‘We’ll get through this together.’ KY musicians make Beshear’s COVID-19 mantra a song.
A group of Central Kentucky musicians has composed a song called “We’ll Get Through This Together,” inspired by Gov. Andy Beshear’s use of the phrase at his daily 5 p.m. news conferences to update Kentucky on COVID-19.
The three-minute, 46-second song made its public debut Monday to thousands of Kentuckians at the end of Beshear’s news conference.
With an upbeat melody, it starts off saying, “Out there in your home, You are not alone, We are sisters and brothers, In this ‘til the end, enemy or friend, Standing with each other.”
The chorus proclaims, “We will, we’ll get through this, We’ll get through this together.”
At its ends, it says, “We’ll stay strong and safe; working for a day, when the world reawakens. We will hug our friends, cheer our teams again, Every seat will be taken.”
It was designed from its beginning last month to provide “a measure of hope in this season of distress,” said Bob Stamper, who runs an IT company in Madison County and is worship leader for Real Life Community Church in Richmond.
Stamper said the song got started when Jeff Everman of Georgetown, who works for MetroNet telecommunications company, and he started exchanging emails on April 9 about a possible song.
“I noticed the phrase was coming up a lot about getting through this together,” said Everman. “I thought it was something we all should hear and need. I emailed Bob about it and got others involved.”
They consulted with Erika Gaines, a singer, a vocal coach and worship leader at Christ Church in Winchester, and Nate Jackson, worship leader at Mt. Zion Christian Church in Clark County.
Within two days, a song was born.
Jackson recorded a demo of his vocals, a keyboard and a loop track. Each of the four writers then started contacting musicians and singers they knew. The individual artists did their own thing for the recording.
A website, kentuckyasone.com, was established to allow contributors to register and upload their audio files to a server. As vocal and instrumental tracks started coming in, Stamper and Jackson started dividing up the workload.
Jackson edited and compiled all the vocal tracks. Stamper edited and mixed the instruments and combined the final vocal tracks.
The group then contacted Eppic Films, a video production company in Winchester, for assistance in creating the video that Beshear played this week at his news conference. Jason Epperson and his team assisted with the initial video production and Stamper made some final tweaks and edits.
It was released on YouTube May 4 and the creators sent it to Beshear. They did not know if the governor would air it.
“I got a message from Erika Monday night that the governor had used it and everyone was glad,” said Stamper.
“About half of my lyrics got into the final recording,” said Everman. “I did not want this song to be a cliche. I would like to see people take it and use it how they see fit. Don’t let the isolation get the best of you.”
Gaines said she did not know Stamper but everyone worked well together. They plan to work on more musical projects.
“There is so much loneliness right now,” Gaines said. “My hope is that the lonely will be encouraged by this and will not be afraid to reach out for help. We all are in this together.”
Jackson said his goal “was to bring encouragement to the state. This virus has taken its toll emotionally and spiritually to many people. We wanted to bring hope.”
In these days of staying at home, the four musicians did their work through online Zoom meetings.
They were never in the same location together. They talked about their experience producing the song Tuesday to the Herald-Leader in a Zoom conversation.
“Everything was donated,” said Stamper. “Nobody got paid for anything. We all just wanted to do a little bit to help people get through this.”
The recording can be purchased on the project’s website, www.kentuckyasone.com.
Net proceeds from the sale will be split 50-50 between two charities: the Team Kentucky Fund put together by the Beshear Administration to help people economically hurt by COVID-19 and the Bluegrass Community Foundation COVID-19 Fund in Lexington.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 11:21 AM.
