I wrote, sang, played, engineered, mixed everything on the record and I have never been happier with anything that I have been a part of. For me this collection of songs was a chance to write with out having to think about the industry, or money, or someone else’s artistic vision. I have been as personal, poetic and introspective as I wanted to be.

For me, I was always happiest when artists left themselves at the center of the process and I got to have a listener’s voyeuristic view of their world. Invariably I would find my story, my answers and myself in their work no matter how personal it was. John Denver, Harry Chapin, James Taylor, Don Mclean, Joni Mitchell and many others sang precise and poeticsongs about personal journeys that informed my youth and led me to becomea songwriter. When they opened their hearts, my heart opened as well. I hope the same is true for my listeners.

These songs are my personal stories. Every line references something either real or literary or both and they often have multiple meanings and references. I have tried to bring all of my craft and experience to the table, exploring complex rhyme and alliteration schemes while telling my story through the visuals that I have experienced or created from cobbling together my past as it collided with pop culture and literature along the way.

1. Cranesong- We named our house in Utah “Cranesong”, because of the 4 large Sand Hill cranes that were in the front yard on the day we bought the house. They still fly by morning and evening during the summer as we look out across the valley that we love. I grew up in a family that yearned for the American west. I now live here more than half the year and truly feel like I was “just a mountain meadow seed, some western wind blew south”.

It’s dark outside.

The snowflakes glide then settle down

Wistfully, gently kiss the ground.

Like winter moths they swirl around

The lights of Eden valley’s towns.

Without a care, without a sound

It’s dawn outside.

The new sun rides the ridge above.

Kindling hearts and diamond dust,

As aspen groves and burning bush

Lie quiet beneath the gentle touch

Of winter’s pearl tipped artist brush

Where home becomes more than a word.

And dreams take wing like graceful birds.

In songs of silence Love is heard.

And life becomes living once more

It’s eve outside.

As two cranes cry their vesper hymn,

The monastery bells chime in.

The junipers kiss the blushing rim of

Pastel heavens drawing in

The starlit curtain of days end

And home becomes more than a word.

Our dreams take wing like graceful birds

In songs of silence Love is heard.

And life becomes living once more

You plant your roots, you settle down

You grow your money tree

You plan your end around

You fight the great divide

You finally figure out

You were just a mountain meadow seed

Some western wind blew south

2. JOY- My mom’s name was Joy. I wrote this for her when she was ill and got to play her this recording just prior to her passing. The first verse is informed by the great American play “Our Town”. The second by the long line of singer poets, the third by the life changing experience that music had on me growing up and the generational passing of the torch to my two daughters.

Oh darling Emily You got it right

This world is just too big and bright

Our town could never contain the light

Even the universe is too small

Ye poets are portals that mere mortal men

Turn to for comfort again and again

It takes fire and rain to comprehend

The fiction, the fear and the fall

But life’s in the knowing and loves in the chasing

And I’ve chased it since I was a boy

Never knew there was so much sadness

I never knew there was so much joy.

Oh, FM radio how did you know?

Left and right you split my soul

Into beautiful tragical clear stereo

Tore my Gemini twins apart

Just to be reunited by rhythm and rhyme

In muse’s own daughters in music’s own kind

Forget who you are and just look who you find

On that Southern Cross nailed to the stars

‘Cause life’s in the singing and love’s in the writing

So I’ve written since I was boy

Never knew there was so much anger

I never knew there was so much joy

Oh, flee as a bird; no you’re not weary yet

Time to relinquish regret

Peacefully forget

That old rugged boss soon you will lay down

To become fire or wind

Or rain or sky

or cloud or sea or ground

‘Cause life’s in the dying and love is the answer

To the questions since I was a boy

Never knew there was so much heart ache I never knew there was so much joy

Never knew there was so much of you in your boy…never knew there was so much joy

3. Their Time- A decade at a time autobiographical journey of the high and low points along the way, with a final reflection of gratitiude for the generation that brought us into the world as they quickly pass from it.

