When Jekalyn Carr first hit the gospel music scene with her breakthrough album Greater is Coming, she was just a young girl.
Now, after having grown not only in age but also in wisdom, the Stellar Award-winning singer says the time spent between her last album, Changing Your Story, and her most recent project, Jekalyn, was definitely needed.
"There's been a lot of growth, a lot of great things that has happened, a lot of life experiences that has happened," Carr told ABC Audio of her four-year hiatus from recording.
Although she continued to earn chart-topping smash hits throughout the break with "Jehovah Jireh" and "My Portion," the Grammy-nominated star said that the time away from making a full album helped shape her new body of work.
Those four years, though unintentional, were very much needed, Carr said. "I was also able to tap into the more that I knew was in me," she noted.
Carr said of her plans for the album, "I didn't want to go the really traditional route that I would typically go, but I still wanted to keep the substance at the same time."
And that's why her self-titled return hits home: "Because it's my stories, my life in conversations I've had with God and He's had with me."
As for her favorite song of the 11 tracks on Jeklayn, "it changes every day," but "Mercy" resonates a lot.
"We all need God's mercy. There's no day, there's literally no second ... that you don't need the mercy of God," she said. "And with this song, I wanted to not just point out what His mercy has done, but what His mercy wants to do for us every day."
Jekalyn is available for streaming on major platforms.