Hammond headlines 2DE Gospel Festival

July 7, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

Visiting Mahoning County in the summer is nothing new to Fred Hammond. The award-winning gospel star has plenty of memories of spending his youth with family in Youngstown.

“I almost grew up in Youngs-town,” said Hammond, calling from Dallas. “My mother would come and see her sister. We’d stay long periods of time during the summer.

“I remember back in the day when the Red Barn was on the main street going through town. My mom would stop there before we would actually get to the house. We’d get a little hamburger. I loved Youngstown.”

Not only does Hammond feel he was raised in Youngstown but his spirituality has ties to Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church.

“It was an amazing church, I loved going there,” Hammond said. “Actually my cousin, Gary Brantley, was the drummer for the church and I used to love to watch him play. It’s a very musical church. Bishop Wagner was very influential in my life as well. He kept tabs on me and was one of my mentoring figures in my life.”

The 55-year-old singer is excited about his upcoming return to the area as headliner of the second annual 2DE Gospel Festival taking place Sunday in downtown Youngstown.

“We’re back to where we started,” Hammond laughed. “This is the first time I’ve been to a festival in Youngstown. We’ve done a lot of different things there. We played DeYor Performing Arts Center a lot but this is the first outdoor event I can remember coming to do.

“That should be real fun to get the community out. Outdoor festivals are amazing to me.”

A producer known as the “Babyface” of gospel, the Grammy Award-winning Hammond first garnered national attention as a member of The Winans and Commissioned, before creating Radical for Christ and going out on his own.

Up next for the singer is the release of his first live album in more than 15 years. The 12-track “Worship Journal Live,” which was recorded in Houston earlier this year, features the lead single, “Father Jesus Spirit.” Hammond said he’s really excited about the new song.

“I’ve always been kind of different in my approach to worship music and what I like,” Hammond said. “I see this as like a world party song. One day I was watching television and Pitbull came on. He had like 50,000 people jumping and dancing. I said, ‘I want the church to feel this way about serving God.’

“So this song is basically a song like that. If you can imagine people jumping and singing at the top of their lungs, it’s a church party song.”

You better believe in Hammond’s mind that party is the 2DE Gospel Festival.

“We’re going to do a lot of old stuff and previewing some brand new worship material,” Hammond said. “We’re going to kind of give a high-five to everything.”