61 dawned sun (son) and light

Dawned black and white

Dawned left and right

The pins reset, the planes would fly

The mills would hum, the babies cry

They made their love, they built their shrine

On the mountain of their time

89 broke fresh and green

Broke like Dancy’s dream

Broke at the seams

The tide would rise, the boats would sail

The crowds would hum, the try would fail

I leveraged love, I dug my mines

In the gold vein of…my time

The 21st rose dun and grey

Rose a new bouquet

Rose a less travelled way

The pawns were moved, the queens were took

The bishop vainly, fell to the rook

We learned of love, buried our crimes

In the fresh red clay….of our time

Twenty twelve dawned bright and blue

Dawned white and new

Dawned and then withdrew

The pins reset, a soul would fly

The choir would hum, we would cry…and say goodbye

We raise our love, kneel at the shrine

So thankful of…thankful of….their time

4. Magic Man- Written for Buddy Autry, who took me under his wing in the late 60’s in north Georgia and taught me sleight of hand and allowed me to be his magical assistant at local talent shows and carnivals.

He was an old magic man
He could pull a rabbit from a hat
He could make four aces fly
Circle the room, and land in your lap
With a wave of his wand, a pretty lady, he just sawed in two
Would sing and dance as he pulled her apart
Oh, Mr. magic man
Wish you could fix my broken heart

He used to ride thru town
In stagecoach pulled by an old grey ox named blue
He promised miracles and for two bits he perform a trick or two.
I watched him like hawk
But never caught him with something up his sleeve
I believed that quarters came from empty ears
Oh, Mr. magic man
Wish you could make the love that left me re-appear

She was my everything
So everything is lost now that she is gone
The cards are blank, these turtle doves just don’t belong
The patter is all wrong….

He was an old magic man
And flowers would bloom in his trembling hands
And he could pour pure water in, turn it into gin
And then rain confetti out
One frosted night on Halloween
He leaned in to me and said the carnivals begun,
Then whispered, son…as the trumpet fanfare blew
Oh, Mr. magic man …I miss that kid. And I miss you
Oh, Mr. magic man …I miss that kid. And I miss you

5. Snowvember- My “Little Martha”, I wrote this instrumental while at my house in Florida. It contemplates the first tentative snowfalls that blanket the mountains of Utah while we are still enjoying the last rays of summer on Cape San Blas. It was recorded on my front porch with the sound of the wind and the water on a cheap guitar into a laptop microphone, but it captures that freshness of a song just written and played down for the first time.

6. One More Christmas to Remember- My personal reminiscing about childhood and the Christmas traditions I grew up with. The names and the images are from my life, but hopefully everyone will find their families and their traditions lurking beneath the surface.

Chocolate chip cake, Russian tea

Warming our pajamed feet by the old gas glass furnace

Fake spray snowflakes from a can

The tree trunk tightened in the stand

Charlie Brown and Linus

White Lights unraveled down the hall

Blinking, beckoning to crawl

Around each limb, and branch and bough remind us

One more December, one more Christmas to remember

Spindle dropping 45’s, Ed Ames, Elvis, and Burl Ives

God it must be him

Six strings strumming silent night

As the little drummer boy outshines gold and frankincense

White elephants and Rudolph’s hooves

In fact and actually on the roof

But just out of the frame for proof in our Polaroid prints

One more December, one more Christmas to remember

Clarence says a bell will ring

Each time an angel gets their wings

But there’s been too many tinkling bells here lately

I feel their presence in the room

Their eyes so bright their minds renewed

An unbroken chain of love down thru the ages

As we let memories wander thru our own back pages

Bricks of rim fire 22’s, plush white carpet living rooms

Papa’s envelopes

Breyer horses, Addy’s trunk

Priceless memories, worthless junk

Bo on a towrope

That Mama’s paintings, mother’s poems

Harmonicas, chrome, never blown

And a song for Georgia, ribbon tied and rolled up

One more December, one more Christmas to remember

The good book says that angels sing,

Each time a new soul gets their wings

But there’s been too many angel bands here lately

The heart’s not built to reminisce

About some bright place beyond this

So we wrap each precious memory in fine paper

Then once a year we pull them out

Weigh them shake them, turn them round

And wonder what forgotten year

What long lost loved one will appear

To share a laugh to dry a tear

To remind us while we all are here

To keep each other near and dear

And to stoke into a fire love’s glowing ember

One more December, one more Christmas to remember

7. The Day We Went Out on the Ice- Suzannah, Rebekah and I went walking out on the frozen lake in front of our house in Utah. Being from the south it was very unnerving and exhilarating to walk a 1/2 mile out on to the frozen surface. We each had cameras and took some amazing photographs as we laughed enjoyed a perfect moment in time together. As I was mixing this cut, my long time friend and guitar buddy from back home called me to say his father had passed away. Rather than quickly fade the song after the last line, I picked up my ’73 Strat and played the long outro in honor of him, his dad and the thousands of hours that we have given over to the guitar only to get back in tiny slivers the magic that we seek each time we pick one up…this time the magic made it.

