Contact:
Robin Geelhoed, (616) 698-3345 [P], robin.geelhoed@zondervan.com
Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven Combines Philosophy and the History of Bluegrass
Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 25, 2009 – Bandmates David Crowder and Mike Hogan team up to share their experiences with grieving, suffering and hope in Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die (November 2009). Part philosophy, part music history, part snarky commentary, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven gives readers a glimpse into the interworking of Crowder and Hogan’s mind. Scary, yes but also extremely heartfelt and even enlightening.
“This book is a meditation on grief and the soul,” says Crowder. “It is a book about the pain of absence. It is about the sharpness of memory that eventually dulls into something we both fear and pray for. It is a book about dying. The kind of dying that involves the physical body that everyone of us will one day experience, but also the kind of dying that is necessary, before that moment of mortal death, for true living to begin.”
Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven was inspired by the death of close friend and pastor Kyle Lake who was electrocuted while baptizing a member of their church. His death left Crowder, Hogan and their entire church heartbroken and struggling to grieve.
This book is an homage to the hope they found while grieving – the same bittersweet hope that exists in bluegrass. According to Crowder, “things inside us began to spill over, and we started collecting them in this book.”
By looking at the history of bluegrass Crowder and Hogan take the reader on a philosophical journey to the center of the soul, but unlike a similar discussion in a philosophy class, their commentary sparks hope and an understanding that pain and grief are essential parts of truly living.
“Bluegrass music holds both suffering and hope. Both are inherit and necessary.”
The unique formatting in Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven encourages readers to interact with Crowder and Hogan. The book includes instant message (IM) conversations between Crowder and Hogan and three parallel stories are told in columns throughout the book.
Everybody Wants To Go to Heaven releases during the David Crowder*Band’s 32-city national tour promoting their new CD, Church Music. The CD will release on Sept. 22 from sixstepsrecords and EMI CMG Label Group.
With over 23,000 followers on twitter and an active myspace and web page, David Crowder*Band gave fans the opportunity to follow the making of Church Music through live 24-hour studio web-cams and viral videos titled “Rockumentaries.” With around 50,000 views, the four short films include parodies chronicling everything from a twitter obsession to battling guitar solos for the new record. To view these “Rockumentaries,” visit www.youtube.com/davidcrowderband.
On the heels of the highly successful Remedy Club tour which sold out notable clubs and theatres across the US, David Crowder*Band will headline the Church Music Tour with opening acts Danyew and Seabird starting this Oct. Appropriately titled, most of the tour’s 32 stops will take place in churches across the country.
About David Crowder
David Crowder is the pastor of music and arts at University Baptist Church (UBC) in Waco, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Toni. He is also a part of the rock-and-roll extravaganza known as David Crowder Band (sixstepsrecords/EMI CMG). For more information visit www.davidcrowderband.com or follow him on twitter: crowderband.
About Mike Hogan
Mike Hogan plays in the David Crowder*Band and, although Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die is his first venture into the world of books, he has done a good bit of music writing for various magazines. When not on tour, Mike enjoys spending time at home with his wife, Robin, and his son, Walter.
About Everybody Want to Go to Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die by David Crowder and Mike Hogan
Zondervan
9780310291916
272 pages
$16.99
Hardcover, printed
PUB DATE: Nov. 2009
Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die is revised and updated and was previously titled Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die or the Eschatology of Bluegrass (Relevant Books 2006).
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