Many of you kind souls who follow my music know that for the past six years I've occasionally been honored to serve as songwriting staff for Music Therapy Retreats, using songwriting as a healing tool for our wounded warriors. I've been fortunate to have met and worked one on one with six wonderful human beings in that time, each of whom wrote a blank check and stood in harm's way on our behalf. And I've learned that this act of sharing a story and creativity, taking someone's pain and resilience and weaving it into something musical and memorable, is not only healing for the veterans. It gives us songwriters a unique opportunity to help the general public better understand the sacrifice, the cost and the burdens borne by many of our vets. It is an opportunity I'd like to make the most of on their behalf.
I've had friends who served in Vietnam as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, and I deeply wish that some of those older friends were able to participate in one of these retreats. They are life-changing for all of us involved, and we form some pretty fast friendships between the staffers and their vets. For a guy who works with words a lot, I don't have a lot to describe the feeling of watching these vets leaving the retreats with a hug and a heartfelt "we're family, please stay in touch" from the founder (and all around amazing human) Mack Bailey, as well as their own brand new Breedlove guitar. They just have a whole different energy and lightness about them, and we've formed some special bonds through the creative process. More than just a healing tool (and neurologically speaking, it really is!), I imagine for many of the vets that guitar is proof that it actually happened and it wasn't a dream.
That's a long-winded way of saying I really would like you to hear the latest collaboration I've been in with another wonderful human this past weekend in North Carolina. He is graciously allowing me to share his song publicly as well as with his far-flung family, and I'll take the opportunity to share this new song and probably two others that I've written with vets. This new one is a rocker, and we're both pretty proud of it. This coming Thursday night June 5th, 9pm Eastern, 6pm out there on the other coast.
This will be a fairly short livestream, but I'd sure love to have a massive audience for all of these vets and their songs. They've earned our attention, and I hope you'll come hear some of their stories. I encourage you to visit the Music Therapy Retreats website and learn more about this amazing program. And if this is the first time you're hearing of it, thanks for letting me be your introduction.