Review by Andrew Baker

I would really like to know why there are so many really good Christian bands coming out of Texas. Some of the top Christian bands with roots in Texas include MercyMe, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Salvador, Yolanda Adams, and Robbie Seay Band. There are even really good up and coming bands from Texas that include Brandon Heath, Addison Road, and Poor Rich Folk. Another outstanding band from Texas that is definitely a veteran of the road and of the studio is Shane & Shane.

Shane Barnard and Shane Everett, collectively known as Shane & Shane, got their start leading worship at Breakaway ministries at Texas A&M University during their college years. On August 28^th, 2007, they released their fifth studio album, Pages, with Inpop Records, and in the first week, they had their biggest sales debut selling over 10,000 albums. Only a week after the release of Pages, they played to an almost sold out crowd at Hughes Auditorium on campus at Asbury College. The “Pages” tour is a grueling 73 concert tour with Bebo Norman and Monk & Neagle, with alternate dates being played by Shawn McDonald and Bethany Dillon.

The concert started out with a very impressive duo from Amarillo, Texas known as Monk & Neagle. They are not well known yet, but I was really impressed with the six songs that they played at Asbury. With just the two of them playing during their performance, Monk & Neagle both provided vocals. Their music is best described as Acoustic Pop. Their biggest songs are “The Twenty-First Time” and “Dancing With The Angels.”

They also introduced a song called “What Soldiers Do” that is definitely a heart-string pulling song about a father going to war who has to say goodbye to his son. The father says, “Love is the reason I would give myself for you because that’s what soldiers do. Hold on to Jesus because he will pull you through.” These songs will be on their new album, The Twenty-First Time, which will be released on September 18^th.

Bebo Norman

Bebo Norman was the official opener for Shane & Shane.  This was the first time I had seen him in concert, and  I really didn’t know that he was as young as he is. He definitely writes music that is years beyond his age. Many people who see him in concert may not realize that he doesn’t play with a guitar pick. He has long fingernails on his right hand, most likely acrylic, which is a preferred way of strumming by many acoustic style guitarists. Bebo also sings to the 4^th row, which was just over my head at the concert. Every musician has their own section of an audience that they sing to, and most of them don’t realize that they’re doing it.

Bebo sang a 10 song set that ended with “Nothing Without You” followed by “Great Light Of The World.” As the sound crew prepared the stage for Shane & Shane, Bebo talked about Compassion International. He said he got started with Compassion when he heard Rich Mullins talking about it a few years prior to his death. While Bebo talked about his experiences with the group, volunteers for Compassion passed out packets that included information about kids around the world in need of sponsorship.

Shane & Shane

Shane & Shane came on stage to an audience who knew that they would be hearing and participating in worship music. Their newest song “We Love You Jesus” was released as a single in July, and has been performed in concert for most of the past year. It was the third song they performed during their concert at Asbury. They followed with “Psalm 118, and this is where Shane Everett confessed to the audience that the had something that all musicians are afraid of while on tour…the common cold. He said he was unable to sing the high parts that he sings in the music, and instead he sang the low parts. And it was then that the audience got to see the fun side of Shane & Shane.

Shane Barnard told Shane Everett that he likes it when he is sick, because his low voice enables him to sound like a “man” in line at drive through restaurants. He said he usually gets called “mam.” It was funny that they were just on stage talking and joking with each other like there was no one in the audience. A relationship like this is hard to find in bands that spend so much time together. They spent most of the past 10 years on the road together, and they perform together over 250 concerts a year.

The fact that they have such a good relationship is an endearing part of Shane & Shane. There are many bands that have to produce this stage relationship during a concert like it’s a shtick. And when they are off stage, they barely talk to one another. For Shane & Shane, this seems to come naturally. It honestly helps their audiences warm up to them when they are on stage.

In the song “Beg,” Shane & Shane demonstrated their ability to use loops in their music. A loop is when a band can record part of their music that will repay itself throughout the song. This helps smaller bands sound mush bigger. Shane Everett turned the stage microphones around toward the crowd, and asked the audience to clap on beat with the drum. This clapping became part of the song. It was really cool to hear the product of the audience participation in the song.

“Holiday,” from Pages was performed right after “Beg.” Iwas surprised that no one was singing along with this song. "Holiday" is one of my favorite songs on Pages, and it has a very memorable melody. But since it had only been a week since the album was released, it made sense that there weren’t very many people who knew the song. By the end of the Pages Tour, every audience will be singing along to this song.

Shane Barnard talked about “Embracing Accusation” before he started singing it. He said he was running on a beach in New England  when the enemy reminded him of his failures. He said the devil actually quoted scripture to him from Galatians 3:13.Cursed be anyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.

Shane said that this thought was all he could think about until the Holy Spirit reminded him of the second part of that scripture; Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. It was such a pivotal moment for him that he wrote a song about the experience, and most of the songs from Pages came from Bernard’s journal.

The last song they played during the concert was “Yearn.”This song is from their Clean album, and had a hymn feel to it. Their worship set peaked during “Yearn.” Shane Bernard continued to strum the chords to this song while the other band members walked off stage. Everyone in the audience was singing the song when Shane & Shane walked off stage. The audience ended the concert in unison singing “Lord I Want To Yearn.” I was very impressed with Shane & Shane’s ability to make their audience part of the concert.

I was also impressed with how much was going on stage musically during the concert. Veteran musicians, some of whom played during Bebo’s set, joined Shane & Shane for the Pages Tour. Taylor Johnson is the well known electric guitar player for Shane & Shane. Gabe Scott who is a regular player with Bebo, played guitar, hammer dulcimer, banjo, dobro, keyboard, and even accordion. It was fun to watch him switch instruments during the concert. The remaining musicians who played with Shane & Shane were Joey Parish on drums, Todd Cromwell on bass, and Claire Indie on cello.

The concert was 3 ½ hours long, which is not considered long for a college age audience. The only disappointing part of the concert was due to Shane Everett’s sickness. Since he was unable to sing his normal part in the concert, it was mostly a Shane Barnard concert.