[Applause]
[Music]
you
such a simple gift such a simple gift
for our hearts I was six years old when
I first got a violin put in my hands
thanks to my mom and my dad and I had no
idea at that time what a journey it
would take me on how much of the world I
would get to see and what I’d get to
experience in my lifetime because I got
to play music but it’s really the inner
journey of music that I’d like to speak
to you all today on because that journey
has changed my life I believe that music
and the vibration of sound has the power
to connect us to our hearts and our mind
and allow us to heal and I believe that
when we tell our stories through the
lens of music by writing songs we
actually free ourselves from past trauma
past pain and past suffering so that we
can enjoy this human experience you know
what I mean so first I learned about
this because I had to learn how to heal
myself but I didn’t really know that’s
what was happening I was like 25 years
old and I was driving down the road and
songs were coming through my window
chute shield I was hearing babe we’re
dead upon arrival can’t you read my mind
you know my poker face has never been my
best shot at survival so I’ll have my
say and then I’ll walk away
I was telling the band that I’d been
playing with that I needed to leave in
order to find my true self I kept
driving down the road and then I heard I
hope she makes it up to you for the
things I’ll never do it shocked me
because I was wishing a new lover to the
man I needed to leave in order to find
my true self the songs themselves were
my teachers they were premonitions of
what I needed to do in my life in order
to be my fullest self it was crazy
so I did I walked away and I broke up
and I had experienced the deepest
heartache that I had ever experienced
and I went on a really deep self
exploration journey I went all over the
world I traveled with different
musicians and played here’s a picture of
me playing in India to a village a rural
village just playing music and I got
back to Austin Texas where I’m from and
I went to my first global youth peace
summit and the Global Youth peace summit
is put on by a foundation in Austin
called the amla foundation and it unites
you can see here teenagers from all
around the world and it’s the vision of
this woman her name is Vanessa stone and
she’s a deep teacher of mine and her
vision was to bring together teenagers
from all around the world so they could
experience self-expression learning each
other’s cultures creating of art playing
in the rain and finding true inner peace
it was at my first summit that I really
experienced watching others come out of
their trauma and when they were coming
out of their trauma I literally heard
them writing songs and writing poems
like I had never heard before in my life
the words of truth from the mouths of
babes it was profound so I went up to
the director of the foundation and I
said oh my gosh it would be so amazing
if we could create a program where they
could actually record these songs
they’re writing so that the world can
hear the words of truth from the mouths
of babes and he said we’ve been trying
to do that for
seven years but we’ve always done it at
the summit and we’ve tried to squeeze in
recording music in this process and I
said no the music requires its own space
its own time for creation so we created
a week-long program that happens right
after the summit and it’s called the one
village music project so when I was at
the one village music project the next
year I was sitting with this lady this
young woman from Rwanda named Eileen
Berta Bosa and she was very closed I
think this is a picture of the day I met
her in fact she was deep inside if you
know what I mean by that her body
posture was hovered over and she didn’t
have much to say but I could tell she
had something to say at the same time so
I sat with her for about three hours one
afternoon and we got into it and she
finally told me that that she was
representing the Rwanda genocide that
she had the blood inside her of both
Hutu and Tutsi tribes I don’t know if
you know anything about the Rwandan
genocide but if you do then you know
that the Hutu tribal government was
actually slaughtering the Tutsi tribes
and I realized this is a song will you
play that song this song is what came
out of the Global Peace um it’s one
village music project and this is the
story of Eileen who she has both the
Hutu and the tutee tribe insider and
reflects her story of change just listen
to just a little bit of her story
my words born changes then I was born in
the days of Josiah
[Applause]
[Music]
give you a head not your picture choice
[Music]
so you can hear the joy in that song it
was so inspiring to write a joyful song
about such a profoundly deeply sad
experience that she was going through
but she thought of it as a revolution
and that’s now she represents the new
face of Rwanda she got back to Rwanda
after that trip and it was immediately
apparent to me that her life had
completely changed she started going to
college immediately and she put this on
her Facebook page it says I was born
