Award-winning artists coming to Culpeper

A Grammy-nominee and GMA Dove Award winner will be performing in Culpeper Tuesday as the Follow You tour comes to town at 7 p.m. at Culpeper County High School.

Brandon Heath, the Dove Award-winning Male Vocalist of the Year and Leeland, a Grammy-nominated band, headline the concert with special guest Francesca Battistelli.

The tour, sponsored in part by Food for the Hungry, is an effort to inspire Christians to reach out to others and provide help.

Last week the Star-Exponent spoke to Jack and Leeland Mooring, the two brothers of the band “Leeland.”

CSE: How would you describe your band to someone who has never heard you before?

JACK: I would describe it as progressive, creative worship music, with definitely some pop rock and British rock influences

CSE: What would you say is the main message of your “Love is on the Move” album?

JACK: I think the main message is love is action. The only way we can really live in this world is to pursue God and be close to Him. When you have that relationship with God, I think it’s really sad if those experiences don’t translate into action, you know? If we’re reading the Bible, and praying, and singing songs and worshiping God in that way we should also be worshiping Him in our day to day actions whether that’s with our family or the homeless person across the street. Basically it should translate into action in our daily life. That’s really what the record is about – a love that’s moving, a love that’s acting all over the world and in our homes too.

CSE: What songs are people most responsive to on this tour?

LEELAND: Obviously they hear Brandon and Franny quite a bit on the radio they have a connection with songs like “Give Me Your Eyes” and “Free to Be Me.” The connect for us as a band are songs like “Pure Bride” or we even sing a few older songs like “Tears of the Saints” and “Yes You Have” that maybe a couple people out there have heard and can sing along with us. We’ve been getting a huge response to “Pure Bride” — we do it at the end of the night — so it brings good closure to the evening. Spiritually, everyone just goes there with us at the end of the song and gets lost in it for a moment. It’s a lot of fun for us.

CSE: Can you describe a typical day on the road (if there is such a thing)?

LEELAND: Yeah, well, I guess everybody’s day kinda starts at different times but we have about four crew guys and their day starts around 9 a.m. they start setting up stuff and unloading the trailer. Sound check is around 3 p.m. then after sound check we have a tour devotional. Someone will either share a testimony or read some scripture and encourage each other for a minute and then we go out and pray over all the seats and for everyone that’s coming. Then we have dinner at 5 p.m. The doors open at 6 p.m. and we do a meet and greet where we meet people before the show – radio winners and stuff like that. The show starts at 7 p.m. usually. But every day has its challenges and crazy things happen so on normal days we try not to get locked into a grid.

CSE: I’m sure you get asked lots of the same questions while on this tour. Is there one question you wish someone would ask you but they never do?

JACK: That’s a really good question! I guess it would be what our heart as a band is. Our ministry is bigger than this tour in that we have a long-term vision. It’s also specific to this tour. Our calling as a band is that we want to draw people closer to Jesus. Our hope is that when people come to one of our concerts they really will experience God in a huge way and that they fall more in love with Him. We pray that that is happening and we know it is because we’ve had people come up to us and talk about the impact that our music and God has had on their lives and that’s keeping us going. But long term we would love to be doing this 20 years from now on a bigger scale. We’re very thankful for the people who’ve supported us and come out to the shows, bought tickets and our records. We’re so grateful for that.

Want to go?
What: Follow You tour
Where: Culpeper County High School
When:  Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. doors open at 6 p.m.
Tickets: Advance $15 General Admission ($12 groups of 15 or more) $18 at the door
Available through Mt. View Community Church, Culpeper Baptist Church, Digital Caffeine and itickets.com