The day we went out on the ice

Time stood still

We were frozen in the moment

The sun just giving back the sky

To the evening chill

The stars milling around backstage

Behind night’s black curtain

Waiting for the show to begin

Once again.

The day we went out on the ice

Love was real

As solid as the mountains

No need to ask, no need to try

Just enjoy the thrill

Laughs spilling down bank

Knee deep in fear and wonder

Too soon to be scattered by the wind….once again

Oh, the wise men and sages say we’re all eternal

No beginning, no end

Then why is my soul haunted by the constant thought of dying?

And losing my best friends….my best friends

The day we went out on the ice

I felt complete

And completely in the moment

On how just when the peace arrives

The tide recedes

And we trudge on with the journey

These pictures as our witness

That perfect is place where you’ve already been…amen

8. I’m Not Ready- Nothing consoles a young heart, broken over first love, like a guitar and a song. At 15, I found myself in a reverberating empty stairwell at Georgetown University singing to ease what at the time seemed to be a mortally wounded heart. That experience informed this song of decision so many years later.

It’s gonna take more than just a razorblade

My skin’s so thick I don’t think it will slice it up

Or cut the cord that flies me to the great unknown

Unbinds me on my journey home

Defines me even when I’m gone

As we should have known along

That suicide is wrong

It’s gonna take more than just pill or two

To ship me out, somehow I doubt they have the strength

To drown the voice that calls me from my soul within

Implores me to begin again

Ignores me even when I’m in

A stairwell with a cheap guitar

To serenade my broken heart

I’m not ready

I’ll tell you when I am

I’m not ready

I’ll tell you when I am

It’s gonna take more than just a lover’s leap

With jagged stones to break my bones and crack the code

Expose the God inside me circle black and white

That guides me in the way of light

Designed me with the will to fight

And with the power to let it go

But with the wisdom when to know

I’m not ready

I’ll tell you when I am

I’m not ready

I’ll tell you when I am

And if by chance my life is taken

Before I feel my time is thru

Will all the universe be shaken?

Or will I be just one more soul shot out into the blue?

Well I think I know the truth

But I’m not ready

I’ll tell you when I am

I’m not ready

I’ll tell you when I am

9. Curtain Call- For all the theatre rats and musical buffs out there. Just as “Glory Days” traces the arc of aging athletes, this song traces the arc of the people in my life who had a love affair with the stage and the classic musicals. For many, the brightest moment of that elusive dream came in High School or community theatre. Try and count all the references.

Memories stacked liked chairs

Behind the darkened high school stage where

We butchered hair, limped thru guys and dolls

Whispered break a leg…lights out, pratfalls

Now just empty halls

Too bad we could not make it last

Grease paint a new smile on our past

Too bad we all fell back to earth

Too bad the perfect bubble burst

But God bless us all

Who ever heard the curtain call

King Arthur’s cardboard sword

Anastasia’s wig that our own princess wore

The lion that roared, one music man trombone

Joe cable’s radio….Falstaff, El Gallo….Cyrano

Too bad the world is not a stage

And we were merely players at that age

Too bad we took our bows too soon

Too bad the wizard took the last balloon

But here’s to one and all

Who ever heard the curtain call

When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way

From your very first play, til your last dying day

Pity the crowd, but drink their applause

let ‘em hold their breath

With each well timed pause

Let the bard rewrite

On each opening night

Your own character flaws

Memories stacked liked chairs

Behind the darkened high school stage, where

We were all OK, the slipper fit just right

We defied gravity…exit left and right

Then said good night

Too bad we could not make it last

Grease paint a new smile on our past

Too bad belief just can’t suspend

Too bad the last act had to end

But God bless us all

Who ever heard the curtain call

10. I Fell- For Anna…the love song that I heard in my head.

All these years and thousands of songs later, this is the one I was always trying to write.

