 |
| Shirley Murdock |
Legendary soul singer Shirley Murdock (best known for her 1986 gold-selling classic, “As We Lay”), is coming to the nation’s capitol to sing her new radio hit “Dream” (from her forthcoming CD “Live: The Journey”) on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011, at two official Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Dedication events.
The powerhouse vocalist will be backed by The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Dedication Choir at the Pre-Dedication Concert Ceremony (also featuring Patti LaBelle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jennifer Holliday, Donnie McClurkin and Mary Mary) taking place 9-11 a.m. EST on the National Mall. Later that day, Murdock will be backed by the “Sing for a King” Community Choir as she performs “Dream” at the Lift Every Voice Gospel Extravaganza taking place 4-6 p.m. EST at the Washington Convention Center. That event features The Sounds of Blackness, Bryan Wilson, Earnest Pugh and the Duke Ellington High School of the Arts Students and Orchestra. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Dedication Choir was birthed through a partnership of Desho Productions and NEWorks Productions. The Rev. Nolan Williams Jr., music director, assembled a multi-generational, multi-racial group of vocalists that will sing Williams’ composition “I Am The Dream” during the pre-service and “We Shall Overcome” at the unveiling program where President Obama will speak.
Coming to Washington to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy is important to Murdock who vividly recalls the day he was assassinated. “I was almost 11 yrs old,” she said in a news release. “I remember all the adults being absolutely grief stricken, as if a family member had died. There was a lot of hurt, disbelief and anger after Dr. King died. My Mother was a praying woman, so as she placed her worries into God’s hands, I drew my peace from her peace. I heard him being referred to, as the ‘Moses’ of our time. Like Moses, he didn’t make it to the promised land, but he let us know he’d been to the mountaintop and that his eyes had seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
Murdock and her husband, Dale DeGroat, wrote her new radio hit “Dream” (#33 on BDS) with Bishop T.D. Jakes.
“My song is a reminder that God is the giver and the fulfiller of all the dreams He places in our hearts,” she said. “The dream is a glimpse of our future selves being more and doing more. It’s us at our BEST… fulfilling our PURPOSE … to loving one another, serving one another …celebrating and embracing our diversity and uniqueness.”
