At a small church situated eight miles into a scenic country road, a large group of high schoolers and their parents, relatives, and church leaders are causing a joyful ruckus -and it's all musician Steve Kropp's doing.
In between singing into a microphone, playing the harmonica, and strumming his acoustic guitar, Kropp encourages a bout of audience participation that gets kids and adults alike clapping, singing, and dancing in their seats.
A native of Tamaqua, Steve Kropp, son of Herbert and Kathy Kropp and grandson of Richard and Kathleen Jones, Tamaqua, and Dorothy Kropp, New Ringgold, is a contemporary Christian musician making waves on the music scene and Christian radio stations with his album, Magnify, released last July, and a new CD, Peaks and Valleys, slated for a late Aug. /early Sept. release.
A resident of Fredericksburg, VA, Kropp's visit to the church pertains to the Youth Week 2 Camp, one of the many summer camps hosted by the Pocono Mountain Bible Conference in Gouldsboro, which Kropp himself attended as a child.
"I think kids need to see younger people in ministry," he said about the campers, whose ages range from 14-18. "When they see a 28 year-old musician, they can relate more."
Growing up, Kropp was constantly active in the church, singing in the choir on Sundays and participating in Christian retreats. Despite choir, however, Kropp had no formal musical background during his childhood, something that comes as a shock after hearing him perform.
"I didn't play any instruments at all; I was a jock in high school," laughed the 1996 Tamaqua High School grad. "When I picked up guitar, I wasn't good. God really blessed me when I started playing for Him."
It was Kropp's athletic ability that, strangely enough, led him to learn an instrument. While on the track team at Lock Haven University, a teammate of Kropp's taught him how to play the guitar.
"He would bring his acoustic guitar on the long bus rides to our meets to keep us entertained," Kropp said. Kropp asked his teammate to show him some chords, and soon enough, became enamored with guitar, and was given one by his parents that Christmas.
After graduating from Lock Haven, Kropp moved to Virginia, where he attended graduate school at the University of Virginia. Kropp faced many life-changing events after his move to the south, including meeting and marrying his wife, Tracy, and becoming a physical therapy specialist at school districts in Fredericksburg.
"I feel that we need to be disciples in many areas of our lives," Kropp said. "For me, helping kids in that way is just as important as spreading the word through music."
The event that brought Kropp to the little church in PA, however, was not so easily imagined. The pastor of Kropp's church in Virginia asked Kropp what he could do to best serve the church. After some soul searching, Kropp decided that music was the answer, and began playing guitar during contemporary church services on Sunday mornings.
That was about 5 years ago. Since then, Kropp has composed many original songs that are played during services. His songs became so popular with congregation members that Kropp was encouraged to record his work, and in the summer of 2004, he stepped into a recording studio, with the hopes of spreading his message to an even wider audience.
"I would work on about one to three songs at a time. I'd record a song, run out of money, then record another song," he said.
After hearing Kropp's music, local churches were eager to invite him to perform at their functions and festivals. Kropp's popularity soon went well-beyond local fame, and demand for his performances spread throughout the Mid-Atlantic states. Last year alone, Kropp played over 85 times, from Sunday church services in Virginia to festivals in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Between all of that performing, Kropp started work on his newest CD, Peaks and Valleys, which is in the final stages of production. Unlike Magnify, Peaks and Valleys is an all-acoustic album featuring Kropp's guitar-made melodies harmonizing and overlapping with violins, violas, cellos, mandolins and banjos.
"The last CD was more pop-oriented," Kropp explained. "This one is to appeal to older youth and young adults. It's more grown-up, metaphorical and symbolic. I feel that it needed to sound that way."
Though Kropp occasionally writes songs with others, he prefers to pen most of the lyrics himself, and hopes to make more albums dedicated to spreading God's word in the future. With his second album set for release, Kropp is now working on getting his work published.
"I'm certainly going to keep writing and writing. We'll see what happens," he said. "I'm going where God puts me. Right now, I 'm doing what I feel called to do."
