By Robin Daniel<\/p>\n
When Libby Wilson and I began working with Sid Orr on his 2nd CD, Vietnam: The Journey Continues<\/i>, we found that our understanding of the Vietnam War, and the veteran\u2019s experience, was limited and inaccurate. As we immersed ourselves in the songs, we had long and difficult conversations. We are eternally thankful to Sid who was willing to walk us through that time with him. We learned that every war is unique, and no one comes home unharmed.<\/p>\n
While we were collaborating on the songs, we met an amazing woman, Sanfora DiMola, at her home in Ellijay, Georgia, where we sat in her den and talked for hours. \u00a0Sanfora was a nurse working with the first Vietnam veterans coming home in 1965. She told us about her \u201cwarriors\u201d and the groundbreaking work on PTSD they spearheaded. \u00a0She shared her experiences as she shaped her career around helping these veterans. As we prepared to leave, we asked, \u201cIf you could give one message to the Vietnam veterans and their families, what would it be?\u201d She said \u201cThere is hope, and you are not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
After completing the other songs on the CD, we began writing \u201cYou\u2019re Not Alone!\u201d We had pages and pages of thoughts, emotions, messages. We tapped into Sid\u2019s and other Vietnam Veterans\u2019 memories of coming home. Unlike any other group of veterans in history, the Vietnam Veterans came home to a country that was angry, and many took out their anger on the returning Vets. They suffered in silence for many years. It wasn\u2019t until many years later Sid remembers walking in a Veteran\u2019s Day parade in the 1990\u2019s, 20 years after returning home, and a woman on a street corner mouthed the words \u201cThank you. Welcome home.\u201d It was then he realized this was the first time he been welcomed home from Vietnam.<\/p>\n
With so much we wanted to express, we struggled with the song for weeks. Then one day it just happened. \u00a0Sid said, \u201cWe are writing this for the warriors,\u201d and distilled the totality of feelings and messages into \u201cYou\u2019re Not Alone\u201d ending with \u201c<\/p>\n
Oh There\u2019s hope,<\/p>\n
there\u2019s always hope,<\/p>\n
Oh There\u2019s hope,<\/p>\n
there\u2019s always hope, Welcome home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Robin Daniel When Libby Wilson and I began working with Sid Orr on his 2nd CD, Vietnam: The Journey Continues, we found that our understanding of the Vietnam War, and the veteran\u2019s experience, was limited and inaccurate. As we immersed ourselves in the songs, we had long and difficult conversations. We are eternally thankful … Continue reading “The Story Behind \u201cYou\u2019re Not Alone\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-story-behind-the-songs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelratsmusic.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}