The Petra Zone

All 4 languages on this page: http://www.johnwschlitt.com/fans/newsletter.htm

Happy 2013, my friends! It’s great to talk to you again! What a great year last year – what an even greater year it’s going to be THIS year!

I’m starting to work on a new Christmas album and I hope you’ll be willing to partner with me again, using Kickstarter to help fund the project. I really enjoyed the interaction with Crew members on the special Crew website, which I hope to have again. I’m super excited about the fact that I’m finally going to do a Christmas album! I was very much reminded of it this past Christmas and I was really disappointed that I didn’t have a contribution to make to that wonderful season of the year. I want to take care of that this year! With a Christmas record you have to start on it at the beginning of the year if you want to do it right, so this is my plan. Keep your eye out for updates as it progresses…

On top of that, Petra is rekindling itself! I’m very excited that Bob, Greg (Bailey), Cristian and myself are getting back together on a 40th Anniversary Tour involving an opening act that you all will remember as the Grammy winning producer of many Petra albums – namely John Elefante! http://www.johnelefante.com/ This will create a very interesting mix of both secular and Christian music for both of us; the goal is to open up our pasts musically, showing the progress that God has done in both our lives – all wrapped around Petra’s ministry.

Petra has also been invited to perform on The Classic Rock Tour 2013 with several secular bands including Asia featuring John Payne, ELO Part II alumni Phil Bates (The Music of Electric Light Orchestra Klassik) and former Genesis frontman Ray Wilson (Genesis Classic), all getting together in different parts of the world as a team effort; we’re looking forward to the possibilities!

Here’s something very new with my own music: I now have a guitarist AND a back-up singer for solo dates, in addition to track and band dates! Rob Solberg, my band’s guitarist, and his wife Debra are joining with me to offer promoters a new way to hear my music. As a trio, it’s a step between a solo track date and a full band performance. Rob is an excellent guitarist, and Debra has a great voice – so all three of us will be live on stage. Here’s a sample of them on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/dustdaisies

My concerts (solo, trio and band) will also be multimedia performances; I’ll be singing while select videos play on the overhead screens. The videos will include Petra hits, my recent videos from “The Greater Cause” and others from my three solo albums. It makes for a very exciting effect!

So far the year is looking very busy – and I love that kind of thing. So keep an eye open – you just never know where you may find me!

Thank you for your prayers of support; we’re going forward and asking God to guide us in each step that we make and each opportunity that opens up. So if the Lord puts us on your hearts - please pray for us and the right direction to go in.

Thank you so much for caring about the ministry that God has for us, and for partnering with us in prayer.

…John

If John does a Christmas album and the songs don't rock, there's no way I'll be getting it. To me, getting some John sung rocking Christmas tunes would be the whole the point.

I think with the way The Greater Cause has been received is reason enough for John to keep on rockin'. John knows where his bed is made, so I think anything other than a Christmas rock album would damage all the work put in by him and his team over the last 2 years.
I'm really excited about John Elefante opening up the tour this is really great news, I'm hoping that he will be bringing his band along because I heard they rock out with some old Kansas & Mastadon songs.

Are you sure John Elefante will be touring and not Dino? As for a Christmas album that's great-although I am not a fan of most original Christmas works. They have to be really good and I find a lot of the original stuff wouldn't even make side b of a single. Here's for hoping!

rexreed wrote:Are you sure John Elefante will be touring and not Dino? As for a Christmas album that's great-although I am not a fan of most original Christmas works. They have to be really good and I find a lot of the original stuff wouldn't even make side b of a single. Here's for hoping!

Dino will probably be there because he is John's usual live production guy and also Dino is a member of Mastedon. As for a Christmas album I'm like you and excited about this because its Petra related but have never really been a huge Christmas song fan; I've always been one to focus more on the Easter aspect of the Christian Faith than on the Christmas end. That being said I would love for John and/or Petra to do a concept album based on the Easter Aspect of Christianity.

I'm telling you, How Many Kings is right up John's alley. He could do so much with that. And it covers the birth and the cross in one song.

Do you have a link to the song?

Hi Sue,

Here is the link for Downhere's How Many Kings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UyiAnUE53U

Cheers!

I like it...

Downhere's got good stuff. I listen to some of their songs and hear a lot of similarities to old Elefante produced stuff.
Seriously, there aren't enough version of Drummer Boy. I haven't heard a reggae version. John could rock the dreadlocks, and a slow reggae beat with some nice dancing.

Little Drummer Boy is really a great song with a huge message. White Heart's version a few years back really rocked.

Yeah, for my money, nothing holds a candle to the Whiteheart version. I saw them do a last minute show right before they released Highlands. They did some previews for Highlands, and some older stuff, including drummer boy. It was insane. One of the best shows I've seen. Those guys could knock it out of the box.
It was last minute opportunity for them to replace some other bands that had to cancel. They were able to get there early and walk the beach and just hang. They mentioned from the stage that they didn't have to say yes to doing the show, but they were overwhelmed with the sense that God had orchestrated everything for them to be there, for his purpose and glory. Great guys.
I also got to see a preview of the Saltbox tour, and it was great to see John come out and sit off to the side and watch their set.

You know, Whiteheart was really pretty good for a Christian oriented band. I was listening to some of their stuff the other day, some of which I hadn't heard since the 80s when I played it on radio. They didn't appeal to me much then. Convertibles....psh! Their sounds and arrangements are what I was paying attention to.

I always thought of Whiteheart as "the poor man's Petra".

Good band. Rick Florian is a killer lead singer. Fantastic guitar work, at least when Dann Huff and later Gordon Kennedy were laying down the chops. It's just that musically, it's like they never really found their groove, and every album sounds like it was recorded by a different band. Of course with their revolving-door line-up, each album practically was recorded by a different band!

I like the music, but they just didn't have that "something" that made Petra so phenomenal.

Mountain Man wrote:I always thought of Whiteheart as "the poor man's Petra".

Good band. Rick Florian is a killer lead singer. Fantastic guitar work, at least when Dann Huff and later Gordon Kennedy were laying down the chops. It's just that musically, it's like they never really found their groove, and every album sounds like it was recorded by a different band. Of course with their revolving-door line-up, each album practically was recorded by a different band!

I like the music, but they just didn't have that "something" that made Petra so phenomenal.

Agree completely. The tones and notes were there. The unifying musical soul was not.