Easter Sunday in a southern storm

Just like a perfect rose found in full bloom

I caught her silhouette across the room

I felt a silent power I’d never felt

Oh and like the April shower on that asphalt shingled roof

I fell

That sunbaked summer was one sun bathed kiss

I laid my head across her rising chest

A prayer for new beginnings in each whispered breath

Rose with the padre’s clear twin tower bells

And just like the July fireworks in the Santa Barbara sky

I fell

Love is a chance meeting in a parking lot

Love is at the corner table counting change

Love is in the vase you break the store clerk makes you buy

It’s in your waiter’s eyes…always such a sweet surprise

November never felt so fresh before

Two shadows stroll as one around the park

Somewhere in twilight, neither day or dark

We stopped beside an antique wishing well.

And like the shiny penny down the waterfall

I fell

Love is checking books out just in front of you

Love is selling jewelry on the waterfront

Love is taking tickets at the turnstile for ride

It ‘s in your baby’s eyes, such a sweet surprise

The Christmas cold turns all our words to smoke

A midnight kiss that claims my heart again

A single flake lands on my true love’s chin

A passing stranger hums the First Noel

The lights flickered and glowed. I held my baby close

And like the feathered snow

I fell

Love’s behind the curtain when the show is through

Love rolls down the window in a raging storm

Love’s the smile dismissing your rehearsed goodbye

It lives there in her eyes…always

Those earning Best Original Song Motion Picture nods from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are:

a. “FOR YOU” — ACT OF VALOR
Music by: Monty Powell, Keith Urban
Lyrics by: Monty Powell, Keith Urban
b. “NOT RUNNING ANYMORE”—STAND UP GUYS
Music by: Jon Bon Jovi
Lyrics by: Jon Bon Jovi
c. “SAFE & SOUND” — THE HUNGER GAMES
Music by: Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams, T Bone Burnett
Lyrics by: Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams, T Bone Burnett
d. “SKYFALL”—SKYFALL
Music by: Adele, Paul Epworth
Lyrics by: Adele, Paul Epworth
e. “SUDDENLY” — LES MISERABLES
Music by: Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics by: Herbert Kretzmer, Alain Boublil

Billy Dean may locate out of Music City, aka Nashville. But he has also left part of his heart in Utah.

He is coming to play a show on Wednesday, July 18, at the Ogden Amphitheater to launch the city’s Pioneer Days celebrations. Dean is performing with his own band, as well as Monty Powell, a hit songwriter who lives in Huntsville.

The Florida-born Dean has been playing the Beehive State for many years. It all started almost two decades ago, when he came to scout the Sundance Resort as a guest, thinking he might like to play there.

“I met a kid there who took my luggage up to my room,” said Dean, calling from his farm outside Nashville. “He was a sweet kid. He sang, and I thought he was pretty good. I invited him out to Nashville, to stay on the farm and check it out.”

Dean’s young friend died a few years later in a Utah snowmobile accident. Dean attended the funeral.

“He was a member of the Mormon Church. I was very touched by them, kind of fell in love with his family and friends. So then I started working out there more often. I’m glad I did, because my music seems to really work out there.”

Utah connections

In Nashville, Dean became friends with singer Anna Wilson and her songwriter husband, Monty Powell, who now base out of the Ogden Valley.

“They’ve moved out there (to Utah) more or less permanently,” he said. “So we made a vow we would try and get together out there and play more.”

Wilson had a scheduling conflict that week, but Powell is onboard for the show.

“He is amazing,” Dean said, who admits to enjoying his own songwriting craft, but struggling at times. “Monty is the real thing — wrote ‘Days Go By’ and ‘Sweet Thing’ for Keith Urban, and ‘One of These Days You’re Gonna Love Me’ for Tim McGraw and a bunch of other stuff.

“And he is a good musician, too. We’re going to have a fun band and a big jam session out there at the amphitheater.”

Dean hopes to see one or two other musical friends with Utah roots while in town. He mentioned his admiration for the music of Thurl Bailey, whom he met at a Jazz game, and whose work Dean admires.

