Artist: The Lone Bellow
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Song: “I See That Hand"
Album: Mercyland: Hymns For The Rest of Us, Volume II
Release Date: January 15, 2016
Label: Mercyland Records
In Their Words: "We had a ball writing and recording 'I See That Hand' with Phil [Madeira]. The idea originated from a shared memory we all had. Growing up in churches down South, we all had the moment at the end of the service when the pastor said, 'Every head bowed, every eye closed' and then started counting hands raised in the air from the reaching out of souls in need of something. I particularly remember several Sunday mornings when the counting would start. 'I see that hand, up in the balcony. I see you and you and you and you.' Everyone in the congregation with their heads bowed quietly, celebrating the movement of the spirit and kids trying to peek at the view. 'I See That Hand' is a hope that we will all be on the other side of those golden gates together one day.
When we all started writing the song together, we began swapping stories of growing up and, particularly, the strange mystery of this shared vocabulary that so many preachers had at the end of their sermons. The writing teetered back and forth — wrestling with our beliefs, disagreements, and ideas regarding faith — and we ended up with a song at the end of this discussion that was from an honest place. After Phil slapped on that Holy Spirit gasoline guitar, there was nothing more or less that we could do but sing." — Zach Williams, The Lone Bellow