David Dunn to play July 6 Giant Cross Project fundraiser

David Dunn to play July 6 Giant Cross Project fundraiser
Christian Life Church Band to open at Liberty Church

Christian music superstar David Dunn (below left) will play a benefit concert for Baldwin County’s Giant Cross Project on July 6 at 7 p.m. at Foley’s Liberty Church, located at 110 Riviera Dr. The Christian Life Church Band , lead by worship pastor Matthew Long, will open for Dunn. General admission tickets are $16.50, limited special seating tickets are $18, and VIP tickets, which include a meet-n-greet with Dunn, are $36. Tickets can be purchased online at giantcrossproject.com.
The Gulf Coast Cross Project is the non-profit brainchild of Gulf Shores based business owner Jon Butler, who wants to construct a 230-foot-tall white cross in Summerdale on land donated by the Engel family off County Road 73. Estimated cost for the cross is $600,000. Butler’s entire project, estimated to cost $1 million, would include a giant steel white cross and a welcome center with picnic tables and an outdoor covered stage that could be used as a gathering place for churches and Christian groups. The cross will be visible from the Foley Beach Express and Hwy. 59.
Dunn’s 2015 full-length debut, Crystal Clear, was well received and spawned a Top 20 radio hit with “Today Is Beautiful.” Dunn, who began performing his own songs while at Texas Tech, where he graduated with a degree in engineering, spent a transformative 13 months in Africa doing mission work and returned to the States to pursue music full-time. Now based in Nashville, he writes with some of the Christian community’s finest songwriters, many of whom he collaborated with on his second album, Yellow Balloons, a synth-soaked pop album boasting heavy beats and honest, heartfelt lyrics.
The sudden death of his two year old niece was the inspiration behind his sophomore album. “She had really started knowing and loving her people, just started talking, and she knew she loved me,” he said. “So it’s hard to put any kind of good spin on it, or even when it comes to God, it’s really difficult to do anything but get mad at Him.”
With his niece at the forefront of his thoughts, Dunn began to pen cuts that fell into two categories: songs about kids and songs about heaven.
The title track chronicles the incident and the aftermath that followed in heartbreaking detail. Dunn says it took him eight months to finish the song after reworking it countless times. He asked his sister who had lost her daughter to write it with him.
“I wanted to write a song that went, ‘This terrible thing happened, and it might’ve happened to you in some way—whoever you are, listener—but God is in control and he knows what He’s doing.’ And I believe that,” he said. “I do believe that, but I don’t feel that way. There’s no explanation. And so it ended up just being a song saying, ‘This is really bad, God, and I’m not going to pretend like it’s OK because it’s not; but the one thing that I do know is that if You’re not here with us—with me—when we’re going through this, then it’s an unscalable mountain.’”
While questions remain and grief is still palpable, Dunn is certain that the God he continues to put his faith in is constructing a work of art—piece by broken piece. “He’s a craftsman, and if He doesn’t have the correct pieces to be able to build the best version of you, then a lot of times the best thing that could happen to you is that your life goes up in smoke,” he said.