On the weekend preceding the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Randy Bayne was visiting New York City and enjoying the view from atop the World Trade Towers. Two days later, back in his hometown of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, he watched as the buildings were smitten by Islamic terrorists and quickly collapsed into a pile of molten steel, gravel, and ash, entombing thousands of innocent men and women, and changing a nation forever. At the same time, Mike Allen was at home in Charleston, SC watching the horrific drama unfold. The two were to meet in Louisville, Ky that evening to attend a music convention. On the road, Randy was traumatized by the vision of the inferno, and the memory of being in that exact spot only 48 hours before. He pulled off the road and was inspired to write several lines of poetry with a spirit of hope and unity, including the phrase “united through it all”. Anxious to flesh this out, he nervously awaited the arrival of friend, Mike Allen, a hobbyist song-writer, to share his poetry and explore the potential for this to be a timely song lyric. Together, they worked through the night to create the lyric “United Through It All”, a song of healing and hope for America. Mike, equipped with a traveling guitar, developed the melody and musical concept and made the lyric a song.
Later that morning, Randy and Mike met with members of the vocal quartet New Millennium who were also attending the music convention, consisting of Ken Turner, legendary gospel bass vocalist from Blackwood Brothers fame, Wayne Little, Derrick Boyd, and Roger Burnette, and Mike shared a guitar/vocal rendition of the song. All agreed it was an important and timely piece of music. At the convention hall, Mike shared the song with Randy’s college friend from his time at Furman University, Steve Mauldin, a Dove-Award-winning music arranger and regular bassist at the Opry in Nashville, and he agreed that this was a song for the season, making several editorial improvements to the lyric. The wealth of professional musical talent available in the convention hall facilitated recruitment of top talent including Anthony Burger, pianist for the Gaither Vocal Band and all Gaither projects, and Greg Ritchie and Bryan Carter, drummer and guitarist for The Easters vocal group, all of whom eagerly enlisted to participate in a recording of the project. Mike rented a professional recording studio in Louisville and the team gathered to lay down tracks.
That night, September 12, Mike and Randy drove to Hendersonville, Tn to meet with Kerry West, Ronnie Milsap’s sound engineer, at Kerry’s home studio. We spent that night engineering the tracks and polishing up the mix. The next day, we stopped by Custom Mastering in Nashville and Hollis Flatt mastered the recording.
With a professional recording and engineered/mastered mix in hand, Mike and Randy set to the task of promotion and getting the word out about the song. We stopped in every radio station between Louisville, Ky and Huntsville, Ala to share the song and give an interview about its origins for airplay. We mailed copies to hundreds of stations across the country, many of which played the song with great response. We went to Washington, DC and walked the halls of Congress meeting with Senators and Congressmen/women handing out CD’s. While walking through the halls of the US Senate Russell Building we heard “United Through It All” blaring from the office suite of Senator Strom Thurmond. Congressman Henry Brown, House of Representatives, First District, South Carolina read the lyric from the floor of Congress and it was recorded in the Congressional Record on November 15, 2001 .
Randy mailed a copy of the CD to a friend, Deputy Social Secretary at the White House, who later reported back that President Bush had heard and was moved by the song, which played in to a later important development described below. Randy also made a fateful connection with a contact in the U.S. Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus, the premier internationally-acclaimed touring musical representative of the U.S. Army, and shared the recording. Col. Wesley Hamilton, director and conductor of the Field Band, contacted us back to report that his team had gathered in his office to hear the recording, and all were moved to tears and stirred to action. He asked if they could produce an arrangement for full band and mixed chorus to perform in their upcoming concert tour. This prestigious group performed “United Through It All” at concerts across America during their next four tours, including Constitution Hall in Washington, DC.
Col. Hamilton shared the arrangement with military bands of other service branches who performed it at the national and regional base levels. Most notably, the ceremonial band of the Army, “Pershing’s Own” U.S. Army Band selected “United Through It All” as the centerpiece of their 80th anniversary concert at Avery Fischer Hall/Lincoln Center in New York City on November 16, 2002. The concert was dubbed “United Through It All”. At that high-profile performance, UTIA was bracketed by songs composed by Irving Berlin, the Gershwin brothers, Handel, George Cohen, Benny Goodman, Marvin Hamlisch, Aaron Tippen, and Leonard Bernstein.
On the first anniversary of the terrorist attack, a grand re-opening ceremony was held at the Pentagon which had been repaired and restored from the attack there. The schedule included a number of speeches by high-ranking military leaders interspersed with musical interludes by the U.S. Navy Band. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech preceeding President Bush’s keynote address, and between those speeches, the Navy Band performed “United Through It All” to an international television audience.
Many other significant events involved this patriotic anthem.
- Lifeway Publishing contracted to market the sheet music to choirs and vocal groups. They reported that this was their number 1 selling composition to churches during the first couple of years after the terrorist attack, used as an anthem of unity, hope, and faith. It was performed at over 1000 churches across the country on the first anniversary Sunday.
- The US Armed Services Radio reported airing the original recording in rotation to service men and women around the world.
- TNN aired a 4th of July production numerous times the week of July 4, 2002 featuring the Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus performing with Aaron Tippen, Martina McBride, Pam Tillis, SheDaisy, and other country artists. A performance of “United Through It All” by the Field Band was featured in this production, along with interviews by these artists, and Mike and Randy, talking about the power of patriotic music.
It has been a blessing to be a part of something as special as creating a piece of music that blesses, uplifts, and encourages so many people. From a grassroots effort, with no corporate/commercial assistance, this music has gotten out and been a source of hope and healing to thousands of Americans.