Entertainment, Music - Air Force Times

Taylor-made for military wives

There are certain moments, April Taylor says, that make her musical career worthwhile. Such as when she performed her first single for a friend, who listened with tears streaming down her face.

Or when a service member at one of Taylor's military performances in San Diego walked up and proudly introduced his wife as his own "hero at home."

These moments stem from Taylor's first single, which honors military wives. It's the third track of her country music CD, which came out last year via Plateau Music. And though Taylor has 11 other tracks on "I Wanna Live Like That," and her second single was released in March, she said it's "Hero at Home" that has touched hearts across the globe.

The song is about the life of a military wife whose husband is deployed, Taylor said. Her grandfather, Sgt. Maj. Billy Douglas Morrell, spent 20 years in the Army before retiring in 1968, and Taylor grew up hearing about the life of a military wife from her grandmother, Sue Morrell.

"She was a strong woman" through years of deployments during World War II and the Korean War, Taylor said. "There are women all over the world going through similar things right now."

When Taylor saw a close friend say goodbye to her husband as he deployed to Iraq, she was reminded of how military spouses are the "glue" of their families.

For this Bristol, Tenn.-born country girl, recording "Hero" as her first single was a way of recognizing the sacrifices and contributions these women make along with their husbands.

However, country music is patriotic by its nature, and Taylor was concerned that listeners might assume she was riding the patriotic bandwagon on her way to a full-fledged career.

After she signed with Plateau in December 2004, Taylor and her producer debated whether to make "Hero" her first release for that very reason.

But with so many military members close to her, "it just happened," Taylor said. "This song is very near to my heart, so I didn't look at it that way. I wasn't looking to make a career out of it; it was a gift I could give."

It is a gift that keeps on giving. Twenty percent of the CD's Internet sales, go to Operation Home Front, a nonprofit organization that helps military families.

"We do this because we want to, not because we have to," said Tony Mantor, Plateau's owner and Taylor's manager. "We're doing everything we can to help people while ... also building sales."

The album is available online at www.apriltaylor.net.

"As a singer, you've got to sing songs you believe in," Taylor said. When she initially heard the song, penned by Paul Harbin and Sandi and Charles Kight, "it was almost like they wrote it for me to sing."

Likewise, Taylor said, military wives have told her it seems as if the song were written for them. The last verse describes the wife donning her husband's T-shirt at night -- something women admit to Taylor they do during their husbands' deployments.

Taylor's close friend, who listened tearfully to the song, told her "even [her husband] doesn't know [she] did that," Taylor said.

"What's really awesome about this is that even though we're on our second single, people still want us to play ['Hero at Home']," Mantor said.

When Taylor performs before a military audience, she admits she closes her eyes to keep from crying.

During one performance, "I had the wives stand, and we honored them," Taylor said. "I looked out there and saw all of them holding hands ... and that was worth it, right there," she said.

"If the song is never played on the radio again, that's enough for me," she said. "Knowing the lives I've touched along the way has been worth it."