“And then one of my buddies –we actually met years ago in Atlanta — Marvin Goldstein? We ran into each other at an airport a few years ago. And he said, ‘I got to talk to you. You know, I am LDS now.’ ”

Dean, unfamiliar with that nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he responded with, ” ‘Hey, don’t you worry about it, I am ADD.’ ” He laughed. “Well, then he explained it to me, and I was real happy for him. And it was great, because we got together and did some religious songs.”

The resulting album was “Christ (A Song for Joseph),” released in 2005. It was well-received by the LDS community, so much so that Dean was invited to play with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir last New Year’s Eve.

“I really do love it out there — a lot of fun and a lot of good people. They appreciate good music, purpose-driven but not preachy. Fun, positive, cool and clever songs — they get it. In Nashville, it is almost like you have to have a little whiskey in your music — and that is fine, too, but out in Utah, I get inspired to write about things like going though life as a dad, a husband, a family guy, as well as a musician.”

DIY guy

Dean has had a successful music career; his single “Somewhere in My Broken Heart” was the Academy of Country Music Song of the Year in 1991, and he also was recognized then as New Male Vocalist of the Year. He also won the Country Music Television Rising Star Award, Nashville Songwriter Association International’s Song of the Year, and a Grammy for his work on a country gospel album, “Amazing Grace.”

He has made 12 albums and has his own music publishing company, Billy Dean Music Group. He’s been honored by the Tennessee House of Representatives with a day in his name.

After that run, Dean stepped back a bit, taking eight years to be with his young family by mostly leaving the road until returning to touring in 2009.

“Now my kids are grown, I am ready to have some fun, lighten up and play music,” he said.

The music world has changed since Dean was first signed by a major label — back when the company’s staff would take an artist under its wings and handle the fine print.

But the DIY nature of today’s music business suits Dean. He is now working to get his previous albums more readily available again.

“In our world, you better own everything you can of your work,” he said. “And really, this is the busiest I’ve been in a long time, getting it all done. We are manufacturing all my old catalog, the original CDs. They’ve been on iTunes and all, but physical copies have been out of circulation for a while.”

The CDs will also include bonus tracks never released before. And Dean will release a new record with 10 new songs.

“It is a huge project — 17 new songs I have to get together. But it is fun. I have a home studio to rough things out. And then, for the live recording, I like to get a bunch of musicians in a studio, on the edge of their seat, playing live together. Something fresh and new — it starts there.

“These days, the more authentic and raw it sounds, the better. You can still make it that way, even if overuse of technology in recent years may make you think different. What I tell my engineers is, ‘When the hair stands up on your arms, quit turning the knobs.’ The job is to connect — and that’s when you can tell you’ve done the job right.”

— Nashville’s MontAnna Mix Room personal studio, featuring the Carl Tatz Design Signature Series by Auralex and CTD PhantomFocus™ System monitor tuning protocol, is chosen as one of the hottest new studios for Mix’s annual “Class Of” Studio Design Issue —

Nashville, TN: “It’s clearly the leading technology in monitoring,” comments uber-successful songwriter/producer Monty Powell about the new-generation PhantomFocus™ System (PFS) in his new MontAnna Mix Room designed by Carl Tatz Design LLC (CTD). “If I build ten more studios, which I hope I don’t,” jokes Powell, “everyone of them will have a PhantomFocus System in it – I can’t imagine mixing without it.”

Multi-award-winning, Billboard chart-topping songwriter/producer Monty Powell and wife, jazz artist Anna Wilson, called on personal studio guru Carl Tatz for a second time when they decided to downsize and move from their beloved Nashville home that housed a beautiful Carl Tatz Design studio with 20’ tall ceilings in the tracking room into a posh new townhouse mix room nearby. The mix room design features a custom application of the Carl Tatz Signature Series by Auralex acoustic treatment system, with its now-familiar trademark Acoustic Lens™ modules.

“We started with a small upstairs bedroom and broke through the rear wall to create a very effective wide-band low frequency absorber partition that separates the mix room from the equipment room,” explains Tatz. “And then we broke through the left wall into the former laundry room to add a very comfortable vocal/overdub booth with floor-to-ceiling glass that is mimicked on the right wall with the Acoustic Lens.”

