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Blog From Iraq Country Newcomer Carly Goodwin Travels To Iraq Delivering Over 15 Miles Of Heart-felt Thank You’s From America. By Perry Hicks On The Road to Baghdad Country newcomer Carly Goodwin, who was featured by
GCN in an earlier report, left last week for a near month-long tour
visiting and entertaining troops Packed with musical instruments and other items needed for Carly’s tour was 15 miles of scrolled personal thank you messages penned by everyday people from all across the Unites States and 15 foreign nations. Beginning at last year’s CMA Music festival in Nashville, Tennessee (formerly known as Fan Fair,) Carly, with the aid of her recording label, Dreaming Bear Music, collected 9 miles of personal well-wishes and signatures directly from Country Music fans and celebrities such as The Oak Ridge Boys, Donna Fargo, Tanya Tucker, Brooks & Dunn, Willie Nelson, members of Musik Mafia and Gretchen Wilson. Sponsored by Southwest Airlines, Carly then took the scrolls on the road amassing even more messages ending up in Washington D.C. where congressmen, senators, and executive branch officials signed on, as well. Well-wishes can still be added on the electronic version at www.carlygoodwin.com .
Blog From Iraq Carly is not traveling on a USO tour, but via special invitational orders through Armed Forces Entertainment. The public may keep abreast of Carly & Gail’s experiences through the tour blog at http://carlygoodwin.com/blog . Beginning with the release of Baby Come Back Home, a song about the unrecognized sacrifices of a soldier’s wife, Carly Goodwin has performed at military bases all over the United States and Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. She has also made numerous trips to visit with and perform for injured troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Carly Goodwin has appeared on FOX News and has been the topic of music industry publications over the last year. GCN first featured Carly in 2004 and the story about her can be read in GCN’s Personality Archive. http://www.gulfcoastnews.com/GCNpersonalitiesArchive.htm The Import of Celebrity However beloved for their art, the societal import of singers and songwriters is always diminished; intellectuals get all the credit ostensibly for their supposed “gravitas.” The truth is that songs can have far more impact than any book, essay, or even movie.
Motion pictures can have sustained impact for the very reason they bring sight and sound together in one mighty package- but seldom are movies screened more than a few times. Great songs, however, reach right to the emotions with such thrust and focus they can leave the mind reeling and, as such, will be listened to over and over and over again each time driving its message home. For many people, songs help them through times of both sadness and joy; put into perspective a range of emotions that would otherwise overwhelm them, and perhaps even teach them another point of view. Songs convey the complexity of human experience in such a way no other medium can. Thus, the power of musical arts and the writers and performers that bring the medium to the public deserves far more respect than is usually afforded. And likewise, those same writers, but particularly performers, should acknowledge their responsibilities in serving the public. Carly's style is one that touches the emotions with a warmth and conviction that is both fresh and powerful. She will no doubt be appreciated by the troops in Iraq.
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throughout the Persian Gulf region including Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, United
Arab Emirates, Djibouti, and Kuwait. Carly is traveling with her band and
her manager, Gail Goodwin.
Consider
that a book or even a good essay is seldom read more than once, and in the
case of news articles, frequently not read to the very end.