MUSIC

Winter praise tour is Jam-packed


Tobymac
Tobymac

— Not too many touring road shows let anyone in for a flat 10-spot, let alone present 10 acts for that price.

So it goes with the Winter Jam, which has been coming to central Arkansas for more than a decade - so long ago, in fact, that the package of contemporary Christian acts logged a few shows at Barton Coliseum, back before Verizon (then Alltel) Arena.

NewSong hosts the Jam, which is presented by World Vision. In 2011 and 2012, the Winter Jam was the No. 1 tour in the world during the year’s first quarter. This year’s tour began Jan. 4 and will visit44 cities before concluding March 30 in San Antonio.

TobyMac, the winner of a Grammy Award and a recent American Music Award for Favorite Contemporary Inspirational Artist, is headlining the tour.

“Rolling into the biggest arena in a town is always a thrill,” TobyMac says. “This is my third Winter Jam; the others were in ’07 and ’09, and the diversity of the music is what I find appealing, along with the spiritual emphasis. It’s a full production, with all the great lighting and sound - a full-on entertainment value.

“And hopefully, people will leave refreshed, as well as sweaty, hoarse and refreshedin spirit.”

Born Kevin Michael McKeehan in 1964, TobyMac became one of the first Christian artists to tap into rap. A member of the vocal trio DC Talk for 13 years, he went solo in 2000, and has since released 10 albums, the latest of which, Eye on It, came out in 2012, making TobyMac only the third Christian artist to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. He has sold more than 3 million albums as a solo artist and 11 million overall.

“The album was also No.

1 on iTunes,” he says. “So I’m really honored and humbled by it all. It was nothing I had my eye on, no pun intended.”Winter Jam

Performers: TobyMac,

NewSong, Red, Matthew

West, Jamie Grace, Side

walk Prophets, Royal Tailor

(Youth Music Vault Pre-Jam

Party includes Jason Cas

tro, OBB and Capital Kings)

with speaker Nick Hall

6 p.m. Sunday, Verizon Are

na, East Broadway and

Interstate 30, North Little

Rock

Admission: $10, on sale only

at the door

(800) 975-9000

www.jamtour.com

Weekend, Pages 34 on 03/07/2013

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