All-Star Christian Music Trio Is Alltogether Outstanding
A supergroup is to music as an allstar team is to sports.
It’s where the elite of the elite unite and combine their broad talents and diverse influences in hopes of achieving something that’s both musically creative and fun.
In Christian music, one supergroup has been amassing hefty recognition in the last six months.
The group consists of Christian songstresses Margaret Becker, Susan Ashton and Christine Dente.
What originated as an acoustic studio project by their record label, Sparrow, now anchors the opening slot for the Alltogether Tour, which arrives at the Spokane Opera House on Sunday.
The trio will be followed by Out of Grey (fronted by Dente and her husband Scott) and solo performances by Ashton and Becker.
Last fall, the Becker-AshtonDente triumvirate released its first collaboration, an acoustically charged, spiritually uplifting album called “Along the Road.”
What’s great about the album is that it’s a group effort. There doesn’t appear to be any inflated egos battling for the spotlight. All three singers, with their distinctive voices, shine as a group.
Much of Becker’s solo set will focus on material from her new album, “Grace,” which is perhaps her best effort to date.
Whereas Becker will first play acoustically with her trio, expect the momentum of the night to shift as she will opt to plug in for her performance.
“The acoustic thing that’s going on in the marketplace, I love that,” Becker recently told The Tennessean. “I’m born out of it. But personally, that’s not exciting me as much right now as the experimentation with different textures that are available through sampling.”
On “Grace,” Becker employs a multitude of musical styles, from worldly sounds to electronic, danceable ones, thus making the 35-year-old singer one of the most hip contemporary Christian musicians in the genre.
“I have really delved into a lot of rave and house music and world music, and I wanted to use the colors from some of those palettes,” she said.
Becker has not only embarked on a fruitful music career, which has garnered her several Dove Award nominations and a Grammy nomination, she has also devoted much time and energy to helping others. She serves as the spokeswoman for World Vision’s 30-Hour Famine, a fund-raising event designed to feed the hungry.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The Alltogether Tour Location and time: Opera House, Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $23.50 and $17.50, available at area Christian bookstores and G&B