transcript: Earlier this summer Green Shoe Studio launched its singer-songwriter contest it's a contest that someone can upload a
video on to YouTube and send us the link we thought it was a good way that we
could really tie into the local community and really get a feel for the music
that's going on around here but we didn't quite expect an entry like
fred's A Letter From Fred How'd I meet Lorraine? She was a carhop at the A & W root beer stand she brought the trays to the car and that That was in 1938 we dated for two years than we married June 26 have been our 73rd anniversary she gave me 75 years of her life Well, she was just prettiest girl ever saw she was just real timid like I just fell in love with her right there (laughs) what made Fred's entry so special to us was for number one it's an online
singer-songwriter contest people are supposed to upload their videos but instead of a video we received a very
large manila envelope titled Green Shoe Studio Singer
Songwriter contest well I was excited to see what was and
open it up in lo and behold its a letter from a 96-year-old
man who said "I've written a song for my wife" he said on the, you know, in the letter
that he was not a musician and that said he was not actually a very
good singer. In fact, on the actual envelope itself it says "PS I don't sing I would scare people haha" so it's a letter from this
96-year-old man, he sounds like a sweet guy but as I am reading through the letter I begin to realize that his wife just
passed away a month earlier and so having known that I started reading through the song
and he titled it "sweet lorraine" and listening to the lyrics and passion
behind the lyrics and letter he sent us-- it was just so
heartwarming Well, after she passed away I was just sitting in the front room one evening all by myself and it just come right to me almost and I just kept humming it and singing it and that and that's how I come to write it. Just seemed like it just fit her Green Shoe Studio decided to take Fred's lyrics and bring them to life. We decided to put
it to professional music, professionally record it, We wanted to
have a professional singer sing on the song You know, our mission here at Green Shoe studio is
to change our community one dream at a time and what a better way to do it? I saw Jacobs's an ad in the paper About the contest that he was going to put
on so I just thought, "Oh shoot, I'll just write a letter and send it all in" And never thinking, you
know, that'd I get an answer or something but then he called one day and I I was surprised! We decided we're going to do this just
by reading a letter without even meeting Fred so I called him up one day, and Said "Fred, we were touched by your story. N,ow it
didn't meet the criteria of our singer-songwriter contest but we are going to do
something even better for you said we're gonna record your song, we're
gonna have professionals do this, we're going
to have a professional take so that you know so it's not just lyrics anymore it's
bringing to life and he goes all that's just so great but
you know, how much is that going to cost? Now I have any money. I said, Fred you misunderstand me
were going to do all this for free and he began to cry on the phone and
say why would you do this for me and I said to fred is it's not is not that we're doing this for you
we're doing this together because music means so much to so many people
and your song touched us and we feel like
this is the best way to do this. Singing "Oh Sweet Lorraine" I probably spent more time with his
song that I have on any other song to be honest, I was a
little nervous taking it to him I've been singer songwriter for years but, This was about the first time in
probably 10 years I've actually been nervous giving someone a song we have taken the time because it meant so much
to him it meant so much to me I hope you like it and like I said it's not done yet but I will
let you hear it wonderful! just wonderful! Jacob: I'm glad you like I was a wonderful seventy-five years the Just seems kinda unreal, like a Dream or something but, it was real thats all I can say I really really miss her, just doesn't seem right, like a dream
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