While searching for the subject of his latest song, local writer Kenny Hensley found his inspiration on the morning news - soldiers' wives watching their husbands take off for Iraq.
"They're not up there whining that it isn't right," said Hensley, an investigator for the Nacogdoches County District Attorney's office and a former Nacogdoches police detective. "They support their husbands, and they want them to come home."
Written from the point of view of a military wife who is both fearful and proud of her husband's service, Hensley penned the song, "Come Home to Me", for Hannah Bowman, a 20-year-old Diboll singer, to perform as a tribute to armed forces families across the country.
But as Hensley, Bowman and local musicians worked on the song, 17 local National Guardsmen were deployed to Iraq, where they will serve as military police. "We've sent our own people over there, and a lot of people here have family there," Hensley said.
For the past seven years, Hensley has written songs for all occasions. After Hensley and his wife watched Bowman sing about three months ago, he struck up a conversation with the young singer, and he promised to write her a song. But he had never written from anything but a man's perspective, and he struggled with writing from a female point of view.
While getting ready for work and watching "Good Morning America," he listened to the soldiers' wives and found the subject matter he had been looking for. During his lunch break, he wrote the words and hummed a tune. Bowman said she loved the song, and, last week, along with local musicians Ken Chrisco and Indio Calzeda, she turned Hensley's lyrics into a full song.
"It's one of those songs that you enjoy singing, because it has a powerful meaning to it," Bowman said. "It's a lot to make a song that is something out of nothing. It's your own, you make it your own."
Bowman's musical father turned her on to performing at an early age, and after picking up the guitar a few years ago, she began performing with Chrisco and Calzeda and still sings with them at Stuffed Willie's in Nacogdoches. She attends Angelina College and would like to pursue a musical career after finishing her education.
"This girl just sings her heart out on this song," Hensley said. Hensley said he was more proud of this than any of the other songs he has written because of the work his friends have contributed.
"It's not just the stars and the famous people who can pay tribute to these folks," he said. "These are all local performers, and these are very talented folks."
For now, Hensley is distributing copies of the song on home-produced CDs, and eventually he would like to give one to every family of all local National Guardsmen. Though he knows not everyone agrees with the war, he said he believes you have to support the men and women in Iraq.
"You've still got to support the guys," Hensley said. "I don't care whether you believe in the war or not, you have to support the troops."
Come Home to Me
By Kenny Hensley
Standing at the window, waiving goodbye ... I understood but still asked why
As the plane climbed up through the air ... I faced my fears with a hollow stare
You stand for everything we call good ... I stand with you like I knew I would
Don't know exactly where you're headed for ... but it's a place filled with pain and war
You left me on a cold and rainy day
For a foreign land so far away
To right a wrong and set people free
Now I pray that you'll come home to me
Oh, baby, please come home to me
What you do must sometimes be done ... our country calls, and you're on the run
And you'll be here to see it through ... knowing I'm so proud of you and ... I love you
RSS Feed
