The Lone Bellow Team Up With A Safer Tennessee For 'Victory Garden'

Nashville-based indie/folk band The Lone Bellow have teamed up with the local non-profit Voices For A Safer Tennessee for the release of a brand new song titled “Victory Garden.” Out today on the anniversary of the tragic shooting at the Covenant School last year, all proceeds generated from the song will be donated to fueling the organization's advocacy initiatives towards making Tennessee a safer place for everyone.

An idea dreamt up alongside members of the local community, The Lone Bellow were honored to welcome dozens of friends and families, including many of those directly affected by the tragedy, into the studio and join them in singing background harmonies on the song.

Statement From The Band:   “Sometimes writing a song is like planting a garden; a small act of hope with creative seeds that will grow - providing comfort and strength through overwhelming grief. This song was our response to the Covenant tragedy that struck our community on March 27, 2023.

During the world wars, the US and other allied governments launched campaigns to encourage citizens to grow ‘Victory Gardens.' The gardens were used as a tool to combat food shortages, and also as a way to encourage citizens to boost morale and invest in their own spiritual well-being, to stave off the despair of war by working in the earth and creating something useful and beautiful.

Communities banded together, and these wartime gardens were planted anywhere food could be grown: backyards, city rooftops, window-boxes, public parks, vacant lots. In London, a garden was planted in the crater left by a bomb close to Westminster Cathedral. On the very marks of death, new life was being sown.

After March 27, many of us in the Nashville community felt powerless in our grief. We felt heartbreak and fury, and the inevitable aching thought that this tragedy and the loss of six precious lives could have been avoided. Since then, we have been searching for ways, however small, to engage in the daily acts of caring for our community, of investing and cultivating beauty even when things seem hopeless. We cling to hope, for the sake of a better, safer future for our children.

This song was our simple act of wartime gardening, and we were incredibly moved when our community, so many of them directly affected by the Covenant tragedy, came together to help us sing it. We will continue to strive to be a song for those who can't speak, and to honor the memory of those we've lost. The cries of our children won't soon be forgotten, each one a flower in our Victory Garden."  

(Credit: Emily Dorio)

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