LITTLE ROCK — For Casting Crowns, concert performances and tours are part-time jobs.
The contemporary Christian band members also have “day jobs” as worship leaders or schoolteachers in their Atlanta area churches. Forays into other parts of the world usually take place on weekends, such as the coming one, when the band of five men and two women will visit Verizon Arena.
“Teaching is where our hearts have always been,” says Casting Crowns lead guitarist Juan DeVevo. “Mark Hall, our lead singer, is the youth pastor and he lets me teach 12- to-13-year-old boys at the school. Since I started doing that, I’ve become totally committed to the teaching of teenagers.
“To us, it’s like two sides of the same ministry. We’re not just staying out on the road and never getting a refill of what we also enjoy doing. Instead we get a recharge when we get home from the road.”
DeVevo was in on the founding of Casting Crowns in 1999 in Daytona Beach, Fla., along with his wife, violinist Melodee DeVevo;guitarist Hector Cervantes, and singer-songwriter Mark Hall.
The foursome moved to Stockbridge, Ga., in 2001 and soon added bassist Chris Huffman, drummer Andy Williams and keyboardist/accordion player Megan Garrett. (Williams departed in 2009, and was replaced by Brian Scoggin.)
Lead signer Mark Miller of 1980s country band Sawyer Brown heard early independent label albums by Casting Crowns, and signed them to his label. He then touted the group to Steven Curtis Chapman, who was also impressed and took an interest in also helping the young band.
“Mark was on vacation atthe beach with Steven, and played him one of our albums,” DeVevo says. “Those two guys ended up producing our self-titled debut album in 2003.”
Casting Crowns (named after a biblical vision in Revelation 4 of people casting their crowns down before the throne of heaven) has gone on to release five more studio albums and four live CDs, with total career sales of 5 million copies. The latest Casting Crowns album, Come to the Well, was released a year ago.
DeVevo, whose early guitar influences include Dan Crary and Tony Rice in the bluegrass realm and Brian May of Queen in the world of rock, says that working in a seven-member band requires a couple of tour buses, since many of the members take along their families.
“Melodee and I have a 5-year-old boy and a 3-year-oldgirl, and they and their nanny travel with us,” he says. “Megan, the other woman in the band, has a new baby and she and the baby and her husband and their two other kids make the trips. Mark’s wife is our road manager, so she helps keep us all together.”
For DeVevo, his career path has taken a dramatic turn since he got his college degree, which was in aviation. He had wanted to be a fighter pilot, but the rigorous requirements gave him pause to consider another path, especially when he met his future wife in Florida and they started exploring their mutual love of Christian music and youth ministry work.
“Most of the time, we make it home to be in our churches on Sunday,” he says. “We do our big work with young people on Wednesday nights, then maybe hit the road on Thursdays for shows Fridays and Saturdays.”Casting Crowns
Opening acts: Kristian
Stanfill, Kerrie Roberts
7 p.m. Saturday, Verizon
Arena, East Broadway
and Interstate 30, North
Little Rock
Tickets: $46.50, $36.50,
$29
(800) 745-3000
Weekend, Pages 38 on 10/18/2012