The Stewarts are back with the fast, dance infused R&B-funk-Motown gospel single “Stand”
By Kurt Beyers
With a message of brotherhood, sisterhood and faith — gospel delivered at high speed in a joyful fusion of pop, funk, R&B, Motown and dance — The Stewarts, brothers Del and Garry K., are back with “Stand.”
Joy is a hallmark of all their music.
“‘Stand’ is a good-message song for the world, for brothers and sisters to come together, to show love to one another,” said Garry. “No more hatred. Show love. Pick up your brothers and sisters when they fall down. Pick them up.”
“In my personal opinion,” said Del, “‘Stand’ will generate hopefully more conversation about coming together, about treating people fairly, standing up for each other — brothers and sisters coming together.”
“And stand up for your faith,” added Garry.
Show the love of Christ
If you have the choice of colors, do you love one & hate the others
We’re all sisters and brothers — show love, show love,
Show love to each other, oh stand, stand up for each other
“We were going with the drum beat initially, and the words just came to us,” said Dell. “We were ping-ponging the words back and forth because we knew people needed to hear a positive-message song about brotherly love and sisterly love.”
On the mix of music, Del said, “Garry and I, we sat down and we went back to our roots. We went back to the ’70s.”
The clavinet sound comes from Stevie Wonder, and others come from the Dayton, Ohio, group Slave from their song “Slide.”
“We were listening to their production, and we incorporated that as well as the Stevie Wonder production into our song,” said Del.
The Stewarts, who have been writing and performing since the ’70s, were opening a new phase of their career back in 2020, getting ready to move out into the world with their music. That was when “Stand” was written, but they put it on hold because two other songs, “His Door Is Open” followed by “Faith,” took off, reaching the top of the Upcoming charts, Nos. 1 and 2 respectively.
About the time they were ready to push out “Stand,” Covid hit. The virus took down Del and Garry at different times.
“It threw us behind,” said Garry.
“But also we know that God is good, and once we started feeling better, we started putting things together,” said Del. “We said, ‘Hey, let’s get back on our feet and rock and roll.’”
“Sometimes, when you experience setbacks,” he said, “it also makes you stronger when you come back, because God is good all the time, and when you fall, you gotta get up and continue to try.”
The brothers come from a musical family. Johnny Hodges, who played sax for Duke Ellington, was a cousin. Their mother, Corinne, sang gospel with Sam Cooke. Del and Garry were introduced to Motown’s Howard Davis by another cousin, Luther Bond of Luther Bond and the Emeralds.
Their faith infuses their music. R&B, rock, funk, pop and Motown help propel the gospel of The Stewarts. Joyous worship accompanies the messages in their songs, messages indicated in the titles: “Stand,” “His Door Is Open,” “The Truth,” “Walk With Me Jesus,” “Battle of Survival,” “Family Affair.”
They are working on other songs, including an EP, but for now the focus is on promoting “Stand” because, said Del, “the world needs to see the video and listen to the lyrics, and, hopefully, we can captivate a different type of audience.”
“This is a song for everyone, from the young to the old,” said Garry. “You can be 8 years old and get something from this song.”
“We want the listener to enjoy the song. The beat hopefully would capture the attention, but the lyrics would also capture the attention as well, because we were writing the song so that it’s uplifting,” said Del.
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