Bluegrass Ambassador Jamie Dailey, along with band mate Darrin Vincent, will be joining former Statler Brother Jimmy Fortune, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial tomorrow to commemorate its 25th anniversary.
Tomorrow begins an event that will last four full days. There are over 58,000 names inscribed on The Wall and all of them will read aloud as part of the four day commemoration event. It will take nearly 2,000 volunteers a total of 65 hours to read all the names. This is only the fourth time in the The Wall’s history that all the names have been read aloud. The first was during the original dedication. The names were also read during both the 10th and 20th anniversaries.
The memorial service begins at 3PM EST and Dailey, Vincent, & Fortune will offering a special musical tribute to the fallen soldiers.
Jimmy Fortune a former Statler and close friend of me and Darrin wrote the Statler hit “More Than a Name on a Wall” which we have recorded on our debut album. Jimmy heard this cut and saw us perform it live on our first show at the 2007 IBMA fan fest. A few days later he ask if we would come and perform it with him and sing harmony. I’m also honored that he has asked me to sing the last verse. We love Jimmy and his voice and talents and we love being around the wonderful christian man.
In addition to singing, the bluegrass duo will also be doing some reading. I asked Jamie how he and Darrin felt about being part of an event this solemn.
Darrin and I are very patriotic and we love our country. This was a great honor to have been asked to sing at The Wall, and to read some names in the memorial service. We are very thankful for all of the men and women who have served and given their life for our country and for the men and women who continue to serve and take great risk in protecting America.
Katy Daley at BluegrassCountry.org conducted a phone interview with Darrin today and will air it, along with the Dailey-Vincent version of More Than a Name on the Wall during the 8 AM hour tomorrow. Tune in online at BluegrassCountry.org.
