By Dawn Burleigh

The Orange Leader

 

A Christian duo known as Shane+Shane and Contemporary Christian artist, Phil Wickham presents their annual Christmas Tour 2019 featuring a fun, family-friendly evening filled with holiday songs and original worship music. 

Three-time Dove Award winners, Shane and Shane are a Texas-based worship duo who joined forces while attending A&M University. 

Leading worship since the age of 13, Phil Wickham has released 6 albums featuring hit songs, “Cannons,” “Divine Romance,” “Heaven Fall Down,” and “At Your Name.”

Shane+Shane is a Texas-based, contemporary worship music band known for acoustic praise and worship music. The band consists of Shane Barnard on vocals, acoustic guitar and Shane Everett on vocals.

Shane Barnard grew up in Lubbock, Texas, where he attended Texas Tech University and later Texas A&M University. It was there that he led worship at the popular Christian student gathering Breakaway, and where he met Everett. Barnard is also known for his unique style of strumming the acoustic guitar and his high vocal range. During his junior year as a student at Texas A&M University, Barnard began a recording career. 

Shane Everett, a Dallas native also attended Texas A&M University. One night after playing with his band in a bar, Everett felt moved by God, which led him to quit his band and start attending church regularly. Shortly thereafter, he met Barnard, and became part of Breakaway Ministries, a weekly student-led praise and worship service at Texas A&M, according to a press release.

“If the Shanes aren’t writing or collaborating with other people, they’re in the office working on content for The Worship Initiative. A lot of the work is pulled together by our team, but they’re the same people that play together at shows with us,” Carter Henderson, with The Worship Initiative, said. “Our Keys, Bass, and Electric players all work for the Worship Initiative in some capacity. It’s really a tight family around here.”

The band originally began with Barnard performing solo acts, but Everett increasingly played a major role in his performances. In 2002, the band released their first album, Psalms, under the new name “Shane & Shane”. The duo continued to release albums in the following years, including Carry Away in 2003, Upstairs in 2004, and Clean in 2004. 

The duo went on hiatus for a year after the release of An Evening With Shane & Shane, a live CD/DVD. Following the hiatus, the group released five albums in the next six years, including The One You Need in 2011, which charted at No. 53 on the Billboard 200, making it their highest-charting album. The One You Need was also the first album released under the Fair Trade record label.

In 2014, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Shane & Shane launched a project, “The Worship Initiative”, a paid membership website with instructional videos and chord charts for popular worship songs. As part of the project, they have released multiple albums including two Christmas albums. Their subsequent studio albums, The Worship Initiative and Psalms II, are also included in the project.

“We’re actually releasing a Christmas EP on Thanksgiving Day with a few songs that’ll be played on tour. Little Drummer Boy, Oh Holy Night, and The First Noel are on the record and they’re recordings of our tour versions,” Henderson said. “If you want a sneak peek, the EP will be released under both The Worship Initiative and Shane & Shane.”

Phil Wickham is, at his core, a humble and sincere artist who writes songs and worships God using the medium of music. It is with that brush that he paints images of a loving and creative God across the canvases of listeners’ hearts and minds. The evidence of this gift has been apparent on all of his critically acclaimed efforts. His certified single “This Is Amazing Grace” gave Wickham his first career No. 1, holding the top spot on Billboard’s National Christian Audience Chart for 13 consecutive weeks. The honors continued as the single was named Billboard’s 2014 No. 1 Christian Airplay Song of the year and BMI’s 2015 Christian Song of the Year. In addition to its success at radio, the song has become a beloved anthem in the modern church, increasing Wickham’s recognition as a gifted artist and songwriter with a true heart of worship. “Living Hope” marks Wickham’s first song from his forthcoming collection of the same name which was unveiled on August 3, 2018.

Tickets start at $25 at www.lutcher.org. Discounts for groups of 10 or more are available via the Lutcher Box Office at (409) 886-5535.