"Striking A Chord"
Tracy man records military anthem
Rick Brewer
Stockton Record Staff Writer
Published Saturday, Mar 11, 2006

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TRACY - When Derek Clark strums his guitar this afternoon at the Fior
D'Italia restaurant in San Francisco, he expects tears to flow with the
lyrics he will sing.

Clark, a Tracy-based real estate and mortgage business owner, will be a
featured artist at a fund-raising event for Gold Star Family Members
hosted by KSFO-AM talk radio personality Melanie Morgan. The organization
is for relatives of slain military personnel in Iraq who are expected
to travel to the Middle East to meet and support American troops.

Clark, 35, will sing "Goodnight, Soldier," a song he wrote about 18
months ago that has recently begun to receive airplay on KSFO and has been
widely distributed through e-mail and a Web site named after the song.
He said the inspiration for the song came from watching the acclaimed
HBO documentary "Letters from Home." The recording includes his
5-year-old son, Montgomery, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and his
3-year-old son, Ozmond, saying "I Love America."

"I felt inspired to write a song, and I think God helped me, because it
came to me in a matter of minutes. The words came in a stream like from
another world," Clark said. "I remember the first time I sang it for a
family talent event, tears were rolling down my face."

After a few early performances, Clark put the song back into a drawer
and almost forgot about it. About a month ago, however, locals paid
final respects to Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon Christopher Dewey who, at 20,
was killed by a suicide car bomber in Iraq's Al-Anbar province. Dewey
was the fifth Tracy resident to die in Iraq.

Clark said he was touched by the funeral, and he could sense the words
to "Goodnight, Soldier" coming back to him.

"I felt it in my soul again," he said.

He paid a friend to sing backup vocals, recorded the song in his home
studio and began sending it out to friends and family members via
e-mail. It gained the attention of Jim Sutherland, a Tracy-based Internet
marketing specialist, who grew up near military bases in the Middle East
and Europe. Sutherland's father was a civilian contractor.

"The song sent shivers up my spine," he said. "Right now, the project
was a snowflake that has turned into a snowball. I believe it will be an
avalanche."

Sutherland sent the song to Morgan, a conservative talk radio host.
Within two days, Sutherland said Morgan had called him to receive
permission to play the song on KSFO during the morning commute. Morgan was
recovering from pneumonia this week and did not return calls.

"What's been amazing is that talk radio is playing the song in its
entirety," Sutherland said. "As a talk radio junkie, I can count the number
of songs played on talk radio on one hand."

Meanwhile, the song has garnered attention among troops and family
members, Clark said. He has received numerous e-mails and even a couple of
streaming videos that were made to his lyrics and melody. He hopes more
will send pictures that he can add to the "Goodnight, Soldier" Web
site.» Kelli Germeraad of Vacaville wrote: "I cannot tell you the
tremendous amount of emotion that hit me as I listened to your song. ... I was
an Air Force brat growing up in a small town in Idaho. ... My husband,
Jake, is a combat veteran. He was in the first major offensive in
Vietnam, Operation Starlite. Over half of their unit was killed that day. He
watched many good men die." » Kenneth Sherburne of the Air Force is
stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He wrote: "Very few people show
how much they care for us and their country, and you are one of those
few. Thank you so much."» Pvt. 1st Class Michael Walker wrote: "I am
currently overseas fighting with the 4th Infantry Division, with a wife
and three kids back home. I have passed this song on to several of my
fellow brothers in arms for them to listen to. I want to say thanks for
laying your heartfelt feelings out there for the world to hear. It takes
just as much courage to do that, as it does for some of us to do what
we do."

Clark said the song is not about flag-draped coffins, but people simply
remembering that American troops are still fighting for liberty on a
daily basis while residents go on with their daily routines. He said the
song applies to veterans of any war, not just those serving in Iraq or
Afghanistan.

His goal is to perform "Goodnight, Soldier" in Washington, D.C., on
Veterans Day, Memorial Day or the Fourth of July.

"I'd like it to reach millions of people," he said. PLEASE VISIT
WWW.GOODNIGHTSOLDIER.COM
Contact reporter Rick Brewer at (209) 833-1141 or rbrewer@recordnet.com