Violins expand sound of Christian rock

The numerous Guitar Hero controllers slung at the Ichthus Festival reinforce the electric six-string's dominance in rock and at Ichthus.

But there was a little four-string instrument that also had a subtle but noteworthy presence in Wilmore last weekend: the violin.

It started with John Porter of Battle of the Bands champion Mile7 pulling out his violin for a few numbers, and it ended with Casting Crowns' Melodee DeVevo showing her well-documented skills with the instrument during Casting Crowns' festival-closing performance.

In between, we were treated to moments including the opening of the set by Skillet, one of the hardest-rocking bands on the main-stage lineup. The band's intro, a countdown of sorts, was teasing the crowd with anticipation of one of Skillet's trademark explosive openings. Instead, we got some virtuoso violin from Jonathan Chu, who also has toured with Todd Agnew. Throughout Skillet's set, he continued to remind us how important violin is in the band's music, especially in powerhouses such as Savior.

The David Crowder Band's Mike Hogan also was responsible for key moments, including the searing bridge in You Are My Joy. And then there was DeVevo, coloring most of Casting Crown's hits with her box.

This is not foreign to rock. Boyd Tinsley has been an exciting rock violinist for The Dave Matthews Band for years, contributing an honest-to-goodness violin-hero moment to the band's tune Jimi Things and playing a key role inw the hit Ants Marching. Lisa Germano has been an exciting violinist for numerous rockers, most notably John Mellencamp.

It's great to see this happen more and more in Christian rock. We can get really comfortable with guitar, bass, drums and keyboard and forget a broad palette of sounds available out there.

And it gives the audience a chance to hear a really fine instrument that has been around for centuries and takes genuine skill and expertise to play. That's not to take anything away from the guitar-slingers at Ichthus. There was certainly some guitar virtuosity out there. Mile7's main stage set concluded with a guitar-violin duo that showed both Porter and lead guitarist John Cloninger as masters of their instruments.

But I daresay there probably aren't many violinists out there playing professionally in classical music, rock or other genres who haven't put in years of study with teachers and in ensembles honing their craft so that even in a non-traditional setting they can blow you away. I always say people innately recognize something genuinely exceptional when they hear it, like the opera singer who astounds you with the national anthem before a baseball game. And we heard quite a bit of it from one little four-string box at Ichthus this year.