The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers premiere their video of “Lay Down Low,” a new song recorded in a historic nineteenth-century Episcopal church in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles.
The song is from the group’s forthcoming album, No Glory.
“‘Lay Down Low’ started with a simple little melody for the verses. I wrote what I thought could be a concise telling of the story of Jesus using that melody as a springboard. I wanted something bittersweet for the chorus that had some teeth and gave the story an arc. I used a melody that could be percussively barked and had no home in any other songs of mine. The overall idea was to sing something that I could imagine people singing in rural areas of the American south sometime around the turn of the 20th century.” – Will Wadsworth
“‘Lay Down Low'” has been a staple of our live set for a year or so, but it wasn’t until we worked with Los Angeles vocal arranger, Baraka May Williams, who fine tuned the harmonies and dynamics, that the song really came to life.
“Our producer, Matt Wignall, wanted a big cavernous space to record in so our bass player, Kevin Collins, reached out to Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights. The Church is the oldest Episcopal church in Los Angeles to be used continuously since it was constructed in 1886. With wood floors and a vaulting ceiling, the church was the perfect setting for our song that re-tells the story of Mary and Joseph ‘running from the hand of the Man,’ their son ‘raised up working in a trade’ who ‘couldn’t be held by the grave’.” – Jeremy Horton
Written by : Bob Marovich
Bob Marovich is a gospel music historian, author, and radio host. Founder of Journal of Gospel Music blog (formally The Black Gospel Blog) and producer of the Gospel Memories Radio Show.