A hot and humid July evening in Houston, Texas, usually brings about its share of thunderstorms, traffic jams and the frantic buzz of two-income families running the home stretch of a hectic work week. But July 17th was a very different Thursday for several thousand Houston families as they packed into the sold-out 13,000-seat Woodlands Pavilion to take part in the 15th birthday party for KSBJ, 89.3 FM.

Headlining the event were six performers who at one time have called Houston home. Re-establishing that they were born and raised as a live band, Caedmon's Call opened the party playing several high-powered praise-and-worship songs and both No. 1 songs off their self-titled debut.

Following the sextet was Cheri Keaggy, who with a baby grand and some background music, took the "sea of people," as she described, through a chronological review of her budding career. Ending with two unreleased songs, Cheri explained that they were from her new album, which is due out in September.

Peabody alum David Meece closed the first half of the concert playing several of his Cornerstone songs, while taking time to speak to the crowd about the simple purity that God is the King of Kings. He went on to explain that the Christian walk is often clouded by self-inflicted turmoil, which should be submitted to God. Meece delivered his straight-forward message using humorous antidotes and personal stories to capture the crowd's attention during his 40-minute set.

Walking on stage to open the second half of the evening was a young, soft-spoken Jaci Velasquez. With only one album to her credit and 120 feet of emptiness to fill, Jaci put on what could be argued as the most energetic performance of the night. This teen had the stage presence of a seasoned veteran and all 13,000 fans on their feet, using an incredible array of vocal textures to steamroll through her set. For those of you that have heard Jaci on her album, "Heavenly Place," it is a MUST to experience her live.

Following Jaci, a rejuvenated Al Denson continued to stir the crowd with several songs off his new album, "Take Me To The Cross." Explaining that his personal life and musical career were brought back into perspective after his tragic airplane crash, Al brought everyone into the heart of each song to experience the love and grace that the Lord had blessed him with through that ordeal. A long-time Al Denson fan in the crowd said, "It wasn't the same man who I saw in concert a couple years ago. He has really changed."

Humble native Wayne Watson closed the night, transforming the arena into a small coffee house with his solo acoustic set. Wayne covered some of his older songs as well as material from his last release, including the crowd favorite, "If I Was You," a song about what he might do if he were God for a day. Wayne was joined by Al Denson at the end of the concert to lead everyone in a time of prayer and an alter-call that led everyone to the main focus of the night -- to worship Jesus Christ.

The greatest news of the night was that 11 people now have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and many more rededicated their lives. Establishing itself as one of the largest listener-funded radio stations in the U.S., KSBJ blessed everyone during its gala 15th birthday bash, providing great entertainment and a change to worship as a body without walls. KSBJ can be found on the web at http://www.ksbj.org/. (Since each artist performed at no-charge, please check out their albums and respective web-pages, too.)

-- by Matt Black