Veterans Songwriting Camp

Veterans Empowered Together and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum just finished up the 2nd annual Camp Enlisted. It is a 3 day camp, the first 2 days we spend writing a song and day 3 is the performance for family and friends. We do monthly sessions with 1 veteran and a few songwriters, and in July is when we offer our camp. I wanted to share some insight about doing songwriting with veterans that I have learned from the past 2 years. 

​It is very much therapy, but none of us are therapist. It started because Brian Basham approached me about it because he said when he got out of the army, playing guitar and songwriting was his therapy. I've since learned that being able to express yourself through song has lots of healing powers. 

Almost all of the veterans that come in for the first time are very hesitant, shy, and quiet at first. After we are done, many will say "I really did not think we would be able to do this, I had my doubts". But I can't say as I blame them. I would not want anyone prodding me, asking for information, and what if they got it and people hear my story and don't get it? But it does not take long for the walls to start coming down and they start opening up, not because we ask, but because they want to talk. 

When they first start to hear their story in a simple melody with a guitar strum, everything changes. It's like magic, like a switch has been turned on, and a big smile or sometimes a tear lets us know that they are now with us, present, fully engaged, and do not feel like they are a patient in a therapy room, but that they are part of a small team that just wants to help with their God given talents. 

I believe that intent goes a long way, and people can tell if you are not real, if you are only doing something because it's your job. They can sense it a mile away. But just the opposite is when you truly care, and only want to help them, and smile and deep gratitude for them allowing you to be a part of their story, they know it, the y feel it, and the wall comes down, and then the real magic starts to happen. 

First day of camp, after a meet and greet, the veterans were all teamed up with 1 or 2 songwriters and sent to a quiet place to start their song. Brian Basham and myself teamed up with a gentleman that I later found out served in the Gulf War. He had brought his wife along with him which is never a bad idea, I think for him to have some comfort and less anxious. She had been with him through it all and knew the things he was not ready to talk about.

The first thing he said, without hesitation, was "I'm not ready for this and don't think I can do it". I explained that we do not have to write a song about him personally. We can write about a fictional character, or a song about supporting our troops, or about anything you want. His wife pulled out a big binder full of notes they had written back and forth to each other during his time of service. They both smiled as they reminisced about the letters and pulled them out to read. So we suggested we write about that very thing, a love story in letters, and that's what we did.

We songwriters need to be very carful to not push our agenda, what we think the song should be about, we need to always let it happen organically. That has always worked with Brian and I, we don't have any preconceived ideas or direction we want to go, we just let it happen. And we HAVE to remember to leave our artistic obsessions behind. We can get so caught up in not being happy with a lyric, and chord, the melody, thinking it could be better, when the fact is, many times the veteran does not know or care. They love being a part of it and having a song about their story.

We need to always allow them to not just share their story but to be a part of the song. We ask them if they like a melody, a chord change, and when they get excited and say a rhyme or a line, you bet we are going to use it, regardless if we think it is good or not. I think us musicians can overthink things. These songs are to make the veteran happy, give them a gift of thanks, we are not trying to write a radio hit song that someone will record and make a million dollars. 

Back to the story now. We had so much fun writing the song with the veteran and his wife, they would get excited hearing it come together. They would read parts of letters and we use the words right out of them. This was real, this was them, and he had a hard time not crying because it took him back to those days and she is the one that brought him joy through the hard times, and for us to make their love story the actual song is just what he needed. 

We even talked them into singing the song for the final night performance. He said "I don't even sing in the shower". But as we worked with them, they got more comfortable, and at the end of the day, it's not about how good you are, but how good it feels to sing or play an instrument. You see, when they performed that song, everyone listening cried, it was not that they where the best singers in the world, and my guitar playing was not the best, and the song will not be picked up and recored by a big star, it was because everyone knew that this story was real, they could feel their love, they were taken back in time and was shown a picture of what it was then and what it is now. It was raw and real and that's what moved people. 

We sat and listened to the other veterans and songwriters perform their song and you could feel a spirit in that room of love, support, grieving, happiness, brotherhood and sisterhood (we had 2 female veterans) and the overall joy of release. one of them said "I feel like this has been a release, a weight off of me, to say in songs words I can't hardly speak". 

So another magic moment in the books, but it does not stop there. I can't not finish anything without giving encouragement to you reading this. So many people don't believe in themselves, they don't have confidence to think that they could write a song, lean to play an instrument, or whatever else you feel called to do and will not. I am living proof that God can use you for great things. I never intended to write songs with veterans, but I say yes, I felt like I needed to try, and I just step back and give God the glory because I know it's not me. 

Just do it! Just go and start and do it. Whoever it is that makes this world a better place, adds a little more light and chases away the darkness, just do it. Start small and easy, don't worry if it does not work out like you thought it would. I used to be disappointed when something did not work out the way I thought it should, now I just thank God for the lesson learned, and you know what he reminds me each time? You just did it Randy, you did something that made the world a better place, a little brighter, and your idea of success is not the same as mine. 

I'm sure thankful that he can use someone like me, and I promise if you really want it, and you really do it for God and others, for the right reasons, you will never regret it.