Blake Shelton has recorded and released country hits for over two decades. But about 10 years ago, he waded into a new sonic space—gospel music.
Following a particularly trying time in his life, Shelton co-wrote and released Savior’s Shadow. A dream inspired the song in 2015, and he used it as his album closer on his 2016 collection, If I’m Honest.
Lyrics include: “I’m standing in my savior’s shadow/ He is watching over me/ I feel the rain/ I hear the thunder as he cries for me.”
He even released it to Christian radio.
Shelton had heard songs in his dreams before. But until “Savior’s Shadow,” he didn’t remember the song when he woke up. This time, he did. Shelton grabbed his phone and sang the first verse into his voice memo function. When the lyrics crossed his mind again a few days later, he didn’t have a positive perspective. Again, it was 2015, and Shelton was in the midst of a contentious, high-profile divorce.
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Blake Shelton Thought God Felt Sorry for Him
“I had kind of decided this song is saying that God feels so sorry for me that my life is such absolute crap that even he cries when he looks at me and thinks about me,” Shelton told Cindy Watts. “That’s how sad I am.”
The singer’s outlook changed a few months later. By the end of the summer of 2015, he thought God was telling him he was walking beside him. The hope was enough to inspire Shelton to write the second verse.
Shelton wrote: I’m standing in my Savior’s shadow| Grace will lead to where I’m free| I take His hand, we walk together| And His light shines on me
Shelton was excited when he sent the lyrics to popular songwriting couple Jessi Alexander and Jon Randall to finish.
“When Blake sent us the first part, we both felt like it was Blake’s ‘Why Me, Lord,’” Alexander told Watts. “It came from such a raw place. We just felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, we get to help you do this?’”
Blake Shelton Sent “Savior’s Shadow” to Friends to Finish
Alexander and Randall finished the song, and Randall sang the lyrics into his cell phone’s recorder and sent them back to Shelton.
He listened to it three times and said he “cried as if someone I loved just died in front of me.”
“I feel like I was given this song for a reason, and I need to do something with it,” he said. “We tried our best to get it out to as many people as we can. And so far, the reaction has been really special.”
The song started a trend for Shelton. Since then, he’s made a habit of including songs of faith on his albums. Some are light-hearted and up-tempo, while others are like Sunday morning church.
Regardless, he’s meticulous and unflinching in his choices. Over the last six years, Shelton recorded “Jesus Got a Tight Grip” and “Bible Verses” for his projects. His new album, For Recreational Use Only – available May 9 – is home to “Let Him In Anyway,” a song so powerful it triggered an executive at Shelton’s record label to have a heart attack.
“Let Him In Anyway” is on ‘For Recreational Use Only’
Lyrics include: Hey, God| I know you know what I’m ’bout to pray, God| I just had to suck it up and say goodbye to my best friend| And I don’t ever wanna never see him again| And I know the only way to get in is through you| And he wasn’t quite the Christian he was supposed to be| And Lord, it ain’t my place| But could you let him in any way?
The publishing executive told Shelton’s label head, Jon Loba, that he had had a couple of little flutters in his heart earlier in the week but that it was truly the emotion of the song that pushed him over the edge.
“Luckily, not too far over the edge,” Loba said. “The good news now is he’s in great shape and feels better than ever.”
(Photo by Catherine Powell/Getty Images for CMT)
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