It’s been awhile since our last entry — it’s time to get caught up.
The DOVES were recently featured in John Holland’s blog, “Voices to Hear” — “the best music you’ve never heard”.
http://www.avoicetohear.com
Last week we were added to the radio lineup of South Waves Radio, located on the beautiful southern coast of England, about 75 miles south of London. A very cool station in Sussex.
http://www.southwavesradio.co.uk
We offered “King of Kings” to the world back in early September. We have received some enthusiastic and encouraging response from it, for which we are truly grateful. It was our hope — well, mine, anyway — that KoK would be widely embraced, and distributed across Christendom; for worship and devotion: public, congregational, and personal. Our gift to the Kingdom.
That was the plan. But the Lord has yet to sign off on it — so far, at any rate, that has not been the case.
I joined a plethora of “Christian” Facebook groups, dutifully posting a link to KoK on each one. Some of these groups have 25K members. Others only a few hundred. It seemed like a good way to promote the song and vid, to an audience who would be receptive and likely to enjoy it. I imagined it was possible that the song might get widely shared, and if not go viral, then at least undergo a mild contagion.
It hasn’t. And I’m somewhat mystified as to why. I really don’t understand Facebook; and am no enthusiast of it. It seems a repository of the shallow and simple-minded; a superficial reflection of our superficial culture. It doesn’t increase my estimation of it that my own personal page was disabled, because I was using it, along with others, to promote The DOVES. That violates some arcane, arbitrary set of rules. An incoherent form of legalism, considering what’s permitted on there.
I was even accused on one of the Christian pages of being a “spammer” — presumably because I had made the same post of KoK on quite a number of pages. I guess for some people, Facebook is a hobby; and people are usually far more fastidious and vigilant in regard to their hobbies than their jobs.
So be it.
Right now, Trena and I are in the process of compiling a new batch of material. We have the music beds completed on three tunes — “Pulse”, “The Day You Were Born”, and “Set in Stone”. They await our finished vocals, held up by extended bouts of bronchitis. With me, that’s not such a big deal. But it is with Miss Thang — “The Voice”.
We picked up a bug on the plane (always) on our trip to Oregon in early December, and it is persistent.
Can’t wait to get those in the bag; along with the other two (and perhaps three) earmarked for our first compilation release since the “Day (One)” EP — “Maybe Tomorrow” and “Let Me Go”.
As usual, the only things the tracks have in common is Trena and me.
I’m handling the recording and mixing this time; along with the instruments, including bass, keyboards — and, of course guitar. I will be accompanied by my new BFF Kyle, who is resident in the garageband program on my updated MacBook Air. The cat can play.
Joey Stuckey, our long time collaborator (Shadow Sound Studios — engineering, production, and bass) and local musical genius, will handle the mastering for the project. It’s hard to imagine attempting anything in the field of recorded music without Joey’s input and support.
So — Lord willing, we’ll begin vocals soon, and have this project completed and to you by early spring!
One last thing -- I just put this post on some local music Facebook pages, as well as our own:
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A tune from our first album, “Day (One)”. I was at Shadow Sound Studios one afternoon, when Joey (Stuckey) played me a tune he was collaborating on with an artist in Detroit [a long distance, Was (Not Was) sort of thing]. It was a musical bed for the guy’s song; who would then overdub his vocals in the Motor City. It floored me. I thought, “I gotta do me a little electronica!” I had a song that had been bouncing around for a long time. It had never been played except on acoustic guitar — strummed triplets, to simulate the synth bed in my imagination. I brought it to Joey, and asked him if he could make something of it. Boy, could he. And he did.
Here is “a song that addresses loneliness, suffering, and the universal need for love within the spiritual void of the post-modern landscape”: “Some More Than Others”