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Songwriting is an always arduous, sometimes rewarding, and ultimately subjective exercise.  A few years ago, I characterized it in my song Be On My Way like this:  Two hundred words, spaced in a row/enough to ignore, too much to let go/that’s all there is of me/there’s no more to say/I’ll shed my old skin and be on my way.  Writing a good song is an exceptional challenge precisely because they’re so rare.  My Sirius XM radio has a hundred or so channels of lousy music I flip through searching for a single jewel.  More often than not, I never find it.     

Good songs often speak of shared experiences, so when I was approached by two executive team members of the 93 Cents for Flight 93 organization in early 2010 about doing a benefit concert to help fund the National Parks Service Foundation’s Flight 93 National Memorial, it was a pretty logical leap for me to suggest that I write a song – an anthem, really – that examines how we feel as a nation a decade after the obscenity of September 11, 2001.  Judy Jackson was a lovely woman, a former flight attendant who knew crew members of Flight 93, and Pat Gross was a banker just in from the Midwest who was engaging and full of ideas.  Judy had seen me at America’s Soul Live and wanted to meet to discuss what we could do musically to help the cause.  In a series of wonderful lunches at Los Alamos Verdes in Arvada, CO, I told them I didn’t think a local benefit concert would be particularly helpful to an organization trying to raise millions of dollars.  I would, however, do my best to write an anthem that could be used by the organization. 

In late 2001, I wrote a song for the funeral of a friend’s father.  In it, I had the intriguing line, memories reach millions of miles.  The song, after it was written, was obviously about 9-11 more than anything else, and after cutting a demo with Butch Hause, I stuck it in the proverbial drawer and forgot about it.  The line came back, however, after meeting with Judy and Pat, and it seemed more important ten years on.  The shock of that day is gone, and we can now remember; we can see the victims’ lives with clear eyes.  I began writing, and actually hauled a guitar into the restaurant and played the fledgling tune for Judy and Pat.  They liked it.  I liked it.  So I asked Jeff Graves to help put a demo together at his home studio.  We gathered together one Sunday in April 2010 to demo the tune.  Jeff brought in his friends from the band Ouzo Project (George Kourkouliotis on drums and Phil Brock on keyboards) and I asked Ernie Martinez and Dana Vernon – both members of O.P. these days – to help, as well.  Their only payment was hamburgers and beer, which – in my experience – is often the best kind of payment.  It was a great afternoon.  The demo turned out nicely with the anthemic quality I wanted, and I presented it to Pat and Judy.  We were all very excited.  I put together a proposal that called for the tune to be the centerpiece of a nationally televised concert by a “superstar,” with proceeds going to the Flight 93 National Memorial.   I wanted to do more than a demo, however, and tried to figure out a way to get a finished product together, complete with orchestra and even a chorale. 

Over the next few months, the tune made its way up the bureaucratic chain.  I talked with executives, planners and quite a few people who did not grasp in the least what I had proposed.  Filmmaker Jess Stainbrook and I talked and I put together a preliminary proposal for Jess’s company to produce an hour-long television special.  He talked with another executive who said to send it along by e-mail.  I did.  Nothing…until Jess called and she found it in her spam file.  She read it, listened and was impressed…said she’d hop on it.  Nothing.  Jess moved on to other projects.  I cut the acoustic guitar and vocal tracks for the final cut at John Macy’s studio.  Still nothing.  John moved on to other projects.  I moved on to other projects.  Pat Gross moved to another job.  Judy Jackson did everything in her power to keep the project alive (and I’ll always love her for it.)  And there it sat.

Over the past year, my friends Bill and Jan Westerdahl have been enamored of the song.  Bill’s a retired National Guard major-general, and made sure his active and ex-military pals heard and liked the song.  He’s a one-man p.r. firm for the tune.  Last month, I played for Bill & Jan’s annual bash in the Sangre de Cristos of Colorado, and performed Memories live for maybe the second or third time.  A lot of tears were shed.  The consensus was, “You have to get that tune out…NOW.”  I played it again a few days later at last month’s sold-out America’s Soul Live.  Once again, the consensus was, “You have to get that tune out…NOW.”  So…..

I asked Jeff Graves to remix the demo with me.  I had really never been enamored of the original production…and then we began dissecting the tracks and mixing again from the beginning.  Things I hadn’t heard were in there, and things I heard too much of were easy to tone down.  About four hours later, I was in love with the song again. Jeff did a great job.

I had passed the original demo on to my friend Lowell Whitney, who had some great ideas about distribution, marketing, etc. and who offered to help put together a You Tube video.  I produced a storyboard that I was pleased with, and was going to get together with Lowell to begin work.  In the meantime, Pat and I had a get-together and my friend, neighbor and webmaster Tom Mullen took one look at the concept and ran with it.  He took the storyboard and put together a wonderful and very moving video production.  He’s worked day and night for the past couple of days to put an infrastructure around the project, getting it up on You Tube and making sure people are able to download the tune itself from www.jonchandler.com.   Thanks so much for your hard work, Tom. 

Although we’re late to the party with this project, I hope we have enough downloads to make a worthwhile contribution to the Flight 93 National Memorial…an amount that might help in some small way.  (Please let your friends, e-friends and social media contacts know about it.) But even if nothing else happens, I hope it provides comfort, pride and perhaps peace to some of the people who were so affected by the tragedy.   In a world where it’s so easy to forget, I pray we don’t. 

Memories Reach Millions of Miles on You Tube: http://youtu.be/GArfxOz87Uw

Memories Reach Millions of Miles music download:   www.jonchandler.com

Memories Reach Millions of Miles

By Jon Chandler

Close my eyes/and I see you standing there

I would know you anywhere

And I miss you now, oh, I miss you now

Given time/I remembered who you are

My constant morning star

And I know you now, oh, I know you now

Carry on (I’ll carry on)/when the burden of this cross

Weighs so heavy with your loss

Oh, I feel you now, yes, I feel you now

Search my soul/for your story to unfold

To push back the fear I hold

And I see you now, oh, I see you now

Memories reach millions of miles

Legends are born through the trials…that we face

With honor and grace

Oh, to have flown with your wings

Oh, the magnificent things…that you gave

To this home of the brave

When the challenge came

You responded with strength

Great lives are measured by depth

And never length

We will fly (Oh, we will fly)/soaring ever higher and higher

All the feelings you inspire

And I owe you now, oh, I owe you now

Feel the flow/of devotion and desire

You’re all that I admire

And I’ve found you now, oh yes, I’ve found you now

Memories reach millions of miles

Legends are born through the trials…that we face

With honor and grace

If I could see you right now

I’d surely whisper the vow…that you gave

To this home of the brave