Music Therapy for Veterans

This week, my guest is Jason Moon. Jason Moon's song "Trying to Find My Way Home" has won the 2012 gold medal for the Veterans Administrator's art's completions in the special recognition category. Jason is honored to be recognized for his work, both healing him and other veterans through music.

      Jason began his musical career playing around campfires in his home town of Eagle River, Wisconsin. He later relocated to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he attended UW Oshkosh and was a focal point of the burgeoning Fox Valley music scene. He hosted several open mics, wrote dozens of songs, and played hundreds of shows from 1995 until he was deployed to Iraq in 2003.

     Jason recently released Trying to Find My Way Home, “an accidental concept album” based on his own war experiences and on his attempts after his homecoming to regain the man he was before he was deployed. In Iraq he frequently performed for his fellow troops, but for over five years after his return in 2004 he was unable to finish more than a single song – despite songwriting once being his greatest joy in life. Jason’s other original solo recordings include Naked Under All These Clothes and Poverty.

     In 2009 Jason was interviewed for the forthcoming documentary feature film On The Bridge and was asked to record one of his original songs for the credits roll, an experience that energized him to finally begin to write songs again in earnest, and which ultimately led to Trying to Find My Way Home.