Voices from AFAR
The Story
We've all done it. A rotten day gets you grumbling and cranky, so you throw on a bright and poppy dance CD to lift you out of that negative mood. Or you've just ended a relationship and you want to wallow, so you sob along to song after song about love lost. An old college friend sends you an email, and after responding you go through your CD collection to find all the stuff you listened to back in the old days. Music transports. It sympathizes. It speaks to us. And that's exactly the point of Voices from AFAR.
The 10 songs of the album, written and performed by five artists, came out of their own experience and reactions to addiction and recovery. "As a songwriter, professionally you write songs for different reasons," Stephanie Urbina Jones, Creative Director and member of voices from AFAR explains. "These songs were for ourselves, needing to express something as we went through it. The idea of making an album came up and when we heard each other's songs, we were all blown away. We wanted to share that, to validate people's experiences so that they wouldn't feel alone."
The seed thought of using microphones for this emerging post-trauma health originated through Max R. Haskett. This was confirmed by Kathleen Haskett's energy and gifts. The end result was the Voices of AFAR, who were enthusiastically introduced to Dr. Patrick Carnes at the Radio Café, a club in Nashville. Patrick's acceptance and support poll-vaulted the voices from AFAR singers into their first-recorded CD and national recognition.
Dr. Patrick Carnes is Chairman of the Board of the American Foundation for Addiction Research (AFAR), which is dedicated to fostering scientific research and understanding -- and to disseminating the knowledge of -- the causes and nature of addictive disorders. The songwriters started tossing around ideas. A concert... a song, maybe. "I remember saying, I don't know what this is, but I want to be part of it, says Howell, lead singer of the band Little Texas, and currently a songwriter with cuts by Trace Adkins and Montgomery Gentry. "Then we got together and listened to each other's stuff."
There was pain and anger coming through the music, but also hope and celebration. They agreed that, with the songs they had all already written, they could put together an album that could speak to every aspect of the addiction and recovery process - from the core causes, to hitting bottom, to finding release from those demons. "Hearing that back from someone else in a song was so validating," says Jones, a singer/songwriter, whose works have been recorded by Lorrie Morgan and Shannon Brown. "We were supporting each other in this process, because we're putting our souls out there, literally. There's a lot of deep, truthful stuff that you could feel really vulnerable about, so we all walked through this path together. It was a cathartic experience the first time."
"One Big Happy Family" reveals the private hell hidden behind a sunny family portrait. "You're Not My God" came out of a counselor's observation that addiction is a form of worship for those in the middle of it. "God Don't Make Trash" affirms individual value. "Freedom in Your Eyes" documents a moment of salvation. The members of Voices from AFAR sang these songs and others at Radio Café, a small Nashville club, and were floored by the reaction. "I've never seen that kind of exchange of energy between an artist and an audience," says Jones. "You could just feel the room completely blow up because the songs touched something deep. It was a huge release for the people listening, to hear those feelings finally expressed."
Dr. Carnes, who attended the concert, saw firsthand how the music touched the audience. He began to formulate ideas on how to harness that power and incorporate it into his lectures. By the time he returned to Nashville, in November 2001, he had reworked his talk to include the Voices from AFAR songs and performances around the topics of his speech. The music provided a heartfelt complement to the spoken words, and the successful combination led to plans to incorporate the Voices from AFAR into Dr. Carnes' future workshops.
Seeing the response to their intensely felt music confirmed the songwriters' pursuit of putting together the album. Funds were raised, players were found and the singer/songwriters met numerous times to keep the project going. "I guess I have an attitude from years in the music business of having to beg, borrow, steal to get someone to listen to something," says Howell. "This has a reason, and people commit to it because they've been through it."
Perhaps most important is the fact that the songs apply to life in general, avoiding any kind of preachiness or hectoring. "Our intention isn't to try to sway people to our way of thinking, or to make them know there's a better way. It's just to affect whoever could be listening," says Boh Cooper, a keyboardist who's toured with Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith and Rascal Flatts, among others.
"It was definitely a concern for us that we not be preachy. I know how people who haven't been through it can feel about recovery. You see people make fun of it - and it is kind of funny," says Jefferson. "I laugh too, at the movies when they make fun of 12-step programs. But this is serious, too. The truth is that the 12-step program and recovery has helped an incredible number of people."
As can the lessons learned through the process, even for those who may not actually enroll in a program. "I play 'You're Not My God' a lot," Jefferson says. "It's one of my most requested songs. A woman who comes to hear me play told me that the song is responsible for her losing 25 pounds."
This comes to the point of Voices from AFAR. It harnesses the power of music to help people in need. "When I was a little girl, Carole King had an album out called Tapestry," says Jones. "My dad went to Vietnam, and my parents were divorced, and there was a lot of pain in my childhood. I would go to my bedroom with that album and listen to "You've Got a Friend" and rock and rock and rock myself. I felt soothed by her voice, by her music, by that song. That is why I do what I do. Because that so saved me as a child. Music is the most profound medium of communication because it goes far beyond anything that we can understand."
The Voices from AFAR CD sells for $15 a copy and can be ordered through the AFAR's website -- www.voicesfromafar.org. All proceeds from the CD go to the Foundation.
To schedule a performance by voices from AFAR, contact Julie Hargrove at (615) 957-9157 or DJBHargrove@aol.com. To schedule a lecture with Dr. Patrick Carnes, including the Voices from AFAR, contact Marianne Harkin at (800) 708-1796.