Soulfood is what musical chef; Shirley Murdock has been cooking up in her recording studio of a kitchen lately. She has made an undeniable imprint on the Quiet Storm R&B radio format over the last twenty years with signature hits such as the gold-selling "As We Lay," "Go On Without You" and "Husband." She's also a woman, who has survived a whole lot of heartache, pain and pressure to conform to how the public and the music industry perceives her ministry. Through it all, she's traded her tears for laughter, and in her own words, "I've gotten beauty for ashes."
Her sophomore gospel recording, "Soul Food," is a multi-format CD that is meant to touch the hearts and souls of every Shirley Murdock fan, whether they love her as the woman behind "As We Lay" or the woman who sang on Bishop T.D, Jakes' Sacred Love Songs. "The whole cd is meant to encourage you," she says with ebullient joy. "It's like a buffet of great messages, inspiration and praise and worship. If you just go and get you a plate, you'll have a full course meal of everything you need."
The album was born from Murdock's heart. "A lot of people want to hold me hostage because of 'As We Lay' but they fail to understand that the song never glorified infidelity," she protests. "It dealt with a real life situation. The fact that it was infidelity got your attention but the meat of the song was about consequences and hind sight being 20/20. Baby, you got to count up the cost because you may not be able to afford that thing."
As she and her husband, Dale Anthony DeGroat (an associate minister at 2nd Baptist Church in Springfield, OH), began to write and produce soul Food themselves, they were looking for songs that talked about consequences and solutions to consequences. "I Love Me Better Than That," was one of those songs. "It's an empowering song," she confesses. "I sing at conferences and prisons. I wanted the CD to reflect total ministry because we're body, soul and spirit. A lot of times, in the body of Christ, we aren't balanced. We know how to do church but do we know how to be a wife or a husband and develop relationships? So, I wanted this CD to speak to every part of who we are. I see every kind of woman, broke down, disappointed, dreams broken, low self-esteem - just issues. I wanted a song that would empower them. We need to get back to who God says we are but there may be some things blocking us from being who we were really meant to be. So, I suggest that we roto-rooter our lives and realize that before you love anybody else, you must first learn to love yourself."
She was in Dallas, TX starring in a musical play a year or so ago and had gone to Heaven 97 AM, a local radio station, to do an interview for the play. "We had just put the CD out on CD baby so that it could bless the people in that way. I let an announcer named Antonio Johnson at Heaven 97 listen to a little of the song. He really liked it and started playing it. The phones started lighting up and people wondered how they could get it." Johnson took up the cause and began calling friends at recording labels to suggest that they released the project. His contacts at Tyscot Records agreed to take on the project and a new chapter in Murdock's musical cook book was birthed.
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