Divine Grace

Welcome to White Dove's second album, Divine Grace.  Most of the songs you will hear were recorded in a single session on 31^st January 2004, at St Mary's Church, Walthamstow (the exceptions are My Prayer and The Lord Swept In recorded at BFR Studios, Walthamstow on various dates). A very cold, wintry day, for most of the time the band played huddled up in warm winter overcoats. But the cold doesn't seem to have affected their playing and the Church provided a surprisingly good acoustic, adding a sparkling natural      reverb to the guitars, a warmth to the voices, and crisp clarity to the drums.
This album saw two changes in personnel from White Dove's earlier album, Flying. First, longstanding lead guitarist/vocalist and songwriter, Simon Clulow moved away to pursue his musical career in Wells. Although his presence is missed in more than one way, he was replaced on guitar by Robert Duddridge, who has brought a different range of influences to bear on lead guitar duties. Simon's absence also means that the blend of Brenda's voice with Bob's is able to come to the fore more, and can be heard to full advantage. The second change is the addition of Jon Knights  on keyboards. It is fair to say that the sound of the band was previously, and remains, very guitar driven, but the addition of the keyboards adds a complementary layer to this sound, enhancing the overall feel, particularly on songs such as Divine Grace, I Worship You, and    Father's House for example.
Compositionally, too, this album displays a great range of influences. Although the music of the 1960s    continues to shape Bob's song writing, you will also hear other influences as diverse as jazz, which is very apparent in the bass lines (which are a joy to listen to), and on the blues numbers Blues so Bad and Blues in My Heart; the clean, delayed guitar sounds of the 80s (Divine Grace, Father's House); bluegrass (In the Last Days, Holy Way); up-tempo country (Let Me Praise You O Lord); Hawaiian influences can be heard on My Prayer, and a ska/reggae backbeat on The Lord Swept In. Each song is different, but each has been shaped primarily by the band's deep commitment to putting their all into every song, to the glory of God.
We hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as we enjoyed recording it. We would like to thank all those involved in its production, but especially our partners, who graciously put up with our absence at      numerous rehearsals, concerts and recordings, Tom Baker, who acted as sound engineer on 31^st January 2004, and Reverend Paul Butler, who kindly allowed us to use St Mary's Church for the recording session.  Finally, our thanks go to God, whose Divine Grace makes all thinks possible!