The Ole Brook Festival entertainmentheadliner this year is Christian contemporary band Big Daddy Weave,and lead singer/songwriter Mike Weaver is excited to be back in theSouth.

    “We’re all from the Pensacola area,” he said during a telephoneinterview earlier this week. “We feel at home playing in the South.Not to mention the travel is easier because we all havefamilies.”

    The band formed at the University of Mobile 13 years ago. They havesince put out five studio albums, a holiday album and a recentlyreleased “best of” record.

    “It’s neat to have all the hits together on one album,” he said,speaking of the new collection.

    “Love Come to Life,” a new song on the collection, is the name ofthe current tour, and Weaver said he expects it to be the name ofthe band’s new album set to come out in the first quarter of2012.

    Weaver, 35, explained his and the band’s desire to play musicstarted while growing up in church.

    “We all just kind of grew up around music in the church,” he said.”And we started out saying we were going to play where God puts us.Now, this is a scary time in life with the economy and otherthings. The value of what we do comes from getting to share hopewith people.

    “Really the entirety of our music has come from that place(church),” he continued. “It’s really just been Christian-specific.Faith is the most important part of our lives, and when we writesongs, we just kind of write about our lives.”

    Weaver said his own music taste is wide-ranging.

    “You can find everything from heavy metal all the way to jazzfusion stuff,” he said. “Then at the same time, I’m liable to bedownloading the latest Katy Perry song.”

    One of his favorite memories of going to see a concert was when hesaw Buddy Miller in Nashville.

    “He was just playing his stuff and it was great,” he said. “Thenout of nowhere, Robert Plant comes out on stage with him. No oneknew at all he was going to be there.”

    While Weaver enjoys being able to travel – the band has toured inplaces as far away as Canada – he said the best thing is comingback to play the South.

    “We are a bunch of Southern guys,” he said. “It fits us, and that’skind of our heritage. And we love getting to travel and see therest of the South.”

    He said his favorite thing about being with the band is that thereare so many memories and the brotherhood that exists among themembers.

    “We’ve seen each other go through different parts of our lives,” hesaid. “And it’s cool because we’re all like brothers. We fight likebrothers, too. And nobody is closer than these guys, and we’re justreally thankful for that.”

    Weaver said the band looks forward to playing in BrookhavenSaturday night as they take the main stage after opening act KerrieRoberts at 6:30 p.m.

    “My favorite part of the shows is connecting with the audience,” hesaid. “We’re excited about coming to Mississippi and seeing who’sgoing to come out and be encouraged by the hope you can have inJesus.”