that’s the name of the song that we
wrote she has now come together with two
of the other youth that were at the
Global Youth peace summit and written
and become the African dream movement
we’re now she’s actually creating a
space for youth in Africa to learn about
tribalism and face their own pains
within that so she’s become a leader in
her community it’s amazing to see Eileen
and what she’s done with her life so
after that program I’d like to introduce
you to my sister here my sister
Stephanie hunt actually became my my
partner in all this that was her voice
singing with mine on that recording as a
backup we were supporting Eileen
together and we thought this program is
really powerful I wonder if there’s a
way for us to bring this kind of program
to other people who have experienced
deep trauma and suffering in their lives
so we thought who better to serve than
war veterans and we approached my friend
well we started a nonprofit called fuel
our fire which is actually a way to so
that we can create these programs in the
world we did all the work it takes to do
that and then we started working with
War veterans through our friend Dustin
Welch who had started a program called
soldier songs and voice
and soldier songs and voices has weekly
songwriting groups where they work with
veterans and we said hey Dustin what if
we create a retreat setting where we can
actually come together and go really
deep with some of the veterans you’ve
been working with and he said yes I’m in
all the way let’s do it our friend
donated his TR ranch in Texas and he had
his father was a war veteran he said
let’s do it I can’t wait and we started
the revelry songwriting retreat last
year and so we were sitting at the
revelry songwriting retreat in this
circle this opening circle of the of the
entire experience and directly following
the circle that you see here i sat with
this young lady Amber Lee Russell who
you look at her at first glance and you
would never think she’s a war veteran
but she definitely served her country
and what she told me about being a
veteran or her experience is that she
was one woman in about 200 men and her
infantry division and just what kind of
experience she had with that and my
sister and I looked at her and said well
why would you why would you join the
army then I mean it sounds like a really
hard thing to do and she said you know
what well this is what she said this is
a story of Amber Lee Russell
see it with my sister mama he’s crazy
then go to sleep
I heard open spaces in 90
made me leave I grew up in a trailer in
Malawi feet
in the middle of nowhere a Texas town
but then the lifestyle wasn’t right for
me so I’ve spread my wings and I was
westward bound brother on the back field
flipped his car in broad me home
I remember when we were kids
we used to say digging up bones I grew
up in a trailer in the middle of a wheat
field in the middle of nowhere
a Texas town but that lifestyle wasn’t
right for me
so I spread my weed and I was east bird
man
[Music]
sign up for the army to pay for college
and do what’s right saw the towers
falling I heard my colleague
and when to fire now I’m stationed in a
trailer in the middle of a compound in
the middle of nowhere the border town
but this rap star isn’t right for me
so I spread our way now I’m home
[Music]
it felt like magic had happened that was
the very first day of the retreat in the
morning very first thing we did and we
didn’t know what was gonna happen the
rest of the week but the next morning I
woke up and I sat with this man Bobby
Henline who actually I walked into the
breakfast table at the retreat and he
was sitting on the couch hovered over
his journal writing like frantically he
had just been cracked open and he said I
got it I got the story of of my burn if
you look at at Bobby Henline you’ll see
40% of his body is covered in burn he
was in an AED explosion in Iraq and well
I won’t tell you his story because we
wrote it in this song it’s called not a
day goes by we learned of the vehicle
getting ready for war just like we’ve
done a thousand times before we talked
about
and what to go wrong now no matter what
would happen we would stay army strong
and we checked our equipment inspected
our key bow down our heads the chaplain
letter prayed I took the lead as we
rolled out the gate just another day
we have known our fate not a day goes by
I don’t fight the battle in my
and through my eyes the truth in every
tear I
and I know I got no Jack Bell bomb was
big and the noise was loud man evacuated
from a dusty cloud I prayed that God
would come and set me free the bomb took
four and only left me
they were my angel my guarding love
reassuring me everything was gonna be
all right
not a day goes by I don’t fight the
battle in my
through my eyes the truth in every tear
I know not a day goes by I don’t fight
the battle in my mind the war is over
the battle still in my
war is over and I didn’t die not a day
goes goes bad
so today on Veterans Day we honor those
who have fought for our freedoms in this
country and we recognize that being part
