unveiled this week, includes Kirk Franklin, Newsboys and tobyMac. Little Rock's own Jason Truby, country singer Craig Morgan and Christian hard-rock band Seventh Day Slumber will also be playing on the North Shore Riverwalk.
Similar CityFest events in Miami, Washington and Portland, Ore., have attracted massive crowds. Organizers predict tens of thousands of people will flock to the banks of the Arkansas River for the Christian extravaganza, Oct. 24-25.
The free music will be a big draw, said Palau spokesman Craig Chastain. "These are all acts that are at the top of their game right now." Over the past decade, Franklin, Newsboys and tobyMac have dominated Christian radio.All three acts have sold millions of recordings and are longtime trendsetters in their genres.
Franklin, a Fort Worth native, is one of the best-selling artists in gospel music history, with a stack of Grammys, gold records and chart-topping hits. His 1993 album, Kirk Franklin and the Family, shattered the wall between gospel and R&B/hip-hop. Sixteen years later, Franklin has topped Billboard's Top Gospel Album chart nine times, selling more than 12 million copies.
The Grammy-nominated Newsboys have been creating hit music for more than two decades. The contemporary Christian music group owns six gold albums and 25 No. 1 Christian singles. The Australian band's hits include "Shine," "He Reigns" and "You Are My King (Amazing Love)."
Kevin Michael "Toby" McKeehan, aka tobyMac, won four Grammys as a member of dcTalk, the groundbreaking Christian rap/hip-hop/rock trio. Earlier this year, hegained a fifth Grammy for his latest solo project - Alive and Transported. TobyMac's Web site describes him as "a creative force, an artistic maverick and a prophetic voice for racial reconciliation [and] social justice
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In addition to the music, there'll be extreme sports exhibitions and messages from Portland evangelist Palau.
Corporate and individual donors are footing the bill for the event. No offerings will be taken.
Organizers say the festival will appeal to a wide cross-section of Arkansans. "If you want head-banging hard rock, you've got Living Sacrifice and Bread of Stone and Seventh Day Slumber.If you want gospel, you've got Kirk and to some extent Toby and Anthony [Evans]. You've got country, you've got popular Christian music with the Newsboys," Chastain said. "It's a diverse package: something for everybody."
Living Sacrifice, a Christian metal band, formed in 1989 in Little Rock. One of its original members, guitarist Jason Truby, eventually joined P.O.D., recording a song for the Matrix Reloaded soundtrack. Today,Truby has a new group called "Truby" and they'll make their debut live performance during CityFest.
Also headed to central Arkansas - Craig Morgan, a country singer "who happens to be Christian," Chastain said. "He's very open and outspoken about his faith."
Morgan, a Tennessee native, has had a number of songs on the country music charts. But his biggest hit of all, which spent four weeks at No. 1, is "That's What I Love About Sunday."
CityFest is hoping the lineup will draw big crowds. "In a city the size of Little Rock, we may have anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 per day. That would certainly be our prayer," Chastain said.
The lineup impressed one Arkansas radio official.
"Those are some pretty big names, as far as Christian music and gospel music goes," said Jeremy Louis, assistant program director at KLRC-FM, 101.1, in Siloam Springs.
His station plays tobyMac and Newsboys frequently - "at least seven times a day - at least," Louis said. "They're two of our core artists."
Franklin, on the other hand, is a perennial favorite on Arkansas' urban gospel stations.
More information is available at cityfest2009.com.
Religion, Pages 14, 15 on 08/29/2009