August 25, 2003
Denver and the Mile High Orchestra
The Toledo Blade reports on Community Spiritfest '03,, which features several Christian musical performers including Denver and the Mile High Orchestra.
Denver Bierman, the Mile High Orchestra’s frontman, said the 13-piece band got its start in 1998 when he was a student at Belmont University in Nashville. The group has released two discs, "Act the Scat" and "Stand," on Reel Loud Records."We're a Christian band and there's a very clear presentation of the gospel of Christ, but at the same time it's highly entertaining," said Mr. Bierman, a 26-year-old Indiana native. The show band consists of university-trained musicians and it boasts a wide-ranging repertoire that includes swing, jazz, rock, funk, Dixieland, and gospel.
"We do a bunch of older hymns like 'It Is Well With My Soul' and we kind of spice them up. It's a very different interpretation of the hymns," Mr. Bierman said. With many modern churches opting for contemporary music in their services, there are a lot of younger church-goers who have never heard traditional hymns, he said.
"The church I go to in Nashville is very contemporary and they don't play many hymns, so this is a way for us to take some classics and expose them to a number of young people," Mr. Bierman said.
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