Welcome to IslandSongWriter.com

I created this site to encourage military members and song writers in general to publish their music, poetry, and writing to help them cope with the traumas that come with serving our country in far away places. Oh…and to have fun!

That’s me in the middle. Your host, Dr. John M. Davenport, Lt. Col., USAF, Retired.
Dave Altman is on the African drum and Tim Barrett is on bass.

Hello, my name is John. I am also known within military circles as Colonel Crash and I write and perform as “Island Song”. I live on one of several small islands on Lake Erie and write many of my songs about life on the islands.

My music also has a dark side. I have struggled for years with depression that accompanies PTSD from places like Africa, the Gulf War regions, and flying dangerous, low-level missions in hostile environments.

Music makes me happy and calms my soul. I especially enjoy the art of writing music. I would like to help other veterans or other older, struggling, social media-knuckleheads to write better and get their music out to the public. By doing so, perhaps we can help each other survive, grow, prosper, and pass on what we learn to others.

As soon as I figure this site out (seems impossible to me at the moment) I will begin to upload music from my first CD recorded in Nashville in 2016. I am also currently in the process of recording my second album containing nothing but fun island drinking songs. I have written 192 songs to date with an even mixture of island music such as Old Man Dancin’ at the Bay, I Missed the Damn Ferry Again, and Island Boys Makin’ Noise and serious compositions such as Why Am I Still Here, Keep Breathin’ In, and Flawed.

Writing original music, at least for me, accomplishes several things. First, it provides an avenue of escape for my overactive brain that I have cultivated over my 20 years in the military, throughout my civilian life, during my journey to complete my doctorate, and when I begin to succumb to the demons lurking beneath the surface. To me, this is a hobby. To others, avocation. Still others may be seeking the dream of success in the music industry. How does the process work for me?

I wake in the middle of the night (my wife thinks I am crazy) and sneak into the bathroom stall, close the door, and record some snippet of a melody or tune on my I Phone so that I can listen to it in the morning. Most of the time these segments of “music?” are so bad that I immediately erase them. Sometimes I don’t. There are currently over 160 of these little 1- to 2-minute recordings on my phone.

Coming from the lyrics direction, I have a file on my computer in my office that simply says, “New Song Ideas”. The magic comes when these two avenues (melody and lyric) collide to create a song. Are any of these songs any good? Let me ask you a question. Assuming you have children, “Do you love your children”? If not, “Do you love your car, your boat, your significant other. Good or bad, most of us love our progeny and the things that make us happy. My music isn’t great, may not be worthy of a Grammy, and may not be published (yet), but I still love them. According to Mike “Mad Dog” Adams, our songs are our children. Please do not speak ill of them.

I am often asked, “What genre of music do you write”? Define genre. I write what I know; what I feel; what moves me; what I think is funny; what I believe describes the hell around and within me at times. I love country music for its simplicity. I love pop music for its complexity. Being of limited talent in the guitar-playing arena, I am forced to keep my music fairly simply constructed. Three chords and a capo make up the majority of the songs I write. I recently began performing with a drummer and bass player which has deepened my music somewhat, allowing more complexity to creep into the sound we produce together.

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