Huston Wrote Song To Honor Gold Star Families and Vets
Randy Huston’s video “The Hands That Held The Child” is one that honors Gold Star families, an organization of families who have lost their loved ones in service to this country. The song was inspired by a sculpture by well-known artist Duke Sundt. It is a very appropriate song and video for Memorial Day.
The statue depicts a heartbroken mother holding a folded American flag. “Duke and I have been friends forever and he will show me stuff that he’s working on,” Huston explained. “When I saw this I said to Duke, “Oh my golly! This is awesome! What are you going to call it?” Duke said, ‘The Hands That Held the Child,’ and I said, ‘Duke, that’s a song and it’s a really good song!’ So, I asked him if he wanted to write it with me. He does old cowboy songs and stuff, but he hadn’t done any songwriting. He said, ‘Yeah I guess so, we can try that.’ Well, I tried and tried and tried, but Duke didn’t end up helping me write it. I did give him credit though because it is his title.”
The songwriter captured the poignant moment at a soldier’s funeral in just a few words, with the lines, “She hardly hears the rifles split the air, or the sound of the lonesome bugle call, she watches as the soldiers fold the flag, for the mom who has given her all.”
Huston admits the song was hard to write but is harder yet to perform. He was present when Sundt’s statue was unveiled for Gold Star mothers and later at the organization’s national convention. When asked how he gets through the song, he replied, “I say lots of prayers and steel myself and so far, I’ve been able to do it, but there have been a couple of performances in front of regular crowds where I get choked up and have to start again or pause a little bit. It’s powerful. It’s very sad.”
Huston and his family just experienced the horrific Hermits Peak Fire and the Calf Canyon Fire in New Mexico, which came very close to their home in Rociada Valley. The State Police helped his wife evacuate from the Hermits Peak Fire when Huston wasn’t home. They were given clearance to go back home two weeks later. That night they could see and smell the smoke from the Calf Canyon Fire and were forced to evacuate once again.
“The apocalypse rolled through on Friday, it blew through our country right up to where our house is,” Huston told the Albuquerque Journal. “I’m a Westerner, an outdoors guy, a cowboy. I know mountains. I have been around fires all my life, and I have never seen anything like this.”
He goes on to explain that the day the Forest Service started the burn that was the catalyst for all of the fires, it had been forecast that there would be strong winds with gusts of up to 60 miles an hour.
“Our forest has way too much fuel in it,” Huston told the Journal. “This wind was blowing so hard it was skipping fire around. There are more than 3,000 acres that are burned and then 400 acres that are not. You have a peninsula of fire that may be only a quarter mile wide, and it explodes out again to 6,000 acres just because of that wind.”
Huston and his family were able to return to their home a second time to find it still untouched, a blessing he is very thankful for. “I was not terribly scared, because we have a good fire break around it. I had a feeling we had a chance to make it through,” said Huston, who goes on to explain to the Journal why this fire is so different. “I felt like a lot more of our country was going to burn. Usually, when a fire goes through it is done. But not this time. It is back tracking and picking up what it missed. It has left spots behind that are still hot and smoldering and they will take off and catch one of those unburned islands of ground on fire.”
“The Hands That Held The Child” is on Huston’s current album, “Times Like These,” which released earlier this year. The 14 songs on the album convey stories dear to Huston’s heart – the American cowboy and love and respect for family and the land.
To see the video for “The Hands That Held The Child,” go to
https://www.soundslikenashville.com/music/randy-huston-honors-fallen-soldiers-in-poignant-new-song-the-hands-that-held-the-child/
Click Here To Play The Album Times Like These
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FJwyaaFR2Ru4QQ78dqLY3met4BtdY0GB?usp=sharing