After winning the Don Gibson Singer Songwriter Symposium in Shelby, NC three times, bluegrass sing and songwriter Josh Hudson’s award winning song That’s Why We Stand has been made the title cut of the just-released Guitars 4 Vets CD, with nationwide distribution and a music video releasing today.
Hudson provided some further details about this turn of events.
“I did my last project for the album, That’s Why We Stand, with Wayne Taylor who’s been a lifer in bluegrass. He’s got a studio in Conover, NC. He knew a gentleman, Ken Onstad, who is the former CEO of New Folk Records. Ken approached Wayne, who had been a veteran of the Navy for almost 30 years, to ask him if he knew anyone who wrote patriotic or military type songs for a project for Guitars4Vets organization.
Guitars 4 Vets is a nonprofit organization that not only gives guitars to veterans, but also offers lessons and uses music for therapy for our soldiers with PTSD and other things they have from being in the military. Wayne told Ken, ‘I’ve got a pro-military guy that’s got a great song, That’s Why We Stand, so Ken got in touch, and when he heard the song he wanted to include it on the project.
Last Christmas, Guitars 4 Vets put out an EP by John Schneider (Bo Duke) doing A Guitar for Christmas. The whole song was written and the whole project was donated to raise money for Guitars 4 Vets. It did so well that New Folk Records decided to make a compilation album of different artists with pro-military songs on it. I was supposed to be only a spoke in the wheel of this project.
Ken took That’s Why We Stand to his board of directors and the PR department at New Folk Records and played it for them. They made it the spearhead of their project. New Folk Records footed the bill for me to go to Sound Factory Studios, which is a state-of-the-art studio in Lincolnton, NC, and recut the song in mind for a radio edit to release online and on the radio, and made a video of us recording it in the studio. Once they heard it, Ken called and said we want to offer you a record deal on this one song.”
Hudson stressed that he had no intention of doing this for his own benefit.
“I want everyone to know that this is a donation from me to Guitars 4 Vets. They run at a 7% operating cost so 93% of the money that they take in goes directly to the vets, and to help them. It was near and dear to my heart. I didn’t know anything about a record contract when I started. It’s just something I really believe in, and wanted to be a part of helping veterans. God blessed me.
Ken wants to help me get the distribution and maybe broker out to a larger label or keep making records for them. They are very interested in two or three of my actual bluegrass songs and working them up and marketing them as well. I feel like this is something that we’re going to go forward on.
This whole thing was just God putting people in my path the last few years to wind up at this point. To have someone have enough faith in you to invest the money in a project and believe in your talent and your work, it really makes me feel good.”
Founded in Minnesota in 2002 by musician and producer John Wright, New Folk Records was developed as a bridge to bring the creative musicians John was working with and people who love good music together. In 2006, John invited Ken Onstad and Bob McMenoman to help grow his vision to greater heights. They began to look outside the folk and Celtic music scene and bring over artists of all genres that were gifted and needed a bigger audience.
Onstad tells us that, “Josh’s song was perfect for our project. We decided it needed to be the title song.”
Josh has written over 350 songs and recorded four independent studio albums of his original compositions. His latest release, That’s Why We Stand, honoring our military, offers his soulful delivery and descriptive writing, and will tell you everything you need to know about the man behind the songs.
Hudson concluded, “You work your whole life to try to get to something like this. Hopefully, people will appreciate the song and want to hear some of my other bluegrass material.”
The full That’s Why We Stand album is scheduled for release on November 3. The CD and exclusive download card will be available globally on streaming platforms such as Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, and Pandora.
