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Billy Gilman, Jeni Stepanek remember Mattie J.T. Stepanek's "Heartsongs"
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The publication last week of Messenger: The Legacy Of Mattie J.T. Stepanek And Heartsongs by his mother Jeni Stepanek brings to mind Billy Gilman’s remarkable 2003 album Music Through Heartsongs: Songs Based on the Poems of Mattie J.T. Stepanek, released a year before Mattie Stepanek died of a rare form of muscular dystrophy just before his 14th birthday.
The album engaged top Nashville songwriters and sessioners in putting Stepanek’s best-selling “heartsong” poetry to music for the then almost-15 year-old country singer, who was only 11 in 2000 when his first hit, “One Voice,” sought celestial help in stopping violence.
Gilman and Stepanek first met on Larry King Live.
“He started to read his poems, and I looked over at my father and mother choking up—and it wasn’t like my father,” recalls Gilman. “The kid was really touching someone who wasn’t touched a lot. But they didn’t sound like ordinary poems, but more like lyrics. I wondered if there was any way I could do one on a record as a bonus cut or something, and I called everybody in Nashville who was involved with my career at that point and pitched the idea--and it ended up being the whole record.”
Gilman later learned that Stepanek had rejected numerous other like offers.
“Other artists couldn’t get the message of his heartsongs,” he explains. “I’m so honored they chose me, because he was one of the greatest people anyone could ever meet.”
He likewise commends Jeni Stepanek.
“She’s one of my heroes--just like her son was—for maintaining his legacy,” he says. “So many more people will see her book and get his mother’s perspective. It describes the depth he had and shows a personal side of Mattie that people may not know, because even though he was so adult, he was also so much fun! We were in a hotel and he decided to throw a stuffed toy cat from the second floor balcony while making a cat’s crying sound. He said, “I bet someone will think it’s real!’ and sure enough, some woman screamed out loud!”
Music Through Heartsongs proved a pivotal album for Gilman.
“It was not a project of me being a country artist,” he notes. “It was Mattie--and a great opportunity to spread myself. And my voice was just starting to change, so there are a couple things that when I hear them now I cringe a bit--but that’s just me! What are you going to do when you grow up in the spotlight?”
Gilman laughs heartily at himself, then turns to the album’s standout track, “I Am/Shades Of Life,” which combined two of Stepanek’s heartsongs and is specially mentioned in Messenger.
“David Malloy [‘One Voice’’s Grammy-nominated songwriter] wrote the melody and I thought, ‘Man! That’s not a song but an anthem!’ I still get letters about it! But it was really long so they cut the words in half for radio. Mattie and I both felt they needed to keep the whole thing because otherwise the story was lost, so the song was re-recorded. It was kind of like ‘One Voice,’ and the video was awesome.”
Now 21, Gilman has begun writing his own songs and is getting ready to record them.
“I had to go home and wait for my voice to change—which gives a kid the perfect out for anything!” he says. “You can say, ‘Thank you, I’m done,’ and then go on to the next thing in your life. But at the end of the day I’m a country singer, and I never had the opportunity as a kid to do what I wanted to do with my sound—and now I can.”
He expects some old fans will be surprised to hear him characterize his new songs as “stripped-down,” but adds that other tunes fit easily into the contemporary country music vein. And he notes that even while he’s busy “writing like crazy” and gaining confidence in himself as a songwriter who still has a “niche” in country music, he continues to stay heavily involved in the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
“I’m the Celebrity Ambassador for the MDA, and I go to the big corporate supporters, sing a song and say ‘Thank you,’ says Gilman, who also serves as a co-host of the annual Jerry Lewis Telethon. “I’m very lucky to do what I do—and giving something back is important. And it’s an awesome organization.”
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Billy Gilman sings "I Am/Shades Of Life"
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