Singing The Gospel, From Shelter To Streets To Recording Studio -- Trio Says God Is Behind The Harmony

Disciples on InfoLine

To hear the gospel sounds of the King Jesus Disciples, call The Seattle Times InfoLine, 464-2000, from a touch-tone phone and enter category 2656. InfoLine, a telephone information service, is free in the local calling area.

From the minute their sound came together - oh bomp, bomp, bomp - they were convinced their gospel group was ordained by God.

"On the win-n-n-g-gs of faith! I'll-be-snatched-up-in-the-air! On the win-n-g-g-s of faith! And-I-know-I'll-meet-my-maker-there."

But the King Jesus Disciples had a devil of a time in the recording studio.

Johnnie Gray, Roosevelt Franklin and James Young met at the Union Gospel Mission, which provides beds for homeless people who agree to adhere to strict rules. They took their music to the streets and were discovered. But all-night recording sessions, no matter how legitimate, don't fit well with shelter curfews.

"You don't know how long a certain song is going to take," said Cliff Lenz, former KING television personality who produced the group's "The Wings of Faith."

"So it'd get to be about 10:30 at night and we'd have to decide, do we finish this song or do we find a bed for Roosevelt."

Oh bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp.

And then there was the distance between a purely street sound - the King Jesus Disciples' stage is the sidewalk at the Pike Place Market - and the unforgiving ear of recording microphones.

Gray, Franklin and Young provide such sweet harmonies with a rhythm-and-blues beat that even clapping disbelievers shout out "Yeah!" That's what the King Jesus Disciples feed off, especially when some of those disbelievers actually hear the word of God.

But there was no audience in the recording studio. Worse, each man was separated in his own box room so Lenz and MacDonald Recording (Terry MacDonald engineer, Karen MacDonald executive producer) could separate the sounds.

"They'd say, `Sing that song over again,' and I'd say, `Where's the filler? Where's the people?' " Franklin said.

The King Jesus Disciples are so driven by feeling they don't rehearse. They've all been singing gospel songs since they were children. Their own particular sound has a lot of rhythm-and-blues influence.

Pull the Walkman headphones off Gray and you'll likely hear the beat of Sam Cooke and The Original Soul Stirrers.

Gray, who once sang with a Southern soul group, the BarKays, had sung with Franklin and sung with Young. But, after several months of trying to find himself at the Union Gospel Mission, he finally meshed the three of them together.

The result was "like a hurricane," he said.

They are convinced God was the author of their coming together so they devoted themselves to being missionaries. They spread the word through song in churches, at missions or, since their recording was released three weeks ago, over the airwaves of KCMS-FM (105.3), Seattle's Christian-music station.

But their biggest audience remains at the Pike Place Market, where they get the place swinging and swaying for two sessions every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoon in front of Starbucks Coffee.

Crowds of 50 to 200 people surge toward the group to hear a song, move on, and by the next song another crowd has gathered.

A dozen Christian bookstores, Tower Records and the University Book Store carry the tape (a compact disc will be out next week), recorded under the Starwind Music/MacDonald Recording label.

The MacDonalds were coming out of the Uptown Theater on lower Queen Anne hill one night when they heard "this heavenly sound" and moved with the crowd to find the source. The King Jesus Disciples were singing under the overhang of a bank.

MacDonald offered his business card and the promise of a free recording session. Eventually, the group came over to lay down their sound. Lenz heard the result, and no one had any doubts again except how to capture the street sound in the sterile recording studio.

"It was quite a chore," said Lenz. "Their music is very spontaneous and on the fly. On the street, you have dogs barking, horns honking. In the studio, every flaw is magnified 100 times."

But their pure talent shines through, said MacDonald.

Boop-boop. Oh bomp, bomp, bomp.

Gray, Franklin and Young spend only their days on the street now. All have regular beds to go to at night.

"There's not a lot of money in gospel," said Gray. "Our concept is to praise the Lord and plant a seed."

Though Lenz believes the music can be absorbed purely for the joy of it, MacDonald thinks it's not possible to hear the music without thinking about the faith behind it.

Both agree, however, with a minister's recent description of the group's music:

"If that doesn't light your fire, your wood is wet."

How to hear them The King Jesus Disciples will appear at 5 p.m. July 24 at the Des Moines Waterland Festival. The group will also be on a radio feature at 7 p.m. July 18 on KCMS-FM (105.3). A half-hour version of the feature will air at 8 p.m July 29 on KCMS.