Where Release the Doves Came From, John DeRosa’s Four-Voice Christmas Song for Grammy Consideration

A Former Nashville Lead Guitarist Brings Four Voices to a Single Submitted for Grammy Consideration

Four voices carry Release the Doves, a Christmas song about love, hope and peace. John DeRosa leads, with Derrick L. Baker of The Drifters, Broadway and Trans-Siberian Orchestra singer Bart Shatto, and CC Coletti, who spent a decade singing behind Meat Loaf on the main stage. The single came out on 7 November 2025, and Deko Entertainment has since submitted it for Grammy consideration.

John DeRosa’s single sits in the playlist below, and his artist profile gathers the rest of his coverage. Release the Doves reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Give it a listen, then read on for where the song came from.

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John DeRosa Spent Years as a Nashville Lead Guitarist Before Release the Doves Put Him in Front

Before the solo records, DeRosa played lead guitar for a multi-gold and platinum Nashville recording artist. The job put him inside the Nashville system as a player rather than a name. He is a Phillipsburg, New Jersey native, and he still works the clubs, festivals and vineyards around the Lehigh Valley, where he won a Soul Music Award in 2014.

His list of influences runs from B.B. King and Gary Moore to Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson. That spread explains a catalogue that moves between blues, country and the soulful end of rock. It also explains why a guitarist’s songs so often end up built around singers.

Today he records for Deko Entertainment, with distribution through ADA, part of Warner Music Group. He is also a CMA member and a BMI writer, which keeps one foot of the work firmly in Nashville.

Derrick L. Baker, Bart Shatto and CC Coletti Join DeRosa on Release the Doves for a Grammy Submission

Release the Doves runs three minutes and forty seconds, and its line-up of singers reads like a map of where American popular singing has been carried. Baker brings the vocal-group tradition of The Drifters. Shatto comes from Broadway and from the rock-opera stage of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Coletti spent ten years singing behind Meat Loaf. DeRosa, a guitarist by trade, stands at the centre of all three.

The writing and production credits are just as shared. DeRosa wrote the song with Jay Novicky and Coletti. He then produced it with Marty Resnick, Julie Parker, and Michael and Carol Wolf. Few independent singles carry that many hands, and on a Christmas record the crowd of contributors suits the subject.

Deko Entertainment entered the single in the Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song category. That places the song in the inspirational tradition as well as in blues and country, and its early-November release set it up for the holiday season.

The title supplies its own picture. Releasing doves is an old sign of peace, and the song frames its message the same way, as love, hope and peace offered to a world that needs them. It is a plain image, and DeRosa leaves it plain.

There is a long precedent for that crossing. Elvis Presley, one of the influences DeRosa names, built his reputation on rock and roll and country. Yet all three of his competitive Grammy wins came for gospel recordings, including How Great Thou Art. Similarly, Gary Moore spent years as a hard rock guitarist before Still Got the Blues turned him back towards the blues in 1990. DeRosa’s route, from a sideman’s guitar to his own songs and now to an inspirational Christmas single, follows the same kind of turn.

After the Doves Come a Fallen Soldiers Tribute, a Flag Song With CC Coletti and Shows Near Home

The recognition around DeRosa this year has come through more than one song. His track 13 won the Producers Choice Honors Award at the Nashville Music Awards in May 2026. As WFMZ reported, the song honours fallen soldiers, and its title refers to the 13 folds of a ceremonial American flag. In August the ISSA Awards named DeRosa Male Emerging Artist.

Coletti then returned for Stand For The Flag, a July 2026 single that credits Coletti as the featured vocalist. That second appearance suggests the Release the Doves sessions started a working partnership rather than a one-off guest spot.

Meanwhile, the live calendar stays close to home. DeRosa has free shows booked in New Jersey and Pennsylvania through the winter. They run from Nissley Vineyards in Lahaska on 31 October to a holiday show at The Roxy Theater in Northampton on 12 December, then a New Year’s Day set at The Bridge House in Phillipsburg.

From the MusicRoots.News Curator Team: “What caught our ear first was the casting. Four singers from four different traditions on one blues and country single, gathered around a writer who spent years as somebody else’s guitarist, is an unusual set of players. It gives a short song a lot of carried history.”

Follow John DeRosa From the Doves Single to His Free Shows Across New Jersey and Pennsylvania

Stream Release the Doves on Spotify and Apple Music, and hear Stand For The Flag on Spotify.

Then follow John DeRosa across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, ReverbNation and his official site, which lists every upcoming show.

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