Songs and Samples

One Big Happy Family
Performed by Porter Howell
(Written by Sam Gay, Porter Howell, Templeton Thompson)

Grace Fell Down Like Rain
Performed by Stephanie Urbina Jones
(Written by Stephanie Urbina Jones)

You’re Not My God
Performed by Paul Jefferson
(Written by Paul Jefferson, Keith Urban)

Savin' Katy
Performed by Templeton Thompson
(Written by Templeton Thompson, Sam Gay, Porter Howell)

If That’s Love
Performed by Porter Howell
(Written by Porter Howell, Sam Gay)

They Can’t Hurt You Now
Performed by Templeton Thompson
(Written by Templeton Thompson, Sam Gay, Sally Barris)

God Don’t Make Trash
A reminder that we are all valuable, no matter what.
Performed by Paul Jefferson
(Written by Paul Jefferson, Porter Howell)

Freedom In Your Eyes
A song about finding freedom from the pain of dysfunction/addiction in your life.
Performed by Stephanie Urbina Jones
(Written by Stephanie Urbina Jones)

Nobody But Me
Performed by Templeton Thompson
(Written by Templeton Thompson, Sam Gay, Porter Howell)

Chiselin' Out My Soul
A song about the recovery process.
Performed by Stephanie Urbina Jones
(Written by Stephanie Urbina Jones)

About Voices From AFAR

Voices From AFAR
The Story

We’ve all done it. A rotten day gets you grumbling and cranky, so you throw on a bright and poppy dance CD to lift you out of that negative mood. Or you’ve just ended a relationship and you want to wallow, so you sob along to song after song about love lost. An old college friend sends you an email, and after responding you go through your CD collection to find all the stuff you listened to back in the old days. Music transports. It sympathizes. It speaks to us. And that’s exactly the point of Voices From AFAR.

The ten songs of the self-titled album, written and performed by five artists came out of their own experience and reactions to addiction and recovery.

“As a songwriter, professionally you write songs for different reasons,” Stephanie Urbina Jones, Creative Director and member of voices from AFAR explains. “These songs were for ourselves, needing to express something as we went through it. The idea of making an album came up and when we heard each other’s songs, we were all blown away. We wanted to share that, to validate people’s experiences so that they wouldn’t feel alone.”

Jones and the other Voices – Boh Cooper, Porter Howell, Paul Jefferson and Templeton Thompson – each took different paths that led them to Nashville to pursue their love of music. In an all-too-common occurrence, each also developed addictive ways of copying.

At different times, they found their way to therapists Max and Kathleen Haskett, who guided them through recovery. Some knew each other beforehand, some met through the Hasketts, but eventually they were meeting and talking and helping each other.

The seed thought of using microphones for this emerging post-trauma health originated through Max R. Haskett. This was confirmed by Kathleen Haskett's energy and gifts. The end result was the voices of AFAR, which were enthusiastically introduced to Dr. Patrick Carnes at the Radio Café, a club in Nashville. Patrick's acceptance and support poll-vaulted the voices from AFAR singers into their first recorded CD and national recognition.

Dr. Patrick Carnes is CEO of the American Foundation For Addiction Research (AFAR), which is dedicated to fostering scientific research and understanding -- and to disseminating the knowledge of -- the causes and nature of addictive disorders.

The songwriters started tossing around ideas. A concert. A song, maybe. “I remember saying, I don’t know what this is, but I want to be part of it, says Howell, lead singer for the band Little Texas, and currently a songwriter with cuts by Trace Adkins and Montgomery Gentry. “Then we got together and listened to each other’s stuff.”

There was pain and anger coming through the music, but also hope and celebration. They agreed that, with the songs they had all already written, they could put together an album that could speak to every aspect of the addiction and recovery process – from the core causes, to hitting bottom, to finding release from those demons. “Hearing that back from someone else in a song was so validating,” says Jones, a singer/songwriter, whose works have been recorded by Lorrie Morgan and Shannon Brown. “We were supporting each other in this process, because we’re putting our souls out there, literally. There’s a lot of deep, truthful stuff that you could feel really vulnerable about, so we all walked through this path together. It was a cathartic experience the first time.” “One Big Happy Family” reveals the private hell hidden behind a sunny family portrait. “You’re Not My God” came out of a counselor’s observation that addiction is a form of worship for those in the middle of it.

“God Don’t Make Trash” affirms individual value. “Freedom in Your Eyes” documents a moment of salvation. The members of Voices From AFAR sang these songs and others at Radio Café, a small Nashville club, and were floored by the reaction. “I’ve never seen that kind of exchange of energy between an artist and an audience,” says Jones. “You could just feel the room completely blow up because the songs touched something deep. It was a huge release for the people listening, to hear those feelings finally expressed.”

Dr. Carnes, who attended the concert, saw firsthand how the music touched the audience. He began to formulate ideas on how to harness that power and incorporate it into his lectures. By the time he returned to Nashville, in November 2001, he had reworked his talk to include the voices from AFAR songs and performances around the topics of his speech. The music provided a heartfelt complement to the spoken words, and the successful combination led to plans to incorporate the voices from AFAR into Dr. Carnes’ future workshops.

Seeing the response to their intensely felt music confirmed the songwriters’ pursuit of putting together the album. Funds were raised, players were found and the singer/songwriters met numerous times to keep the project going. “I guess I have an attitude from years in the music business of having to beg, borrow, steal to get someone to listen to something,” says Howell. “This has a reason, and people commit to it because they’ve been through it.”

In fact, voices member Templeton Thompson, a singer/songwriter who has a cut on Reba McEntire album, says that she’s often the audience for these songs as well as the one who delivers them. Two of the three songs she contributes to the album, “They Can’t Hurt You Now” and “Nobody But Me,” address the self-doubt that can be paralyzing, and that often contributes to addiction. “A lot of times, you have one of those days when you can’t quite get around those damn voices inside you, that make you feel you’re not as good as you really are” says Thompson. “ I still need to listen to these songs. I have to remind myself sometimes to listen to what that song says, to take my own medicine, so to speak."

Perhaps most important is the fact that the songs apply to life in general, avoiding any kind of preachiness or hectoring. “Our intention isn’t to try to sway people to our way of thinking, or to make them know there’s a better way. It’s just to affect whoever could be listening,” says Boh Cooper, a keyboardist who’s toured with Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith and Rascal Flatts, among others.

“It was definitely a concern for us that we not be preachy. I know how people who haven’t been through it can feel about recovery. You see people make fun of it – and it is kind of funny,” says Jefferson. “I laugh too, at the movies when they make fun of 12-step programs. But this is serious, too. The truth is that the 12-step program and recovery has helped an incredible number of people.”

As can the lessons learned through the process, even for those who may not actually enroll in a program. “I play ‘You’re Not My God’ a lot,” Jefferson says, “it’s one of my most requested songs. A woman who comes to hear me play told me that the song is responsible for her losing 25 pounds.”

Which comes to the point of voices from AFAR. It harnesses the power of music to help people in need. “When I was a little girl, Carole King had an album out called Tapestry,” says Jones. “My dad went to Vietnam, and my parents were divorced, and there was a lot of pain in my childhood. I would go to my bedroom with that album and listen to “You’ve Got A Friend” and rock and rock and rock myself. I felt soothed by her voice, by her music, by that song. That is why I do what I do. Because that so saved me as a child. Music is the most profound medium of communication because it goes far beyond anything that we can understand.”