The Petra Zone

John did interviews and lunch with PDC today. Very cool. John was debuting his new short hair. Looks very professional. Saw Louie and Viktor. Those guys were the only ones to look like rockers! Viktor plays a showcase tomorrow for some industry folk.

Talked to Michael Sweet a bit. He has a hymns disc out. The Stryper DVD will be out. A new Stryper disc is planned.

Viktor may look like rockers but they don't sound like rockers. I heard they only have one date this year and it's at a pub.

The new songs are better than the previous sampler. The production is finalized on these. The sound a bit more aggressive.

will be interesting to hear

I'm hoping they get off the ground, but I'm not holding my breath.

brent wrote:John was debuting his new short hair. Looks very professional.

:( He's the one that inspired me to grow my hair long. Does that make me lame?

brent wrote:John did interviews and lunch with PDC today. Very cool. John was debuting his new short hair. Looks very professional. Saw Louie and Viktor. Those guys were the only ones to look like rockers! Viktor plays a showcase tomorrow for some industry folk.

Talked to Michael Sweet a bit. He has a hymns disc out. The Stryper DVD will be out. A new Stryper disc is planned.

Who or what is PDC?

It stands for Project Damage Control.

it's an album that Brent and his former band did last year, that features John as vocalist.

Lots of familiar faces from CCM's history were out in force this week here in Nashville... saw Tony Palacios, Jamie Rowe, David Bach, and Karl Ney from Guardian (ALL under the same roof on TWO separate occasions... couldn't they have done Dr. Jones and the Kings of Rhythm just ONCE?), saw PHIL DRISCOLL?!?!? closing out a showcase on 12th and Porter, saw Rick (Riq? Ricke? Rik? Rhic?...etc.) Florian perform with Billy Smiley at the Club NV showcase where Viktor (consisting of a lot of veterans)played, where of all people, Rex Carroll (formerly of Whitecross) was in attendance. Of course Michael Sweet was here and there, Bryan Duncan was around, I ran into Geoff Moore in the Rennaisance Lobby, John and Dino Elefante were seemingly everywhere. Oh... and watching the CHOIR (Deri Daughtery, Steve Hindalong...) perform was a COMPLETELY unexpected treat! What next, the 77's?!?!

All in all, it was a very encouraging GMA week as there appeared to be less of the manufactured commercialism of 10 million new bands of teenagers you've never heard of and more of the classic artists, producers, and personnel who got the whole thing rolling. There may be hope yet for the at times seemingly bloated industry...

Time will tell! But this was easily one of the cooler GMA weeks in recent history...

Oh... and watching the CHOIR (Deri Daughtery, Steve Hindalong...) perform was a COMPLETELY unexpected treat! What next, the 77's?!?!

I vote for Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen.

more of the classic artists, producers, and personnel who got the whole thing rolling.

Really.... and WHY wasn't John there in a solo capacity... (sigh)

less of the manufactured commercialism of 10 million new bands of teenagers....There may be hope yet for the at times seemingly bloated industry...

Well that's some of the best news I've heard about this in a long time. Let's hope.

... the list was far from complete. Like you pointed out, Schlitt wasn't around (at least I never saw him), and neither was my boss (not that I ever really expect to see him there no matter how old school it gets). I could go down a really long list of people who maybe could have or should have been there, but my point was that I saw a shift in direction... maybe that will carry over into next year, or maybe this year was a fluke and the fabricators of mediocrity will be working overtime to see to it that next year is far more meaningless.

And finally, if there was someone not there for whatever reason, then perhaps it was by that person's choice. Showcases are not very difficult to book or get on board with here in Nashville during GMA week... even my old band Kainos had a showcase scheduled (until once again, their whole band vamoosed on them... oops!) and I know for a fact that they have NO record deal, very little (if any) money, and have little to show for when they WERE signed (just over 2,000 units according to Soundscan).

The showcase at 12th and Porter had over 30 bands playing in one night on 2 stages... and each act got about a 20 minute set, which ain't too shabby. LOTS of no-name acts mixed in with some of the more well-known artists... I don't know all the circumstances or costs, but it seems like something John could have easily been a part of...

I've heard that Rick Florian had stayed away from the CCM business and was a real estate agent; Could this be a sign that maybe White Heart might be doing something again? I know when they said they were no longer a group they made it clear that they were just taking a break to see what else was out there. So maybe we could see them again in te future.

Yeah, I'd love to see a Whiteheart reunion too, but it's not likely to happen. Rick Florian is and continues to be a very productive realtor here in Tennessee http://www.rixre.com and was actually performing with Billy's group, 'Syphony in Red' that is signed to his (Smiley's) label.

Oh, although there WAS another degree of coolness to the evening... the bass player for the act was none other than Anthony Sallee, who consistently played with Whiteheart from the Freedom tour to the Highlands tour.

I recently ran into Brian Wooten (Whiteheart's lead guitar player for about 6 or 7 years) who's playing for Trace Adkins now... Greg Herrington, formerly with Geoff Moore and the Distance, is Martina McBride's drummer.