of war and being in that traumatic
experience actually is very different
than the picture that we civilians paint
and it’s actually very hard to know
exactly what someone who’s been through
an experience like that is actually
feeling but so Bobby Henline I’d like to
honor him one more time he’s he’s an
incredible human being
he actually travels around the entire
country as a comedian he’s one of the
most healed internally people that I’ve
ever met because he actually shares his
story all the time and he’s free to
speak about it and he feels that this is
his life’s work now to do this to go out
and share the story of his his life and
he’s a comedian he’s the funniest guy
one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met
him he made fun of himself like he’s
missing an arm and someone be like you
need a hand with that you know he’s just
so it was incredible to write that song
with him because he hadn’t never been
able to tell that story and one of the
coolest things I think about both
Amberleigh song and about Bobby’s song
is that they are both stories that are
deeply personal to themselves but yet
they both have a quality about them that
pretty much anyone in the entire world
can relate with with Amberleigh the
story of needing to get out of a
socioeconomic status that you’d been
raised in and now exploring yourself
traveling the world and coming back and
she is now getting her second master’s
degree and she wants to serve her
community she wants to be a director at
a library she’s charged up with the way
that she can continue serving and Bobbie
we all fight battles in our mind every
day you know not a day goes by I don’t
fight the battle in my mind I wasn’t in
war but I have them and you don’t have
to be a war veteran or a war refugee
like Eileen or heartbroken like I was we
all face human suffering it’s a
universal thing and what I’d like to
invite you all to do is the next time
you’re thinking about your own pain your
own trauma you might get a tinge in your
throat or that feeling of anxiety in
your stomach or just some kind of shake
that numbs you from being able to take
whatever the next step is in your life I
just invite you all to hum
hum into yourself hum into your own
story grab a piece of paper and a pen C
of writing it out helps see if a melody
comes to it and I just think and I
really truly believe that music has the
power to heal human suffering if we
allow ourselves the time it takes to
just sit with ourselves through our own
pain so thank you all for your time
today
[Applause]
[Music]
you
such a simple gift such a simple gift
for our hearts I was six years old when
I first got a violin put in my hands
thanks to my mom and my dad and I had no
idea at that time what a journey it
would take me on how much of the world I
would get to see and what I’d get to
experience in my lifetime because I got
to play music but it’s really the inner
journey of music that I’d like to speak
to you all today on because that journey
has changed my life I believe that music
and the vibration of sound has the power
to connect us to our hearts and our mind
and allow us to heal and I believe that
when we tell our stories through the
lens of music by writing songs we
actually free ourselves from past trauma
past pain and past suffering so that we
can enjoy this human experience you know
what I mean so first I learned about
this because I had to learn how to heal
myself but I didn’t really know that’s
what was happening I was like 25 years
old and I was driving down the road and
songs were coming through my window
chute shield I was hearing babe we’re
dead upon arrival can’t you read my mind
you know my poker face has never been my
best shot at survival so I’ll have my
say and then I’ll walk away
I was telling the band that I’d been
playing with that I needed to leave in
order to find my true self I kept
driving down the road and then I heard I
hope she makes it up to you for the
things I’ll never do it shocked me
because I was wishing a new lover to the
man I needed to leave in order to find
my true self the songs themselves were
my teachers they were premonitions of
what I needed to do in my life in order
to be my fullest self it was crazy
so I did I walked away and I broke up
and I had experienced the deepest
heartache that I had ever experienced
and I went on a really deep self
exploration journey I went all over the
world I traveled with different
musicians and played here’s a picture of
me playing in India to a village a rural
village just playing music and I got
back to Austin Texas where I’m from and
I went to my first global youth peace
summit and the Global Youth peace summit
is put on by a foundation in Austin
called the amla foundation and it unites
you can see here teenagers from all
around the world and it’s the vision of
this woman her name is Vanessa stone and
she’s a deep teacher of mine and her
vision was to bring together teenagers
from all around the world so they could
experience self-expression learning each
other’s cultures creating of art playing
in the rain and finding true inner peace
