Well, it’s taken awhile — but we finally completed our “King of Kings” project. If “Why Did You Hurt Me?” is “straight from the heart”, then this one — “King of Kings” — is “straight from the Spirit.” At least, that is our hope.
We’ve taken everything we’ve learned in the last few years in terms of audio and visual production, and thrown it into this project. We pray it will be an honor and a blessing to The Kingdom. If you like it, and think that others might, as well — would you consider sharing it? Perhaps on your Facebook page, or as an email?
A dear loved one of mine and Trena’s commented, in regard to WDYHM, that “none of our songs sound the same”. That is not so much by design, as that we simply try to create music that we like, and hope other people might, too. I think it’s safe to say that “King of Kings” is unlike anything else we’ve done so far. We like it, and are grateful to have been given the opportunity to produce it. And we hope that you like it, too.
Here is some more info about the tune, from our “CD Baby” entry:
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W. Wade and Trena Stooksberry (The DOVES) depart from their regular fare of trans-genre “sad songs”, blues, and introspective retro pop-rock (“Why Did You Hurt Me?”, “Shut My Mouth”, “Mirage”, "Wild and Strange”, “Everybody’s Happy But Me”, et. al.) to take a Gospel turn with their latest effort, “King of Kings”.
“King of Kings” is an old-fashioned, drop-beat, stomp-your-feet praise and worship song: marked by its stately, unhurried rhythm; underpinned by the rhythm section of Joey Stuckey’s sinewy bass line, and Tim Alexander’s syncopated kick drum and choice percussion. Joe Turner’s keyboards add a soaring element that puts you in the pew of “that old time religion”, as does Trena’s angelic “choir”, which supports Wade’s calm, halcyon vocal melody.
“With a name like The DOVES, we get asked if we’re a Christian act,” said Wade. “It is not overtly evident from our body of work. I always tell folks ‘we don’t make “Christian music”. We’re Christians who make music.’ ‘King of Kings’ is an exception — and, I guess, puts the question to rest.”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. — John 1:1-3
“The idea with ‘King of Kings’ is to extol Jesus Christ as the Creator of ‘time and space, energy’ — our dimensional environment, and shared reality; which we know now is but a limited, bounded subset of a larger, ‘hyperdimensional’, spiritual one,” Wade continued. “That’s an office that is frequently overlooked in our praise of Him; and an exclusive attribute of His that we wanted to focus on. It is because He is our Creator, that He can be our redeemer.”
He offered the following on his own creative process regarding the song: “Some songs, you really have to go after. You might get the germ of an idea, and then knuckle down to follow where that idea needs to go.”
“ ‘King of Kings’ is one of those songs that came in a moment of inspiration. It practically wrote itself. It’s the first unapologetically ‘Christian’ song I’ve written; and it came along during a period in my personal walk where I was beginning to understand who Jesus truly is: not just a worthy teacher, or good role model, or radical prophet. But ‘very God of very God’; the ‘voice of the Burning Bush’; the self-existent, uncreated ‘I AM’ (John 8:58).”
“That occurred at a definite point along the way — my personal journey from what could be called a ‘typical’ atheistic materialism, that rejects the category of the spiritual, and relegates God to the imaginary — to the gradual realization that ‘everything that has a beginning must have a cause’. And since the universe has a beginning, it must have a Cause, a Creator. Of course, that is a pretty intellectual approach to faith; which is really a matter of the ‘heart’, or soul — the whole person. There were experiential events in my life that turned me towards Christ, in addition to the intellectual arguments of men like C. S. Lewis. A lot of the music I’ve written over the years draws on those experiences, I think; and I now can see they trace an arc from unbelief to faith.”
“And the awesome thing — the God-blessed thing — is that I’ve had Trena by my side for the whole journey. And that we are ‘equally yoked’. And she can sing pretty good, too,” he said with a smile. “And is a terrific songwriter.”
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