It used to be when I heard golden ticket I always thought of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, now I think of American Idol contestants making it past auditions and I can also now add Mark Schultz to the list.

If you purchased one of the gift tin collections from Mark Schultz’s online store you could be seeing a golden ticket in your future.

The gift tin is a 3-CD collection of Mark’s albums that includes:

• Broken & Beautiful
• Stories & Songs
• Song Cinema

If you purchase the tin, only from his online store, and there’s a golden ticket inside, you’ll be winning all of this stuff too!

• A Pair of Tickets to the Mark Schultz concert of your choice
• Meet Mark before or after the concert
• 1 free web store item of your choice (bundles not included)
• A phone call from Mark Schultz

The gift tins are available online now for $25. That’s three (1,2,3) CD’s of Mark Schultz for $25 AND the chance to win all that other stuff. Sounds like a great deal to me.

Jason Castro made it into the spotlight by making it to one of the final group of contestants for the 7th season of American Idol. He says he’s in 2nd place for all of life though. Do you know why?

There’s a campaign taking place in the Dallas area where a number of celebrities and well-known individuals are publicly stating their place in the grand scheme of things… behind God, who’s in 1st place in their lives.

Another musician that’s participating in the campaign is Brian Welch, from the group KORN.

Visit the I Am Second website for more people and hear their testimonies and videos.

1. Third Day: Call My Name
2. Matt Maher: Your Grace Is Enough
3. Fee: All Because Of Jesus
4. Mercy Me: You Reign
5. Casting Crowns: Every Man
6. Jeremy Camp: Let It Fade
7. Robbie Seay Band: Song Of Hope (Heaven Come Down)
8. Chris Tomlin: Jesus Messiah
9. Matthew West: You Are Everything
10. Natalie Grant: I Will Not Be Moved

Good to see a little bit more movement around the charts again and some great performers on the list but that’s pretty standard each week right?

A little bit of an interesting note though for someone coming up the charts that will be a breath of fresh and new air. Chris Sligh, from American Idol fame, is working his way right up the charts with his song “Empty Me”.

As I was looking for a new video of Brandon Heath’s new song “Give Me Your Eyes” I came across this other great song by Brandon, but American Idol’s Jason Castro is performing it in the video below.

Jason still has the sound that I like, I’m sure his album will be one I purchase when it comes out. My question is whether or not it will be released on a Christian label or not.

I’m going to make a strong comment in this review but I’ve been thinking about it now for the last few weeks as I’ve listened to more and more albums.

Justin McRoberts is the absolute best independent Christian music male artist I’ve heard since I’ve been blogging here at Christian Music Fan.

I received his album “Deconstruction” for review a number of weeks ago and I just can’t stop playing it over and over and telling everyone I know about him and this album. His clean and clear vocals really remind me a lot of Derek Webb, and his straight to the heart and mind lyrics continue the similarities. The talent isn’t just a mirroring of Webb though. Justin really brings a folksy touch to the sound that’s just lovely.

It’s not going to sound like a compliment, but I’m going to say this because I think there will be a number of people that will immediately get the connection and sound description. His solo vocals and guitar playing in the folk music style really reminds me recent American Idol contestant Jason Castro. Obviously much more performance experience and talent than Jason, but the melody of his singing immediately brought that to mind.

The album consists of 13 tracks that all tell a wonderful story:

1. Done Living
2. America and the Soul
3. A Hope Deferred
4. Driving by the Accident
5. Deconstruction
6. When it Don’t Come Easy
7. Religion Poisons Everything
8. On the Night You Were Betrayed
9. Bullhorn Theory
10. Hope is Where We’re Starting From
11. Common Sense
12. Until There Is No More Tomorrow
13. My Only Victory

With lyrics like…

“..the question isn’t if you’re going to suffer anymore, but what will it have meant when you are through. The question isn’t if you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die. Will you be done living when you do?”

on the song Done Living

and

“you curse the very ground upon which you are walking, to prove the point that you’re no longer walking on the ground. If it’s absurdity you find in my believing, tell me more what’s more absurd than believing in your doubts.”

on the track Religion Poisons Everything.

If you get this album I think I can pretty clearly guarantee that you won’t be disappointed in what you receive.

To give you just a taste, here’s a video of Justin McRoberts performing “Religion Poisons Everything“. Now I’m off to review his concert schedule and see if there’s any way on earth I can make it to one of his shows.

