Published: July 09, 2008 11:43 am            

HolyPalooza!

Christian rock shows in Ashland's Central Park Saturday

ASHLAND — The second annual HolyPalooza Youth Concert will be in Ashland Saturday and headling will be The Jason Lovins Band of Ashland.

Sponsored by the Durbin Nazarene Youth Group, the event begins at 5 p.m. and concludes at 10 p.m. at the Central Park amphitheater.

Lovins, a Kenova native who now lives in Ashland, and his band are spending most of the summer as the band that leads worship at Centrifuge, an eight-week camp in Panama City Beach, Fla., sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources.

“We had no idea that it was the largest Christian camp in the world,” he said.

The four members will fly in for HolyPalooza.

The other band members also are from the area:

Jeremy Wolfe, also of Kenova, is the drummer; Philip Abbott of plays bass; and Anthony Tackett of Flatwoods is the lead guitarist.

Lovins’ wife, Jana, also is working at the camp this summer. The couple live in Westwood.

Lovins said he always loved to sing, even when he was an 8-year-old singing in church.

He attended First Baptist Church in Kenova but didn’t really become involved until he was a student at Morehead State University and met other ambitious musicians through the Baptist Campus Ministries, which led to the band’s involvement with Centrifuge in 2002.

He said he knew how to play songs for an audience, but leading worship was something entirely different, adding he learned a lot from camp pastor Tony Merida.

“That summer, I left as a worship leader,” he said. “Tony helped me understand what it meant to really worship God.”

The band’s self-titled first album was released this spring. A release by Lovins himself titled “Songs from Sunday” includes his original songs as well as mainstream worship songs.

Ashland resident Julie Reeves and her band, GodsChild, will appear, as will Better Day Parade, Chris Fellar and Shawna McCown, among others.

In addition to musical acts, there will be free food, inflatables, corn hole games and prizes. Those attending are asked to bring a lawn chair.

For more information, call Jason M. Crum at (606) 465-6933, Durbin Church of the Nazarene at (606) 739-8717 or e-mail crumjmc@windstream.net.

For more about The Jason Lovins Band, visit jasonlovins.com or myspace.com/jasonlovinsmusic.

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.

        

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