CPI Archive 2009: As she returns from her second tour of duty entertaining the troops in Iraq, Andrew Hamilton chats about anything but politics with American country star Nell Bryden.
Outside the wind blows and the sand stirs. As the surprising cold of a spring Iraqi evening descends on the desert, the temperature inside the large makeshift canvas tent is beginning to rise. Ali Al Salem is a military airport and, like most military airports in this region, it is filled with American soldiers on their way to or from Afghanistan and Iraq. The faces in the crowd are well worn, altered by what they have already seen or misshaped by the worry of what they are about to see. But tonight is different, tonight is all about letting go. Clearly starting to enjoy themselves, the soldiers begin to sing along. On stage, Brooklyn girl Nell Bryden is starting to enjoy herself too. Caught up in the emotional release and the energy of the moment, her mind races with excitement. ‘Louder, louder, I must play louder - I want everyone to hear.’ But the feeling is temporary, burst by an indescript noise a mile or more to the north. And just like that, reality is restored. They are once again Americans in a warzone, with more enemies than friends. “For me it was all about leaving the politics to one side. I went over there as someone who wasn’t supportive of the war and I’m not someone who ever thought of themselves as a ra-ra patriot. I went there because I realised that music is a great communicator and I could do something real for these people just by singing a song. I think that a song can sometimes make everyone get onto the same human level, no matter what rank of officer they are or how long they have been in the country or what they are going through in their own life,” she said.
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