Why Did You Hurt Me?
The Doves
“Why Did You Hurt Me?”, the latest single by The DOVES, arrives like an echo of a WLS AM broadcast from the golden age of radio. Trena Stooksberry’s soulful vocal evokes those of Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, and Patsy Cline; while Wade’s guitars provide counterpoint, and a reverb-soaked lead. All supported by the sturdy foundation of Joey Stuckey’s
“Why Did You Hurt Me?”, the latest single by The DOVES, arrives like an echo of a WLS AM broadcast from the golden age of radio. Trena Stooksberry’s soulful vocal evokes those of Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, and Patsy Cline; while Wade’s guitars provide counterpoint, and a reverb-soaked lead. All supported by the sturdy foundation of Joey Stuckey’s broad-shouldered bass line.
For their latest single release, The DOVES (husband and wife duo W. Wade and Trena Stooksberry) offer up a tune written by Trena, with guitar arrangements contributed by Wade. “Why Did You Hurt Me?” harkens back to the golden age of radio, with Trena’s soulful, heart-felt vocal evoking the torch-song sentiments of Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, and Patsy Cline. As with “Everybody’s Happy But Me”, she goes straight to the heart, in describing an emotion that is nearly universal: “why, why, why did you hurt me? What have I ever done to you?”
The track is supported by Wade’s accompanying vintage guitar work, and Joey Stuckey’s muscular bassline. Joey, who is in a long line of “Street Preachers and Soul Shakers” from the musical hotbed of Macon, GA (Lena Horne, Little Richard, Otis Redding, James Brown, the Allman Brothers and Capricorn Records, et. al.) also engineers. Tim Alexander is on drums.
“Why Did You Hurt Me?” adds a piquant twist to the The DOVES growing catalog:
The “musical smorgasbord” of their 6-song EP, “Day (One)” which ranges from acoustic lament (“Dirty Words”), to guitar-driven New Wave (“Day”), to electronic synth (“Some More Than Others”), to glorious chorale (“Out of the Wood”), to “grunge meets Latin in Motown” ("Angeline"), to soulful blues (“Everybody’s Happy But Me”) –
their follow-up “double-sided single” of catchy pop-rock, “Wild and Strange/Shut My Mouth” –
and their most recent offerings, “Mirage” (a galloping reflection on the boundaries of reality: is our world really a “Mirage”?) and “The Fine Line” (the pathos involved with choosing to “walk the line”, a la Johnny Cash – or not to).
The DOVES express an effortless shifting of musical genres that confirm what Dan Herman of Radio Crystal Blue remarked on the “Novus Ordo” broadcast of 12/07/14: “they have something unique up their sleeve…”.
- Wade and Trena Stooksberry (The DOVES) hail from beautiful Macon, GA – a town located an hour south of Atlanta, renowned for it amazingly rich musical heritage (Lena Horne, Little Richard, Otis Richard, James Brown, The Allman Brothers and Capricorn Records, Mike Mills and Bill Berry of REM, et. al.), as well as its signature antebellum architecture, which was spared by Sherman during his march to the sea. Wade also claims musical DNA from his childhood in Memphis.
They have taken all these influences, and many more, to forge a sound both immediately familiar, and uniquely their own; spanning a gamut from Classic AOR to Adult Contemporary to New Wave, Blues, British Invasion, Southern Revival – and of course, being Southerners, Spiritual.
The DOVES have been capturing attention and acclaim from radio stations and bloggers both at home and abroad: New York City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, LA, Seattle, San Francisco; London, Wales, Germany, the Netherlands, Paris, and elsewhere.
Call it “the superior arrangements… and perfect harmonies of the couple” (German blogger Walter H., “A Few Good Times in My Life”); call it
"Lush melodies, mystery and simplicity,
the profane and the sacred, driving
acoustic lyricism. The alternative to
the alternative”
Whatever you choose to call it, imagine yourself on a high plateau, overlooking the twinkling lights of the city, your car illuminated by the dashboard light, its radio turned to the megawatt AM radio blowtorch of WLS out of Chicago; as the soulful strains of “Why Did You Hurt Me?” fill its chasis. “Maybe you think my heart is strong/ because my words, my words are hard…”
“Why Did You Hurt Me?"” was recorded and mastered at Joey Stuckey’s Shadow Sound Studios, Macon, GA, USA (as were the other songs in The DOVES catalog).
Website:
YouTube:
www.youtube.com/user/TheDoves2010
Facebook:
Email: