Air Force Band performs Christmas song written by Portage County teacher, students
It was just a class exercise at James A. Garfield High School in Garrettsville nearly two decades ago, but one that eventually got the attention of the military.
The U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America has requested permission to perform the Christmas song that English teacher Steve Howell and students Amanda Hart and Aaron Boyle wrote together in a class Howell was teaching.
The performance will be broadcast on television stations in 27 states.
Hart said recently that she was excited when she found out the news several months ago.
"I was kind of shocked because it's been, like, 18 years and we haven't heard anything since and I was like, 'Oh, wow, you know, that's really awesome," she said.
A team effort
Howell said the song was written during a class he was teaching called "literature of lyrics in popular music." Hart, who was Amanda Pfeifer at the time, said it was during her senior year. She graduated in 2005, so she believes the song was written shortly before Christmas 2004.
As a project, Howell divided the students into groups of three to work together to write a Christmas song.
"Give it a try, just to see what happens," he said.
The class was one student short and Hart and Boyle — he could not be reached for an interview — were paired together so Howell agreed to work with them.
Howell said he thinks he had already come up with the song's title, "I Won't Be Home For Christmas," inspired by the World War II era "I'll Be Home For Christmas," so he proposed that as a starting point and the students agreed. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were still a recent wound and the country was at war.
"That was heavy on everyone's mind and a daily diet of news," Howell recalled.
Howell and Hart said that once they had the title, the trio brainstormed ideas. It did not take very long to come up with the lyrics, two or three classes.
"We kind of came up with the idea of working the war and the current situation into a Christmas song," said Hart. "And, man, I know that once we came up with the title of the song, the words kind of, they started to flow pretty easily."
Howell, who is also a performing songwriter and guitarist, then took the lyrics home and wrote the accompanying melody.
"I don't believe that took very long. I think that was pretty organic and it happened pretty naturally," he said.
Hart and Howell both recall that shortly after the song was completed, a television news crew somehow found out and shot a segment that aired. And then, the attention just faded.
"At the time, we really didn't think anything would come of it," Hart said.
An email arrives
Hart began dating her husband, Michael, in high school. After he graduated a year behind her, they married and she became a "Marine wife," traveling around some during his time in the service.
They now live in Novelty, outside of Chesterland, and Hart still has family in Garrettsville.
Howell said Boyle now lives in Texas.
Howell said he performed "I Won't Be Home For Christmas" periodically at Christmastime over the years during gigs at various venues in the area. About five years after it was written, Howell's wife, Kirstein, put together a video in which Howell can be heard performing the song. It was posted on YouTube and can be viewed at tinyurl.com/drk6cd2f.
Over the last 14 years, it has garnered about 122,000 views, which Howell said surprises him.
"As I was scrolling down, I noticed that about five or six years ago, somebody made a comment about hearing the Air Force Band do this song," said Howell. "And I just thought they were mistaken."
Then this past August, Howell received an email from a representative of the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, on the east side of St. Louis, asking about licensing the song from Nov. 23 to Dec. 26.
"The song would be recorded by our rock band that is currently deployed in the middle east," says the email. "We would then build a video around it to release on our social media pages and include in our 30-min Video production that airs on PBS here in St. Louis."
The email adds that it "could potentially be aired in our 10-state touring area (if other stations would agree to air it)." According to the band's website, this does not include Ohio.
"Would love to hear from you and see if you’d be in agreement to us using your song," the email says. ""It has a terrific message that I know our audiences and viewers would appreciate."
Howell said he reached out to Hart and Boyle and they signed off on granting permission. Hart said she received the documents she needed to sign in August or September.
She said the three songwriters are not getting any payment, but that's OK.
"My mom, she's a writer…so of course I called her and she was like, 'Oh my God, that's so cool.'" said Hart.
How to watch the Air Force Band of Mid-America performance of 'I Won't Be Home For Christmas'
The 30-minute program is scheduled to air on WOIO-TV Channel 19 in Cleveland on Christmas Day at 9 a.m., noon and 4:30 p.m. As an alternative, CAN-TV in Chicago is scheduled to air the program on Christmas Eve at 7:30 a.m., and 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. and on Christmas Day at 4 p.m., with a free streaming available at https://cantv.org.
It is also showing on Nine PBS in St. Louis, which offers streaming through a free downloadable app at tinyurl.com/2uk86nee.
Viewers are advised to check local listings since stations sometimes change their schedules.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Military band performs holiday song written by Portage teacher, students
