By God’s Design Joins the Fans’ Top 12 for Kim Cross & Mark DenHartigh
5 min read
By God's Design Joins the Fans' Top 12 for Kim Cross & Mark DenHartigh
Twelve Songs From Two Writers Make a Country Album About Love, Faith and Second Chances
Kim Cross and Mark DenHartigh keep a fan Top 12 on their website. It lists the songs their listeners love, share and request most. The duet version of By God’s Design is already on it. The album behind that song arrived on 26 August 2026, with 12 country songs from the two writers. So, for now, the fan list is the clearest early reading of who the record is reaching.
Kim Cross & Mark DenHartigh Music are in the playlist below with their title duet, alongside this desk’s other country and Americana picks. The duo’s full run of coverage is on the Kim Cross & Mark DenHartigh profile. By God’s Design came to BestMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Press play on the duet, then read on for who the album is written for.
By God’s Design Is Built for Country Fans Who Want Story Songs About Real Life
Start with the shape of the record. Seven of the 12 tracks carry both names. Two belong to Kim Cross alone: God Don’t Play Games and Pink Skies and Peace. Mark DenHartigh then leads the last three, Start Your Engines, Daddy Set the Tone and Don’t Question It. Finally, the title track opens the album and, at 5:05, it is also the longest entry.
That split is the point. The pair describe the album as 12 songs, two writers and two perspectives. So the duets carry the shared story, while the solo songs let each writer step forward alone. Apple Music files the album under country.
The themes are stated plainly, too. The songs deal with love, faith, second chances, family and connections nobody saw coming. Some tracks are playful. Others look back at the roads that brought each writer here. Above all, one idea keeps returning: the wrong turns may have been part of the design all along.
So who is it for? First, a country fan who wants story songs drawn from real life. Faith is also one of the album’s stated themes, so listeners who want it in their country music will find it here. Beyond that, the project has already found a dedicated audience in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
The Duet Tradition It Plays To
Country has a long line of duos, and this album sits in that tradition. For example, The Civil Wars built their records on two writers and two voices. Barton Hollow (2011) and its title song won the duo two Grammys. Similarly, Thompson Square took Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not to No. 1 on the country chart in 2011.
By God’s Design works on a smaller, independent scale. Still, it shares the format: two voices on one story, with room for each writer to lead songs of their own. As a result, listeners who came to country through those duets will recognise the structure straight away.
Fans Put the Title Duet in Their Top 12 While Kim Cross & Mark DenHartigh Kept Releasing
The early response is easiest to read through the pair’s own channels. Their fan Top 12 mixes older singles with the new duet. In other words, By God’s Design already sits alongside the catalogue songs listeners ask for.
The release pace matters too. Just over three weeks after this album, on 18 September 2026, the pair released a second shared album. My Favorite Color runs to 10 songs and is already streaming on Spotify. Meanwhile, Kim Cross has kept up a steady run of singles and albums across 2026, split between pop and country. So a listener who finds By God’s Design and wants more already has plenty to hear.
The Community Around It
The pair sell their albums directly through their own website, at prices they describe as lower than most other platforms. The message there is simple: buy direct, own the music and support the artist. That small-scale, fan-funded model suits an album built on personal stories.
The video side runs through YouTube, where the duo posted a sneak peek of the title song. Instagram carries the day-to-day updates to around 12,000 followers. TikTok, meanwhile, reaches about 35,000, and Facebook a further 11,000. Together, these channels form the community this album is written for: listeners who want to hear where the songs come from.
From the BestMusic.News Curator Team: “An album built as a conversation between two writers lives or dies on its running order. By God’s Design puts the shared songs first and saves the solo turns for the back half, so the two perspectives arrive together before they arrive alone.”
Where to Stream By God’s Design and Follow Kim Cross & Mark DenHartigh Music
Stream By God’s Design on Spotify or Apple Music. Then follow Kim Cross & Mark DenHartigh Music on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Finally, visit the official site to buy music direct.
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