SongwritingWith:Soldiers Is Allowing Veterans To Find Their Voice [Interview]

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Jay Clementi & former Army Ranger PK Kelley. Photo: Jan Herrle

Every year, we remember and honor all those who died defending our country in the U.S. Armed Forces on Memorial Day. We do so with parades, special services and most of the time, with BBQ’s and pool parties. Regardless of how you celebrate, there are always those who deal with insurmountable grief on Memorial Day, such as veterans who have lost friends in the line of duty.

Life after service in the military can be extremely difficult, but organizations like SongwritingWith:Soldiers are offering veterans who suffer from PTSD and other emotional traumas a way to find their voices through songwriting and music. This organization sets up veterans with top-tier songwriters during a weekend retreat and in many cases, helps them start a new life.

Jay Clementi. Photo: Courtesy of SongwritingWith:Soldiers

“We do these retreats all over the country,” says SongwritingWith:Soldiers Musical Director and Nashville songwriter Jay Clementi. “The songwriters that [we choose to participate] are hand-picked. We have a staff and songwriters that are specially trained to do this particular work.

“We bring professional sound engineer there to the facility so we can record the songs as we go,” Clementi adds. “There’s always amazing food and we have a trained facilitation team that works with veterans when they’re not writing songs with the other songwriters.”

Clementi joined SongwritingWith:Soldiers back in 2012 when Radney Foster and Darden Smith did its first-ever retreat. From there he knew that it was special and was blown away by the stories the veterans told and know how much help they could get from writing.

Photo: Jan Herrle

“They’re doing strengths workshops, creative writing and meditation. All of these things are designed to help open you up creative creatively, so they’re really in a good place when they sit down to write songs,” he says. “We also have Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers capturing the entire weekend.”

At the retreats, songwriters like Clementi are set up with veterans in a two hour songwriting sessions throughout the weekend to write songs to be recorded and then eventually performed on the final night of the retreat. One veteran in particular, retired Army Ranger PK Kelley, went to a retreat in January of 2018 in Arizona. He wrote a song with Clementi for the child of one of his friends who was killed on the line of duty.

The song, “Daddy’s Son,” was written for the young son of Sgt. Thomas McPherson, known as “Tommy Mac,” who died when his son was 18 months old. The process of writing this song helped Kelley start a path in his life. Click this link to listen to the song and read the lyrics.

“He was killed not long before he was due to come home on what was his last deployment,” says Kelley. “He did certain things that only his wife and people close to him would know. They played catch in the yard, which is in the song.

Jay Clementi and PK Kelley. Photo: Jan Herrle

“He liked rockabilly music, so that’s in the song,” adds Kelley. “There are certain things in the lyrics that resonate with everybody but they’re specific enough to where it hits home for his widow and his son.”

Kelley, like many of veterans, would have never had the opportunity to work with talented songwriters and write something that is so personal and therapeutic had he not gone on the SongwritingWith:Soldiers retreat. He was able to not only gift Sgt. Thomas McPherson’s widow and son with a song that honored his life, but was also able to find a new way to live life after deployment.

“For a long time, I dealt with pride getting in the way of getting help. I dealt with a lot of my issues [on my own], especially around anniversary dates of losing friends in the wrong way,” says Kelley. “Now, I’m an advocate of changing that habit. I would say that this retreat, and songwriting, was the start of me completely changing the trajectory of my life.”

There are so many great charities that many music industry members in Nashville and around the country dedicate their time to, but for Clementi, his mission is to continue working with veterans who put their lives on the line for our country and giving back to them and their families.

“For me, I’m just so grateful to be the Musical Director for SongwritingWith:Soldiers,” says Clementi. “It’s been such a meaningful part of my life for for 12 years and I just feel honored every time I sit across from a veteran and help them tell a piece of their story. There’s a responsibility with that, and I think all the writers love to do this work.”

Jay Clementi and PK Kelley. Photo: Jan Herrle

Kelley is just another example of how therapeutic songwriting can be, especially for those who have experienced as much as our veterans do. Kelley now helps other veterans through their struggles and has become a huge advocate for SongwritingWith:Soldiers.

“Everybody’s grieving process is different, but what I tell other veterans is if you can find a healthy outlet and do something for that guy you lost or for their family, that is something that that other veteran can be proud of,” Kelley says. “If the roles were reversed and I was in the ground, I wouldn’t want my friends sitting there drinking on the anniversary of my death. I’d want them living a healthy life and making me proud doing something for somebody else, whether that’s writing a song or climbing a mountain.”

To learn more about SongwritingWith:Soldiers, visit their website.

Steven Boero
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