Mark McGuinn photo by Scott Housley Photography
September 11, 2006--Five years ago today, singer/songwriter Mark McGuinn was in San Jose, California on a radio tour in support of his debut single, "Mrs. Steven Rudy." The catchy tune rose to No. 6 on the Billboard country singles chart in 2001. But it is not this song that Mark will always think of when he thinks of September 11. It's his latest single, "More Beautiful Today," which he wrote after watching in disbelief as terrorists attached our country.
"We were getting ready to go to the airport and my drummer called my room," recalls Mark. "I knew something was wrong when he said, 'You've got to turn on your TV right now.' He was sobbing. As soon as I turned it on, that's when the second plane hit [the World Trade Center]. It didn't seem real.
"For some reason--and I don't know why--my first reaction was to call and reserve a rental car. I guess it was a knee-jerk reaction of wanting to get home to my loved ones. It was fortuitous, because people were buying cars to get home. For the first time in our history, the airplanes were grounded and all the rental cars were just gone. I happened to get one."
From his hotel room--which had a view of the airport--Mark watched as the last plane landed. "I saw a jumbo jet coming down from the sky," he says. "It was like a dream. It seemed to take forever. It was eerie. There was no sound. The plane landed and there was a poof of white smoke from the wheels. It was a very moving moment because of the silence. But it wasn't like we had given up. It was the end of an era and a beginning."
The first line of "More Beautiful Today" is September 11, 9 a.m./America was born again. It's an inspiring statement in the face of an unimaginable attack. Mark says that line was written after he and his bandmates witnessed a resurgence of American pride as they drove cross country back to Nashville. "Everywhere we went, everyone was so 'together.' Strangers were friends. It struck me that maybe, out of all of this, there would be a unity that we've never had in my lifetime. I felt so close to everybody in the country.
"Driving down the highway, people had spelled out 'God Bless You' on the overpasses and on the side of the highways," he continues. "There were people standing by the roadside, waving flags. It felt like a rebirth of pride and goodness to each other."
By the time they got to Nashville, Mark and his co-writers, John Reynolds and Bill Davidson, had finished the song. He recorded it soon after coming home. About a week later, he played it in Idaho at a festival in front of 40,000 people. "I'd recorded the song as soon as I got home," says Mark, "but this was the first time I'd played it live. As I sang, I could just feel this overwhelming presence of love and pride from the people in the crowd. When I hit the chorus and sang the last line of it, I could see people sobbing. It shook me. I could hardly make it through the second verse. But the people helped me through it."
Even though Mark recorded "More Beautiful Today" immediately after writing it, he was adamant that the song not be immediately released. It was only available on Mark's website, free for whoever wanted to download it.
"A lot of people were releasing songs about [9/11]," explains Mark. "But I felt really awkward about it being perceived as capitalizing on a terrible situation. At the time, when I said, 'I'm not putting this song out,' a lot of people at my record label probably wanted to slug me in the face. But it just didn't feel right to me. Now, it seemed like enough time had passed by.
"As I finished up my new record [One Man's Crazy, released July 4], it seemed like the appropriate time to put the song back out," he adds. "The reaction has been awesome. I'm glad we did it, because people really seem to want to hear the song. And I'm glad for the song, too, because I'm proud of what it says. It's my own perspective of dealing with that horrible tragedy."
Last Saturday, September 9, Mark sang the emotional song on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. It was a moving experience for the artist who created the song as a way to personally heal from 9/11. "This was one of the hardest songs I've ever written," says Mark. "Because of the subject matter, I knew that every line had to be thought out very carefully.
"Everybody has their own take on this tragedy," concludes Mark, "but I and my bandmates felt we needed to write a hopeful song. It was important to tell the story, but make it a song of hope."
To hear "More Beautiful Today," visit markmcguinn.com.
RSS Feeds