Stockard Middle School guitarist Joseyline Umana will have her song, “The Pressure She Carries,” featured at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s 43rd annual Words & Music Night.
“My song is about my feelings, being under pressure, and always trying to be my best,” says Joseyline. She is one of 11 students selected to be featured from the United States, Canada, and Australia. Joseyline, a seventh grader, is a member of Stockard’s Modern Band, a class that teaches music standards through popular music and instruments such as guitar, bass, and drums.
This year, teacher Beth Poquette Drews teamed up with the Country Music Hall of Fame Words & Music program to teach an in-depth song-writing unit where students individually wrote original songs. The students then worked with professional Nashville songwriter Anne Buckle to co-create a final version of their song and to learn about composition and careers in the music industry. The unit culminated with the professional songwriter performing the students’ songs via zoom.
“The kids were awed to hear the songs they wrote being performed by a professional musician,” said Poquette Drews. “It was an inspiring way to connect the classroom to the world around them.”
When Joseyline learned that her song was chosen from all the submissions from around the world to be featured on Words & Music night, she was amazed. “I believe people can relate to my song, and I hope they feel that they are not alone.”
Words & Music Night
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will premiere its 43rd annual Words & Music Night on Tuesday, July 12, at 6 p.m. Central. This special showcase presents a compilation of songs written by students from Tennessee, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Canada and Australia in collaboration with Nashville-based songwriters. Hosted by Aaron Helvig, the museum’s Words & Music Program senior manager, 11 students will introduce themselves and their professional songwriting partners, who will perform the song they wrote together. Following the premiere, Words & Music Night will be available for on-demand viewing on the museum’s website.
Designed for grades 3-12, Words & Music allows students to tell their stories by writing original song lyrics, while developing language arts skills. The program embraces and showcases country music’s legacy of songwriting and passes it down to the next generation of writers and thinkers. Through Words & Music, students interact with a professional songwriter, paired with their class, in an engaging performance workshop that transforms students’ lyrics into finished songs. More than 150,000 students have participated in the Words & Music program since its inception in 1979.
Words & Music is made possible by the Country Music Association Endowment for Words & Music and is funded in part by Chet Atkins Music Education Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee; CMA; CMA Foundation; Dollar General Literacy Foundation; Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission; Nashville Predators Foundation; PNC Grow Up Great; and the Tennessee Arts Commission. The All for the Hall Dallas benefit event supports programming in Dallas Independent School District.
