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The Hays First United Methodist Church invites the community to attend a free Christmas show at 7 p.m. Saturday by Cloverton, a band based out of Manhattan.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. at the church, 305 W. Seventh, Hays. No tickets are required.
Without the help of a record label, Cloverton propelled onto the Christian music scene in 2011 as the first ever ROCK THE CAMP contest winners hosted by TobyMac and Camp Electric.
Soon after receiving this prestigious honor, Cloverton scored the No. 1 most downloaded song in the history of KLOVE radio for their first single "Take Me into the Beautiful," which also charted at No. 12 on the overall Christian Billboard top 25. The Manhattan based band followed up that effort with an unforgettable Christmas rendition of Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah,” reaching millions of viewers (YouTube) in just weeks while climbing to the No. 1 slot on iTunes and being featured on CNN, The Blaze (Glenn Beck), and several other media outlets.
The band would go on to record and release their first full-length studio album with a wildly successful crowd-funding campaign.
The record “Patterns” was met with favorable critical reviews and was widely embraced by their growing fan base. A year later, Cloverton would release a Christmas EP titled “We Sing Joy,” which climbed to No. 1 for multiple weeks on iTunes.
The band would follow that up in 2017 with the full-length record, “Bloom,” which was touted as their most complete and creative piece of work to date. In 2019, Cloverton released another Christmas EP titled “Come and Adore.”
From their humble beginnings as a small church worship team, to the recent release of their highly anticipated sophomore album, Cloverton continues to pave a new way for independent Christian music.
“None of us are into compromising or settling for the status quo. It’s a daily choice. To what or who am I surrendering today?” front man Lance Stafford said.
“We are either moving toward or away from the person God has specifically created each of us to be. Our aim is to create music that inspires, awakens and frees the next movement of leaders, artists, pastors, visionaries, inventors, missionaries, dreamers, and teachers as they walk out that journey.”
For more information, call the First United Methodist Church office at 785-625-3408 or visit www.haysfumc.com.