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By Sarah Hite shite@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Mike Warner was about to give up on music.

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Bass player Mike Warner, foreground, and guitarist Jason Dallaverde of the A.W.E. Band run through their playlist of songs during a recent rehearsal at High Point Baptist Church in Larksville.

Pete G. Wilcox/ The dallas post

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Mike Warner plays the keyboards during a sound check at High Point Baptist Church in Larksville. Also pictured is Jason Dallaverde, right.

Pete G. Wilcox/ The Dallas Post

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Warner had one more performance with the church’s praise band later in the week and then planned to secretly put his music equipment up for sale on the Internet.

It was October 2008 and Warner, music director at High Point Church in Larksville, felt God had not honored his decision to devote himself to a secular music career. Twenty years prior, Warner was a member of the band Synch, whose song “Where Are You Now?” was No. 10 in the Billboard Top 100 hits in 1989.

Warner had one more performance with the church’s praise band later in the week and then planned to secretly put his music equipment up for sale on the Internet.

Warner told God if He didn’t want him to quit music, He would have to stop him.

The band performed as scheduled at Back Mountain Harvest Assembly Church at a service with a guest speaker, Pastor Dr. Mike Brown from Missouri. That performance changed everything.

“At the close of that service, for some reason, he just stopped, singled me out and came over to me and said, ‘I feel like I need to pray for you’ and he asked me the big question, ‘Do you write songs?” Warner said of the visiting pastor.

That evening the people at the service raised $4,500 for seed money to enable the praise band to make a CD. The six members of the band then transformed into the local Christian rock band A.W.E. (Authentic Worship Experience) Band.

Members of A.W.E. Band are Mike Warner, 47, Dallas, bass guitar and vocals; Denise Warner, 38, Dallas, keyboards and vocals; Cathryn Warner, 16, Dallas, electric and acoustic guitars, violin and vocals; Dan Close, 35, Shavertown, drums; Natasha Manassy, 23, Harveys Lake, lead vocals; and Jason Dalla Verde, 25, Pittston, electric and acoustic guitars.

“Declarations,” which was released in December, is the band’s first CD. It contains eight songs: “In Your Presence,” “Scream,” “Declarations,” “Hungry For You,” “When He Died,” “December,” “Curse of Blood,” and “Blood of Grace.”

“The typical music industry approach is you get a certain sound and you stick within that pocket,” Mike Warner said. “With our songs, you’re dealing with so many diverse styles that the listener is actually kind of assaulted by the changes from one song to the next.”

The song “Curse of Blood” is about abortion and the band hopes it will discourage women from having such procedures.

The lyrics of the song’s verses tell three stories – the voice of the unborn baby, the voice of the mother and the voice of the nation. Cathryn Warner sings the voice of the baby while Manassy sings the voice of the young mother.

Mike Warner, who wrote the song, was inspired, in part, by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin because she has a son with Down syndrome and an unwed teenage daughter who had a baby. He even suggested the name Palin for the band.

“That was just a name that I threw out there because I felt that this was going to be the song that really etched our mark in the music industry….” Warner said. “These are two scenarios that almost always yield abortions and, yet, in both of those difficult pregnancies, they made the decision to keep their baby. I felt that was a very compelling and inspiring message and decision.”

“Declarations” is available for purchase on the band’s Web site at www.aweband.com.