The fit and finish of the room is very polished, but as Carl points out, “Even without the high customization that Monty and Anna requested, the combination of the PhantomFocus System along with my basic Signature Series by Auralex, audio professionals can have a truly world-class mix room, way beyond anything they could imagine, at an affordable price point.”

Since this successful couple is spending most of their time now in their Utah home when they are not gigging around the country at various jazz venues with Anna or songwriting on the road with the likes of country superstars Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum and others, it makes perfect sense to make this transition. The move reflects a trend where many personal studio owners prefer to track in a commercial studio that has all the amenities you would expect in a professional tracking room and spend the remaining 90 percent of the time overdubbing and mixing in their own facility.

“It’s always a great compliment to be asked back by your client to design a second room, and Monty and Anna are so much fun to work with, both being very creative people with lots of enthusiastic ideas,” says Tatz. “And upgrading their PhantomFocus System was the maraschino cherry on top of the cake. They were very happy with their existing PFS, but when I convinced them that they should experience the new system at another studio, their mouths dropped – it sold itself.”

John Mayer & Buddy Guy Jam 2012 GRAMMYs On The Hill Awards; Rep. Howard Berman Honored!
By Daniel Swartz on April 26, 2012
John Mayer and Buddy Guy jammed together on-stage for nearly 30 minutes at the 2012 GRAMMYs On The Hill Awards.
John Mayer and Buddy Guy jammed together on-stage for nearly 30 minutes at the 2012 GRAMMYs On The Hill Awards.
Be sure to check out all 249 of our photographs from this event HERE!
The Guest List:
Brendan Kownacki, Daniela Kelley, Jen Richer, Nikki Schwab, Todd Flournoy, Tommy McFly
CAPITOL HILL — Over a dozen sitting members of Congress, from both sides of the aisle, united on Wednesday evening in the pursuit of stronger intellectual property rights for artists, songwriters, and other music makers, at The Recording Academy’s eleventh annual GRAMMYs On The Hill Awards.

Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, John Mayer, and Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow.

Returning to the grand ballroom of The Liaison Capitol Hill hotel for another year, yesterday’s ceremony honored U.S. Representative Howard Berman (D-CA) and eight-time GRAMMY-winner John Mayer for their respective roles in advocating on behalf of the music community and leveraging the power of music to improve the lives of others.

Senator Orrin Hatch, Monty Powell, and Anna Wilson (not pictured) collaborated on a song together for the night.

In addition to a sea of Congressional members, including Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Congressman Joe Crowley (D-NY), special guests for the occasion included Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen (who performed the National Anthem), Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, GRAMMY Award-winning producer Jimmy Jam, and event host Luke Russert.

The evening struck the right chord between the serious and the humorous, with Congressman Berman even quipping that the title to the Mayer song ‘Your Body Is A Wonderland’ was the perfect way to describe how “the House feels about the Senate.”

Congressman Howard Berman.

Yet it was Mayer who struck perhaps the most somber tone in his remarks concerning his experiences in working with returning combat veterans.

Paul Wall and Jimmy Jam.

The first and foremost goal of GRAMMYs On The Hill is to amplify the voice of music creators among national policy makers. And while the awards ceremony is perhaps the most glamorous part of the occasion, even more important is the day of advocacy that follows the event inside the walls of the Capitol itself.

Buddy Guy.

But policymaking nevertheless was the last thing on the minds of guests yesterday, as soon as six-time GRAMMY-winner Buddy Guy took the stage for the event’s closing performance. Accompanied by his backup band, he performed a nearly 10-minute set for the audience before asking Mayer to join him. And together, they then proceeded to carry-out a nearly 30 minute jam session, including a handful of guitar ‘duals’ (no winner emerged).

John Mayer.

Audible proof that the music community is indeed something worth fighting for!
Be sure to check out all 249 of our photographs from this event HERE!

Tags:Liaison Capitol Hill

The song, which will be featured during the film’s end credits, marks the first time Urban has written and recorded a song specifically for a movie.

“I loved the challenge of writing for a film,” Urban said in a statement. “I’ve never done that before. After seeing Act of Valor, my co-writer and I wanted to capture the essence of not only what these men and women do so extraordinarily, but how that relates to all of us.”

Act of Valor, which stars a group of active-duty Navy SEALs along with Roselyn Sanchez, Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle and Nestor Serrano, will be in theaters Feb. 24.