Kentucky is known for the Derby, finger-licking good fried chicken, and Bourbon whiskey. However, it’s also got some of the best gospel singers on the planet. Two of those singers, Jason Clayborn and Stephen McWhirter have come together for a new worship anthem, “7,000 Promises” (JayClay Music/Tyscot Records), that has released on all digital music platforms.
Between the two, they’ve racked up over 25 million digital streams to date table. The raspy-voiced Clayborn’s troupe of singers, The Atmosphere Changers, backed fellow Kentuckian, Jack Harlow, on his “Same Guy” track with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. However, he’s been singing professionally since his teens as a solo and with various groups. He’s written songs for scores of gospel artists including Hezekiah Walker’s 2016 Grammy® Award nominated Billboard No. 1 smash, “Better.”
McWhirter was what he calls a “wounded preacher’s son” who soured on Christianity because of the hypocrisy of watching his father preach salvation in the pulpit and then come home and beat McWhirter’s mother. “Around 13 I started smoking marijuana and drinking,” he recalls. “By the time I’m 15, it’s cocaine, pills, I’m selling drugs. By the time I’m 17, I’m a full-out crystal meth addict and I’m using almost every day for over 6 years.” Someone gave him Lee Strobel’s book, Case for Christ, that made him reconsider his lifestyle. For the last decade, he’s been on fire with evangelism and his solo single “Come Jesus Come is currently No. 20 with a bullet on Billboard’s Christian AC singles chart.
The duo met at a music event in 2018. “During the pandemic, Stephen reached out,” Clayborn recalls. “He wanted to write some songs, and he asked me to help him make a choir album.” They’ve been thick as thieves ever since. On the acoustic guitar driven track, they soulfully recall God’s Biblical promises to man. Clayborn’s raspy baritone is the perfect counterpoint to McWhirter’s sandpapery tenor. The inspiring song builds into an explosion of worship and praise with a thunderous cushion of backing vocals. It promises to satisfy worshippers everywhere.
