Duke Sherman
When my good friend and previously featured artist, KeV Atomic from Atomic Honey, told me about his project to record five songs from Duke Sherman’s poetry collection A Soldier’s Thoughts and donate proceeds to United States war veterans, I jumped at the chance to help. I reached out to Duke Sherman and his manager Dawn D, founder of #ShoutOutWithLove.
I interviewed both KeV and Duke as co-featured artists. Amused Now plans to distribute Atomic Honey’s album, A Soldier’s Melodies, on Amused Now. Dawn will distribute A Soldier’s Thoughts through her distribution channels: http://shoutoutwithlove.blogspot.com, http://Xlibris.com, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Duke wrote his poetry collection because he’s plagued with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Writing poetry became a creative outlet for Duke. “I opened a site to help the veterans, because they’re my brethren and I can relate to them. I know what’s happening out there. I’ve got problems myself.”
Duke and KeV met on Twitter over two years ago. KeV’s father was also a veteran; he shared with Duke the story about the bullet he wears around his neck from his dad’s funeral. KeV wrote a poem for Duke’s website.
KeV Atomic
KeV describes the start of their project: “We just kind of bonded, connected after that. He was kind enough to send me a copy of his book. I was reading through the poems and I was inspired by so much. It gave me a whole new perspective about what our soldiers go through. ” It all began with the song Black Horse, which is “extra special to Duke. I wanted to thank Duke for all that he had done.”
Black Horse is Duke’s unit in Vietnam. “Once a trooper, you’re always a trooper. Everything in that song is reality. The war poems, the battle poems, they’re real battles. I love the Black Horse. I’m Black Horse until I die.” Duke really liked the KeV’s rendition of Black Horse, so KeV thought, “It would be really neat if we could do something for Veteran’s Day.”
KeV chose another poem, Something Different, to record (my personal favorite). That song is about his manager Dawn D. “I call her Angel. I don’t know how to explain it, but we connected too. She’s in Florida and I’m in Louisiana, but we talk every night. She calls me Papa.” KeV informed us that Something Different is getting radio air play right now. Awesome!
KeV picked the remaining three songs on the album “because they jumped out at me for different reasons. Some were chosen because of the way the words were constructed; they seemed more fitting to go into a song. My Life is at an End just was so meaningful to me, it just had to be a song.” KeV gave My Life is at an End a light melody to take some of the darkness out of the lyrics.
Duke gave KeV artistic freedom to record the songs as he felt they should be musically experienced. Get your very own copy of Soldier’s Melodies on Amused Now and support our veterans.
To watch the YouTube interview: http://youtu.be/fapJmPZDsNk
Duke Sherman
http://www.duketheman1.com/
@DukeTheMan1
KeV Atomic
http://www.atomichoney.net/
@Atomic_Honey
Cynthia Kahn, Founder of Amused Now
@Amused_Now
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