it was at my first summit that I really
experienced watching others come out of
their trauma and when they were coming
out of their trauma I literally heard
them writing songs and writing poems
like I had never heard before in my life
the words of truth from the mouths of
babes it was profound so I went up to
the director of the foundation and I
said oh my gosh it would be so amazing
if we could create a program where they
could actually record these songs
they’re writing so that the world can
hear the words of truth from the mouths
of babes and he said we’ve been trying
to do that for
seven years but we’ve always done it at
the summit and we’ve tried to squeeze in
recording music in this process and I
said no the music requires its own space
its own time for creation so we created
a week-long program that happens right
after the summit and it’s called the one
village music project so when I was at
the one village music project the next
year I was sitting with this lady this
young woman from Rwanda named Eileen
Berta Bosa and she was very closed I
think this is a picture of the day I met
her in fact she was deep inside if you
know what I mean by that her body
posture was hovered over and she didn’t
have much to say but I could tell she
had something to say at the same time so
I sat with her for about three hours one
afternoon and we got into it and she
finally told me that that she was
representing the Rwanda genocide that
she had the blood inside her of both
Hutu and Tutsi tribes I don’t know if
you know anything about the Rwandan
genocide but if you do then you know
that the Hutu tribal government was
actually slaughtering the Tutsi tribes
and I realized this is a song will you
play that song this song is what came
out of the Global Peace um it’s one
village music project and this is the
story of Eileen who she has both the
Hutu and the tutee tribe insider and
reflects her story of change just listen
to just a little bit of her story
my words born changes then I was born in
the days of Josiah
[Applause]
[Music]
give you a head not your picture choice
[Music]
so you can hear the joy in that song it
was so inspiring to write a joyful song
about such a profoundly deeply sad
experience that she was going through
but she thought of it as a revolution
and that’s now she represents the new
face of Rwanda she got back to Rwanda
after that trip and it was immediately
apparent to me that her life had
completely changed she started going to
college immediately and she put this on
her Facebook page it says I was born
that’s the name of the song that we
wrote she has now come together with two
of the other youth that were at the
Global Youth peace summit and written
and become the African dream movement
we’re now she’s actually creating a
space for youth in Africa to learn about
tribalism and face their own pains
within that so she’s become a leader in
her community it’s amazing to see Eileen
and what she’s done with her life so
after that program I’d like to introduce
you to my sister here my sister
Stephanie hunt actually became my my
partner in all this that was her voice
singing with mine on that recording as a
backup we were supporting Eileen
together and we thought this program is
really powerful I wonder if there’s a
way for us to bring this kind of program
to other people who have experienced
deep trauma and suffering in their lives
so we thought who better to serve than
war veterans and we approached my friend
well we started a nonprofit called fuel
our fire which is actually a way to so
that we can create these programs in the
world we did all the work it takes to do
that and then we started working with
War veterans through our friend Dustin
Welch who had started a program called
soldier songs and voice
and soldier songs and voices has weekly
songwriting groups where they work with
veterans and we said hey Dustin what if
we create a retreat setting where we can
actually come together and go really
deep with some of the veterans you’ve
been working with and he said yes I’m in
all the way let’s do it our friend
donated his TR ranch in Texas and he had
his father was a war veteran he said
let’s do it I can’t wait and we started
the revelry songwriting retreat last
year and so we were sitting at the
revelry songwriting retreat in this
circle this opening circle of the of the
entire experience and directly following
the circle that you see here i sat with
this young lady Amber Lee Russell who
you look at her at first glance and you
would never think she’s a war veteran
but she definitely served her country
and what she told me about being a
veteran or her experience is that she
was one woman in about 200 men and her
infantry division and just what kind of
experience she had with that and my
sister and I looked at her and said well
why would you why would you join the
army then I mean it sounds like a really
hard thing to do and she said you know
what well this is what she said this is
a story of Amber Lee Russell
see it with my sister mama he’s crazy
then go to sleep
I heard open spaces in 90
made me leave I grew up in a trailer in
