Sunday, January 9, 2011

Songs from the front lines - MCpl Elton Adams


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MCpl Elton Adams was born and raised in Roddickton, Newfoundland, Canada. At the age of seventeen Elton Adam enrolled inthe Canadian Forces. During his first six years was employed with the First Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in Shilo Manitoba. While serving with this Regiment worked in both B and C batteries and ventured to Bosnia on Roto 7. It was also at this time hestarted to write his own music.

While with the Artillery he played and sang for the troops all of the time. In Bosnia his band, “Guns and Hose’s”(this was our band name because the Artillery had the big-guns and we practiced in a Fire hall—hose’s) opened up for the CANCON show. Domestically, he had a band called, Dirty Laundry and performed for almost all of the Regiments functions, private parties, and local bars.HPIM0190

he has served his country for over eight years and a Military Police-Officer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With only two years in the Military police trade received notification that he was to embark on a seven month tour to Afghanistan. Further, he would need to complete 8-months of work-up training in Edmonton before the tour began.

One of the songs Elton wrote, “What a Soldier Left Behind” was heard by his supervisors and the response was extremely positive. It lead to performing at our farewell parade on January 17th 2008. There were over 2000 personnel present for the parade, both soldiers and their families. The song became and is still growing into a big hit amongst the Canadian Forces community. Elton was presented with my Colonel and General’s commendation for the song.

On March 20th 2008, I performed, “What a Soldier Left Behind”, in Afghanistan with Canada’s beloved rock band, Blue Rodeo, at our “support the troops” concert, again the response was incredible. Elton received General Hillier’s, (our retired Chief of Defence Staff) commendation and I received many thank-you’s from my fellow soldiers, civilian employees and retired NHL Players (Doug Gilmour sent me a signed jersey) who were present at the show. It was unforgettable. Now that I’m back from Afghanistan I have finished recording my first album at Denmark Productions and I have just signed a major deal with music distribution company Matchbox Recordings. Matchbox Recordings will be releasing my album in the UK on March 2, 2009. ” - Elton Adams

I’ve had many requests for the lyrics for this song so I have added them to the above YouTube video.

I was talking with Kay Kennedy one night online and she had said to me “Dave have you heard the song What a soldier left behind” at the time I hadn’t but thought I would go check it out. I did right away and the words hit me very hard as I have met many family members of fallen soldiers and see how this song would affect them if they heard it. I contacted Elton on Facebook and asked him if I could feature the video on my Thankasoldier.net web page and he gave me permisson to do so. It is now the video people see when they first visit the site. I have since became good friends with Elton and want to help him get his music out there.

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