New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Rick Hoganson Media Relations) Four-time GRAMMY, multiple
Stellar and Dove, and Soul
Train Award winner
Israel Houghton will share the stage for the very first time with peers Kirk Franklin,
Marvin Sapp and
Donnie McClurkin on The King's Men tour. The 15-city major market US tour begins Sept. 16 at Comerica Theatre in
Phoenix and travels coast-to-coast through Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, DC and more before culminating in Brooklyn, NY at Barclays Center Oct. 14. Tickets for the tour are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. (See full tour itinerary below.)
Having individually headlined sold out concerts internationally, the four music celebrities join forces in what Live Nation Entertainment, the world's leading live entertainment and ecommerce company, is banking to be a hit for the fall touring season.
"In the Gospel world, this is like Springsteen, McCartney,
Prince and Elton hitting the road together," said
Kevin Morrow, Senior Vice President of Touring at Live Nation, in a recent news release. "It's going to be a once in a lifetime event for music fans."
For Houghton, the tour follows two back-to-back Billboard Top 200-selling, GRAMMY Award-winning solo studio albums, as well as his first live recording in five years with New Breed, Jesus At The Center, which releases Aug. 14 on Integrity Music. Recorded live over four days in front of more than 29,000 worshippers at Houston's Lakewood Church, this double-CD, 18 song album with three additional studio singles features
Israel & New Breed returning to their roots, delivering new anthems for the modern day church.
"We purposely wanted to emphasize being a resource to the church worldwide," says Houghton. "As we embark on the second decade as a cross-cultural worship movement, we pray these songs speak life, love, hope and favor over you… and most importantly place Jesus at the center of His global church."
Joining
Israel & New Breed on the studio version of the Gospel single from Jesus At The Center, "It's Not Over (When God Is In It)," are acclaimed vocalists Jason
Nelson and
James Fortune. The single, which is available on iTunes® July 3, has already garnered the No. 1 Most Added status at radio, and debuted at No. 22 last week on the Billboard Gospel Songs chart. The Christian AC single produced by hit maker Ed Cash (Chris Tomlin, Britt Nicole), "Your Presence Is Heaven," is available on iTunes July 17.
Other guest vocalists featured on the live recordings are
Aaron W. Lindsey, Michael Gungor, T-Bone, Bishop Michael Pitts, Jeremiah Woods,
Daniel Johnson, Charlin Moore, Adam Ranney, Tina Baker, Onaje Jefferson, Krystle Harper and Israel's daughter, Mariah Houghton.
In addition to the Jesus At The Center two-disc album, a companion DVD was recorded live in high-definition and features all 18 songs along with behind the scenes footage, story-behind-the-song vignettes and other bonus material.
In 1995,
Israel and Meleasa Houghton founded New Breed Ministries, an organization they continue to run and that is comprised of noted musicians and singers who serve within their respective churches and together serve the Church at large. Since then,
Israel & New Breed has amassed a legion of followers that crosses generational and African American, Latin and Caucasian listener lines. While blasting down barriers,
Israel has been fittingly graced with 2 Gold-selling albums, 4 GRAMMY Awards, 12 Dove Awards, 2
Stellar Awards and a Soul
Train Award.
Active as worship leader in his local church, Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church (Houston),
Israel has served as worship leader at
Hillsong conferences and
Franklin Graham crusades. He has written or co-written 11 CCLI Top 500 favorites, been featured on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, accompanied
Alicia Keys at the 2007 MTV Video
Music Awards for a performance of
George Michael's "Freedom '90," and performed at the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards. He uses his own multi-cultural upbringing as a reference point with a desire to draw people of all races, ages and cultures together. More information on
Israel & New Breed is available at www.newbreedmusic.com.
Israel Houghton's tour itinerary follows:
DATE - CITY - VENUE
Sat, Jul 14 - Olathe, CO - Night Vision Festival
Sat, Jul 28 - Tallinn (Estonia) - A. Le Coq Arena
Tue, Aug 7 - Tacoma, WA - Champions Centre
Wed, Aug 15-18 - Auburn Hills, MI - Joyce Meyer Conference at Palace of Auburn Hills
Fri, Sep 14 - Fairfax, VA -
Grace Covenant Church
The King's Men Tour:
Sun, Sep 16 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
Wed, Sep 19 - Los Angeles, CA - Gibson Amphitheatre
Sat, Sep 22 - Concord, CA - Sleep
Train Amphitheatre
Tue, Sep 25 - Dallas, TX - Verizon Theatre At Grand Prairie
Wed, Sep 26 - Houston, TX - Reliant Arena
Fri, Sep 28 - Atlanta, GA - Chastain Amphitheatre
Sun, Sep 30 - Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena
Tue, Oct 02 - Tampa, FL - USF Sun Dome
Thu, Oct 04 - Norfolk, VA - Constant Convocation Center
Sat, Oct 06 - Washington DC - Verizon Center
Sun, Oct 07 - Philadelphia, PA - Liacouras Center
Tue, Oct 09 - Cleveland, OH Wolstein Center
Wed, Oct 10 - Chicago, IL - United Center
Fri, Oct 12 - Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
Sun, Oct 14 - Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center