Malawi feet
in the middle of nowhere a Texas town
but then the lifestyle wasn’t right for
me so I’ve spread my wings and I was
westward bound brother on the back field
flipped his car in broad me home
I remember when we were kids
we used to say digging up bones I grew
up in a trailer in the middle of a wheat
field in the middle of nowhere
a Texas town but that lifestyle wasn’t
right for me
so I spread my weed and I was east bird
man
[Music]
sign up for the army to pay for college
and do what’s right saw the towers
falling I heard my colleague
and when to fire now I’m stationed in a
trailer in the middle of a compound in
the middle of nowhere the border town
but this rap star isn’t right for me
so I spread our way now I’m home
[Music]
it felt like magic had happened that was
the very first day of the retreat in the
morning very first thing we did and we
didn’t know what was gonna happen the
rest of the week but the next morning I
woke up and I sat with this man Bobby
Henline who actually I walked into the
breakfast table at the retreat and he
was sitting on the couch hovered over
his journal writing like frantically he
had just been cracked open and he said I
got it I got the story of of my burn if
you look at at Bobby Henline you’ll see
40% of his body is covered in burn he
was in an AED explosion in Iraq and well
I won’t tell you his story because we
wrote it in this song it’s called not a
day goes by we learned of the vehicle
getting ready for war just like we’ve
done a thousand times before we talked
about
and what to go wrong now no matter what
would happen we would stay army strong
and we checked our equipment inspected
our key bow down our heads the chaplain
letter prayed I took the lead as we
rolled out the gate just another day
we have known our fate not a day goes by
I don’t fight the battle in my
and through my eyes the truth in every
tear I
and I know I got no Jack Bell bomb was
big and the noise was loud man evacuated
from a dusty cloud I prayed that God
would come and set me free the bomb took
four and only left me
they were my angel my guarding love
reassuring me everything was gonna be
all right
not a day goes by I don’t fight the
battle in my
through my eyes the truth in every tear
I know not a day goes by I don’t fight
the battle in my mind the war is over
the battle still in my
war is over and I didn’t die not a day
goes goes bad
so today on Veterans Day we honor those
who have fought for our freedoms in this
country and we recognize that being part
of war and being in that traumatic
experience actually is very different
than the picture that we civilians paint
and it’s actually very hard to know
exactly what someone who’s been through
an experience like that is actually
feeling but so Bobby Henline I’d like to
honor him one more time he’s he’s an
incredible human being
he actually travels around the entire
country as a comedian he’s one of the
most healed internally people that I’ve
ever met because he actually shares his
story all the time and he’s free to
speak about it and he feels that this is
his life’s work now to do this to go out
and share the story of his his life and
he’s a comedian he’s the funniest guy
one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met
him he made fun of himself like he’s
missing an arm and someone be like you
need a hand with that you know he’s just
so it was incredible to write that song
with him because he hadn’t never been
able to tell that story and one of the
coolest things I think about both
Amberleigh song and about Bobby’s song
is that they are both stories that are
deeply personal to themselves but yet
they both have a quality about them that
pretty much anyone in the entire world
can relate with with Amberleigh the
story of needing to get out of a
socioeconomic status that you’d been
raised in and now exploring yourself
traveling the world and coming back and
she is now getting her second master’s
degree and she wants to serve her
community she wants to be a director at
a library she’s charged up with the way
that she can continue serving and Bobbie
we all fight battles in our mind every
day you know not a day goes by I don’t
fight the battle in my mind I wasn’t in
war but I have them and you don’t have
to be a war veteran or a war refugee
like Eileen or heartbroken like I was we
all face human suffering it’s a
universal thing and what I’d like to
invite you all to do is the next time
you’re thinking about your own pain your
own trauma you might get a tinge in your
throat or that feeling of anxiety in
your stomach or just some kind of shake
that numbs you from being able to take
whatever the next step is in your life I
just invite you all to hum
hum into yourself hum into your own
story grab a piece of paper and a pen C
of writing it out helps see if a melody
comes to it and I just think and I
really truly believe that music has the
power to heal human suffering if we
allow ourselves the time it takes to
just sit with ourselves through our own
pain so thank you all for your time
today
[Applause]
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