To enjoy more videos of Justin performing songs from this album just follow this link to his profile on YouTube. He’s posted the video of each song from his entire album. You’ve got GOT to take advantage of this and experience the music of this guy. He is tremendous!

Over the past year I’ve developed a new appreciation and enjoyment for the music of U2. I also have a few different contacts with musicians that have connections to Africa. When I heard about “In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2” I knew I had to get the CD and listen to it.

As soon as I slid this disc into my CD player in the car, I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed.

The music and rhythms and lyrics were comfortably familiar, but the voices and instruments were unique and beautiful all in their own right. The title track was even featured on Thursday night’s episode of American Idol. The song played during the segment with Forest Whitaker and his wife, Keisha Whitaker.

The rest of the album is filled out with these other favorites from U2. Although each song on the album connects with me in some way, the tracks I’ve bolded stuck out to me, they’re some of my favorite U2 songs in general as well:

1. Mysterious Ways – Angelique Kidjo
2. Bullet the Blue Sky – Vieux Farka Toure
3. Sunday Bloody Sunday – Ba Cissoko
4. Sometimes You Just Can’t Make It On Your Own – Vusi Mahlasela
5. Where the Streets Have No Name – Tony Allen
6. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – Cheikh Lo
7. One – Keziah Jones
8. With Or Without You – Les Nubians
9. Pride (In the Name of Love) – Soweto Gospel Choir
10. Seconds – Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
11. Desire – African Underground All-Stars
12. Love Is Blindness – Waldemar Bastos

You can visit the “In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2″ to purchase the album as well as hear the songs play through their site. You can also visit Amazon.com to listen to each track sample as you choose.

My wife and I just caught U23D at IMAX before it leaves town as well. That’s a great show if you’ve got the opportunity to see it.

I’m just enjoying the music of U2 more and more and this CD is absolutely fantastic if you like U2 and enjoy world music. It’s a great combination of the two and provides the opportunity to hear artists and musical groups from all over the continent of Africa.

It’s a definite purchase!

This is old news I guess now but I’m just now catching up. They performed this song last night for “Idol Gives Back” on Wednesday night but U-verse failed to realize that “Idol Gives Back” is part of the American Idol series recording.

Luckily they performed it again tonight and I got to see it.

Aside from being surprised, could you tell which singers didn’t appear to be too excited to be singing the song? What do you think? Am I reading too much into facial expressions?

Quite a different act than you’d expect to see on American Idol. The Clark Brothers performed “This Little Light of Mine”. Not the song you’d expect to hear anywhere out of Sunday School, much less on Fox television. As if that wasn’t weird enough, The Clark Brothers performed it like a hard-rock country group. There’s no doubting their talent on string instruments though that’s for sure.

Dolly Parton also performed tonight and the song she sang was “Jesus and Gravity”. Here’s the chorus from the song:

Somethin’ lifting me up
Somethin’ holding me down
Somethin’ to give me wings and
Somethin’ to keep my feet on the ground
I’ve got all I’ll ever need,
cause I got Jesus and gravity

Dolly is one impressive lady. At 62 she’s taken good care of herself and is still looking good at her age. My wife wondered aloud what she’d probably look like without all her make-up and wigs though. Not sure if I’m real interested in doing that though.

Image Source: The Clark Brothers MySpace page
Image Source: Dolly Parton on Wikipedia

In the original article on Christian Today, Mandisa said this about her faith and being on American Idol.

Mandisa says, “My faith certainly went through some tests of fire, but it’s stronger because of American Idol. I came out of that experience understanding Jesus better. I had been sheltered in Christian circles for a while, and AI helped me realise the kind of impact that Christians can make in the world around them.”

Great testimony. Since Jordin Sparks has a Christian background and outlook, I’m sure hoping she can have the same type of positive impact that Mandisa appears to be having in the music industry. I’m hoping that Jordin can do it in the mainstream area and be a role-model for a lot of young girls out there.

Jeanne and the article both stated that Mandisa’s album isn’t hitting stores until July 31st. I thought her album had already come out? Am I confused?

It’s really great to see Mandisa getting this album released and staying with her Christian beliefs and using her talent in the industry. She’s really got the talent, that’s undoubted. I think this continues to show that even with the drama and spectacle that surrounds American Idol, it really is uncovering some great talent.

You can hear the song for yourself by tuning into K-LOVE, visiting Mandisa’s official website, or her MySpace page.

Photo credit: Mandisa’s Official website