See a dozen bands for just $15 at Winter Jam at Wichita’s Intrust Bank Arena
“I Know A Ghost,” the latest album from Christian artist David Crowder, won’t sound foreign to fans that have heard his first two solo albums, “Neon Steeple” and “American Prodigal.”
Like those predecessors, “I Know A Ghost” blends together seemingly incongruent musical elements – the modern rhythmic and sonic tones of hip-hop and EDM and the bluegrass/country touches provided by instruments such as banjo, fiddle, dobro and lap steel guitar – creating a folk-ish rootsy rock sound with a uniquely urban accent.
But the way Crowder wrote the songs on “I Know A Ghost” was starkly different from how he created the music, not just on his two previous solo albums, but the eight studio albums he recorded as frontman of the David Crowder Band from 1996 through 2012.
Having moved to Atlanta shortly before making 2016’s “American Prodigal,” Crowder had become fascinated by the hip-hop scene in town and taken note of how those artists created songs and how prolific they were in the amount of music they released.
“It seemed like they’d blow out a 20-song drop every month. I’m like how in the world are you all so (prolific)? So I just started watching the process. And I was like man, this is what I need to do. I’m going to approach the writing totally different than I ever have,” Crowder explained in a late-January phone interview. “What would happen is my buddies would go into the studio, and then there would be a guy who has made a bunch of beats (the track guy). He’d start scrolling through beats and be like ‘Hey, are you feeling this?’ And they’d nod along or whatever and all of a sudden something would change in the room. You’d connect with it. They’d be in the vocal booth and (before you knew it), there would be your next song. It would take like no time at all because you’ve got the beat, you just do a little arranging and there it is, out the door.”
So Crowder decided to employ a similar formula for “I Know A Ghost,” bringing in track guys to create basic rhythm tracks.
“They’d send me tracks. I’d get a Dropbox folder or whatever through the internet and there’d be six to 12 songs that would just be like a verse-chorus idea,” Crowder said. “I would just scroll through them and one would click and I’d pull a guitar out and there was the song. It felt like I had never made music before. It was like ‘Oh my goodness, I could do this all day every day. This is a blast.’”
The new songwriting approach for “I Know A Ghost” yielded an album that is similar stylistically to “Neon Steeple” and “American Prodigal.” But “I Know A Ghost” might feel a bit more epic than the previous albums, as Crowder employs layers of sound and assertive rhythm tracks on many songs.
The three solo albums have continued what was already a highly successful career for Crowder in the Christian music world.
The David Crowder Band saw its final four albums top “Billboard” magazine’s Christian album chart (with the group’s last album, 2012’s “Give Us Rest,” also reaching No. 2 on “Billboard’s” all-genre Top 200 album chart).
Both 2014’s “Neon Steeple” and “American Prodigal,” topped the “Billboard” magazine’s Christian album chart, while “I Know A Ghost” opened at No. 2 on that chart. Two of the album’s singles, “Let It Rain (Is There Anybody)” and “Red Letters” have been top 10 hits on the Christian singles charts.
Crowder is continuing his touring cycle for “I Know A Ghost” by headlining this year’s edition of Winter Jam, a leading Christian music tour that features about a dozen acts. He headlined the 2016 edition of the tour and was on several earlier Winter Jams as well and said he has relished the camaraderie and family-like vibe of the tour.
One of the challenges that comes with Winter Jam, though, is Crowder only has about 45 minutes for his headlining set. But he thinks he has overcome that issue quite successfully.
“I’m kind of borrowing from my hip-hop friends that are in the ATL,” he said. “You can arrange a song where it feels like you experienced the whole song, but it only takes a minute and a half. Old-school country guys used to blow through a song that way as well. So I’ve just truncated a bunch of the songs to where we’ve got arrangements that are flowing one into the next and you get through five songs in less than four minutes. It’s like wow, that was a blazing through the record right there. It’s my favorite set list we’ve ever put together, and I don’t think I’ve ever said out loud. I love this set list because (usually) I’m always kind of picking and choosing and moving things around (in the set list). Here it felt like this is a blast to play, it really is.”
Winter Jam
When: 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7; doors open at 6 p.m.
Where: Intrust Bank Arena, 500 E. Waterman
How much: $15 donation at the door
What: Christian music festival featuring about a dozen bands including Hillsong Young & Free and speakers Zane Black and Billy Ballenger.
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 5:02 AM.