"Alive On The Waterfront" takes place on July 6 at Waterfront Park. Toby Mac, Rachael Lampa, The Elms and a variety of local artists will be on hand for the event, the first of it's kind in Louisville.
The last time I saw a concert at Waterfront Park was the P.O.D.-headlined "LRS Fest" a couple of years ago. That was a "lively" affair with some of the hardest moshing I'd ever seen (Disturbed was also on the bill). This is a different event, with a more positive and friendly take on having fun.
Headliner Toby Mac will undoubtedly be the main draw of the day and will probably have the crowd rocking pretty hard. His solo style is not that far off from P.O.D., so I imagine the crowd will be pumped.
"When you've spent over a dozen years as one-third of an entity," he says, "then a part of you starts to wonder how much of what the band does is really you. So I guess the short answer to why do a solo album is because I needed to find out who I was as a solo artist."
The `entity' to which he refers is, of course, DC Talk, which he and friends Michael Tait and Kevin Max formed in the late Eighties. After a decade of pretty amazing musical development, huge-selling album releases and exhaustive touring, each man is now taking time with solo musical works. "I don't want to describe DC Talk in restrictive terms," he continues. "But when you collaborate, by necessity, a little personal vision is lost in the translation. And when you achieve success at the level that God has blessed DC Talk with, expectations sometimes run contrary to what your natural instincts as an artist might be."
Toby's first solo work, the title song from the movie Extreme Days, spent ten weeks at the top of the CCM Update Rock charts. However, the track didn't have the hip-hop sound many were expecting-instead it was a slamming, "rap core" track, which he says shouldn't surprise long time fans. When I interviewed Toby recently, I told him the song sounded like Limp Bizkit or P.O.D. He says that's a "fair assessment".
"A lot of times people forget that we have had dirty, distorted guitars on all of DC Talk's records." He adds, "I've been merging guitars, beats and rhymes since 1989. Combining those things is like a slice of heaven to me."
A variety of influences are brought together on his solo release Momentum. He explains: "I felt a desire to get back to a hip-hop base: call and response, crowd and artist interaction, the community feeling that hip-hop engenders. There are R&B B based songs like "Wondering Why" and "Somebody's Watching." There's a couple of hip-hop, `chanty' kind of songs and some funk-based songs like "J Train" as well as some laid back, acoustic rap like "Do You Know."
As a youth growing up in the northern Virginia suburbs near Washington DC, Toby remembers being attracted to the beats, rhymes and production of early rap music.
"I remember hearing a Kurtis Blow/Trouble Funk song on the radio and going to a local record store, and they didn't have it. Since I couldn't drive yet, I took the Metrorail into downtown DC and found a store that had that song; I bought the Sugarhill Gang's "Rappers Delight" that day as well. From there, it just caught fire. I fell in love with hip-hop music."
Toby last performed in Louisville with DC Talk at lat summer's Greater Louisville Billy Graham Crusade. "Alive On The Waterfront" marks his first solo performance in Louisville.
Rachael Lampa will be taking the stage just before Toby. Her list of "accolades" is long - very long for an artist who has released only one album. But in the last eighteen months, the seventeen-year-old Rachael has taken the world by storm, racking up awards, national TV appearances, radio hits and record-setting sales - while showing off vocal chops Billboard Magazine has compared to Mariah Carey. She also sang during last summer's Greater Louisville Billy Graham Crusade, and anyone who was there can tell you: the girl can sing.
At age 16, she experienced one of the largest career launches in Christian music, releasing her debut album, Live For You, the same day she performed the title cut on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." The next year, she was recognized at "The Hollywood Reporter's Fifth Annual Young Star Awards," scoring a nomination for Best Young Recording Artist or Musical Group. A few months later at the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards 2001, she picked up a win for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year ("Blessed"), as well as nominations for Female Vocalist of the Year, New Artist of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. In the past year-and-a-half, Lampa has made guest TV appearances on "The View with Barbara Walters," "Entertainment Tonight," CNN's "Showbiz," "The Miss Teen USA Pageant" and "Lifetime Presents: Disney's American Teacher Awards," among others. She's also been featured in Seventeen, Teen People, and USA Today. She went on to tour with Plus One, Stacie Orrico, and I as mentioned, sang in the Billy Graham Crusade. That's a busy year!
A year older, she released with her follow-up album, Kaleidoscope, in March. This time she branches off, pen in hand, writing on five of the album's eleven songs: "Lead Me (I'll Follow)," "Give Your Heart Away," "I'm All Yours," "A Song For You," and "Sanctuary."
Obviously a lot has happened in the world over the last 18 months as well. According to Rachael, "A Song For You", though written before September 11th, speaks to that. "After everything happened, I wound up talking to my friends who were still waiting to get serious about their faith until after high school. It was so important to me to have a song that challenges us to make the most of every moment and realize what this life is about and why we're living it. I think September 11th has really awakened some of my friends and made them realize the time is now to make a full time commitment to God."
Rachael has a style that goes from ballads like "No Greater Love" to the more upbeat "Savior Song" which will probably have the crowd moving July 6th. I've seen her perform live several times, and she can deliver a powerful vocal performance. I'm looking forward to hearing her sing live that night.
Also on the bill: The Elms, The Fusion Worship Band, Esther's Request, One Small Coin, and others. Tickets are $10 day of show.
Also this month: Summer Jam comes to Valley View Church on the 29th. Newsong, True Vibe, Brother's Keeper, new artist Freddie Colloca and a returning Rachael Lampa, will be at Valley View Church. Tickets are $10 at the door.