‘Jesus Alone’ chronicles a personal journey, says gospel artiste

“Jesus you alone let me come through the valley of the shadow of death spotless" are opening words to the chorus of 2016 Jamaica Gospel Song finalist, Orville Sutherland's latest single, as he recalled a traumatic experience he endured some time ago.

And though the incident is about a decade old, Sutherland told Family & Religion that he only brought himself to talk about it in more recent times. 

The song, Jesus Alone, according to the singer, was birthed from the realisation that only He is able to grant salvation and thus He alone deserves glory. 

"If it had not been for the Lord by my side, I don’t know where I would have been. At the time I declared, ‘Jesus, you alone’. I started reflecting on my journey through sinfulness, realising how many times I should have been dead.

“I remember messing with a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver that I had, and according to my assumptions at the time, the barrel on the revolver spins clockwise. With this assumption, I decided that I was going to just put the gun to my head with just one bullet like they do on the movies, squeeze the trigger, expecting that nothing would happen because the bullet would have been on the other side,” he recalled.

Sutherland would later find out just how wrong he was about the bullet placement and the spin-pattern of the revolver.

According to him, “For no specific reason, just as I was about to squeeze the trigger, I casually removed the gun from my head and, BANG!

“A loud sound from the firing of a live round that was supposed to be at the side of my head. The back of the chair that was in front of me was shot out and my body was immediately so weak from the reality that I almost took my own life.

“I got lost in a moment of reality that people would realise that I shot myself and would be left to wonder, for the rest of their lives, what led to the suicide ... but God. Jesus alone.”

The close call of a failed Russian roulette was still fresh in Sutherlands’ mind as he penned the lyrics of his new song, which credits Jesus for saving his life, noting that the project shares the story that the Lord keeps, He satisfies and He protects.

Jesus Alone is set to be released on Monday, January 14 and will be available on all major distribution platforms.

familyandreligion@gleanerjm.com