LITTLE ROCK — Three musicians have combined their talents for a contemporary Christian tour dubbed - yes, The 3 in 1 Tour.
The three - Mandisa, Laura Story and Brandon Heath - have all won Dove Awards and been nominated for Grammy Awards (Story has won a Grammy, the 2012 Best Contemporary Christian Music Song, for “Blessings”). The three performers will do their own thing while sharing the same backing band.
Mandisa (born Mandisa Lynn Hundley) may have the most prominent name, having appeared on the fifth season of Fox’s American Idol singing competition.
“We are all very different, but the show will feature us collaborating on one another’s songs,” Mandisa says. “I tend to be a little more pop, but what we have in common is our faith in Jesus.”
A graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., Mandisa was a member of the college’s Jubilee Singers, which led to gigs singing in the background for Trisha Yearwood, Shania Twain and Take 6.
During her time in 2007 on American Idol, Mandisa endured comments about her weight from the show’s host, Simon Cowell, who apologized after she confronted him. She has since recognized that she had an eating compulsion and set out to make changes.
“I’ve lost 100 pounds since I was on the show,” she says. “It’s like being set free.”
Her first album, True Beauty, debuted at No. 1 on the Top Christian Albums chart and she went on to sing “The Right Thing” on the soundtrack of a VeggieTales movie, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. She has since released two more studio albums, plus two Christmas CDs, and is planning to release a new album in the summer or early fall.
The story of Laura Story began when she left a college band, Silers Bald, in South Carolina to pursue a solo career. Her first album, Indescribable, was released in 2002, and the title cut was recorded by Chris Tomlin two years later.
Besides her Grammy win in 2012, Story had cause to celebrate when she and her husband had a baby girl on Sept. 14, although her husband, Martin Elvington, had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“He is doing well, showing a little improvement each day,” Story says. “We are all out on the tour together - him, our baby, Josephine, and my mother, so it’s a family affair.”
Story, who sings and plays guitar and piano, also has a “day job” that allows her time to tour. She and her family live in the Atlanta area, where she is the worship leader and women’s pastor for the arts and music community at Perimeter Church.
“It’s a Presbyterian congregation, a little more progressive than most,” she says with a laugh.
The other member of the tour, Brandon Heath, has won six Dove Awards and has released four albums since 2006. His latest, Blue Mountain, came out in 2012. Born in Nashville in 1978, he began playing guitar at age 13 and found his Christian focus when he attended a Young Life camp. He has gone on to make faith mission trips to Ecuador, Uganda and India and notes that the 3 in 1 Tour is sponsored by the Food for the Hungry organization.
“I really love it overseas in Third World countries,” Heath says. “Jesus said ‘The poor will be with you always,’ and they need someone to stand up for them. Uganda keeps calling me back, to the northern part of the country, where kids were forced to be soldiers and are trying to get back to school.”
One of Heath’s favorite moments came when he read in People magazine that country star Carrie Underwood loved his song “Love Never Fails,” so he surprised Underwood’s husband, Mike Fisher, by singing the song when Underwood and Fisher had their first dance at their wedding.
“That was cool,” he says. “She has since become a good friend.”
Himself single, Heath is unhurried in finding a wife: “God will provide when he’s ready.”
The 3 in 1 Tour: Mandisa, Laura Story, Brandon Heath
7 p.m. Friday, First Baptist Church, 211 S. Market St., Benton Admission: $35 “artist circle,” $25 general admission (800) 965-9324 www.itickets.com
Style, Pages 34 on 02/26/2013