A Song for Healing

I'll be the first to tell you I don't know Billy Wilkerson. If an email hadn't landed in my inbox the other day, I still wouldn't know him. But thanks to Angela Lange, my neighbor, I now know at least this much:

Billy Wilkerson needs your help. But he's asking for it in a unique way.

A little background is in order. Yesterday, Rachel forwarded me an email from Angela with a link to a blog. Angela's message was short and sweet: "Jason, I know you blog for the Loganville-Grayson Patch & I have a friend who has a really inspirational story to share. Please check it out & see if you can help him get his story out?"

And beneath that text is a hyperlink: http://billywilkerson.tumblr.com.

Rachel sends the email along with the words, "Wow. You need to read this." Naturally, I do.

Turns out that Billy Wilkerson is one half of a songwriting duo called The Brothers Bright. For the past eight years, he's written and composed original songs for Whitestone Motion Pictures, an independent film company who's work is released mostly online. Billy hails from Decatur, so that makes him a local fellow done well.

But that's not the story.

On June 29, 2011, Billy Wilkerson is hit head-on by a drunk driver. Suffering from massive head trauma, Billy lapses into a coma and is put into intensive care. Incapable of breathing on his own, he gets a tracheotomy - a nasty slit in his throat through which a breathing tube is inserted into his lungs. He's unconscious for a long time.

When he wakes up, it's been 16 days in ICU. Once he's well enough to go into a private room, it's still another four weeks of hospital food and bills. Finally, in December 2011 he's allowed to go home, only now he's buried beneath a mountian of debt: over $1 million in medical bills. Determined to raise the cash on his own, he writes a new song and records it with his tracheotomy in, then releases it on iTunes for 99 cents.

The song? Around the Bend, and it's also featured in Whitestone's latest movie, Jack and the Dustbowl.

On January 19th, 2012, Billy has his last surgery. According to the website, he should be getting the tracheotomy out soon. Things seem to be looking up.

Meanwhile, the debt remains.

I've Googled everything about this story and it seems legit. I know Angela well enough to know that if she says that Billy is a good man, then he's a good man. I also know that there are some people who will read this and think, "Scam."

But here's the thing, and you can do with this what you want: no one's asking for a handout. Nobody's asking anyone for anything other than a few seconds to listen to a song and, if you happen to enjoy said song, an investment of ninety-nine measly pennies.

It's a good song. A dang good song. It's certainly a heckuva lot better than some of the other stuff you can buy on iTunes.

And who knows? Art and philanthropy have always been connected, so maybe this is the 21st century version. At the very least, it's a Republican's dream come true: the intersection of free enterprise and family values.

Do me a favor and go listen. If you like it, buy it, and encourage someone else to do the same. For less than a cup of coffee, you and your friends can help make a broken man whole in more ways than one.

Surely that's worth a buck?