NASHVILLE (AP) — In a life filled with milestones, Irving Locker celebrated a new, unexpected one last week: He became a published songwriter.
One day before his 101st birthday, “If Freedom Was Free” was released by Big Machine Label Group and CreatiVets, the Nashville-based nonprofit that helps veterans work through their traumas by building something new through the arts.
CreatiVets teamed Locker, a World War II veteran who landed at Utah Beach on D-Day, with Texas singer-songwriter Bart Crow and duo Johnny and Heidi Bulford, who also sing on the track. The chorus – “If freedom was free, there wouldn’t be a mountain of metal and men under Normandy” – includes the message Locker has used in lectures from classrooms to the White House. Freedom, he says, is not free. People should be thankful for it and for those who make it possible…