SHELBURNE FALLS — For 15 years, rock musician/singer-songwriter Robin Lane of Shelburne Falls has been using music to help people recover emotionally from sexual assault, child abuse or domestic violence. Through her nonprofit, Songbird Sings, Lane has also worked with military veterans, using music to help soldiers reconnect to feelings that have been numbed by war trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and mental health problems.
This summer, “Veterans’ Voices” will get extra help from the proceeds of two Pearl Jam concerts held this summer in Boston’s Fenway Park.
Veterans’ Voices is one of four local programs picked by Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation to receive $1 for every ticket sold for the Fenway Park concerts held on Aug. 5 and 7. The Pearl Jam donation is to be followed by another contribution to be made by “The Foundation to be Named Later,” (FTBNL), which provides ongoing support to Songbird programs.
According to Vitalogy, the Fenway baseball park concerts broke attendance records with 72,722 tickets sold over two nights. That means Songbird Sings will receive $18,180.
“The funding provided … will be used to create songwriting workshops for veterans with PTSD and will allow Songbird Sings to expand programming and reach more survivors, in order to ease suffering caused by PTSD,” Lane said, in a news release. “A huge thanks to Pearl Jam and FTBNL for their support. We couldn’t be more grateful.”
Lane grew up in a musical family, in which her father not only played piano for Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin but also wrote Martin’s signature hit, “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.” Lane grew up around famous musicians in southern California. It was her voice harmonizing with Neil Young in his 1969 recording, “Round and Round.” Ten years later, she became a star in her own right, in her band Robin Lane and the Chartbusters. Their biggest hit was “When Things Go Wrong,” in 1979.
Lane stopped touring with the rock group when she had a child, but she never stopped writing songs. Songs written by Lane were recorded by The Bangles in Adam Sandler’s movie “Grown Ups.” Also, she has performed with The Kinks, The Police, The Cars, and Richard Thompson, among others.
“Songwriting saved my life,” she told The Recorder last year. “And I’m convinced it can save the world.”
Lane has held songwriting/recording workshops for the Women’s Resource Center in Turners Falls, The Recovery Center in Greenfield, with NELCWIT and in women’s prisons. She says her workshops generally include 10 to 20 participants.
“The Veterans’ Voices program takes participants out of the broken places, the darkness, the hopelessness,” she said. “Participants experience the ability to influence their own moods through music, leading to relaxation and restored health and healing. They realize they are not alone and begin to experience joy through the songs they write and the validation they receive from other participants, who are also writing their stories into song.”
The Vitalogy Foundation is a public nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by the members of Pearl Jam and their manager. The Foundation supports the efforts of nonprofit organizations doing valuable work in community health, the environment, arts and education and social change.