Photo by Rebecca Andre
By Robert Brune
PINE HILL — There are many hidden jewels in the mountains and valleys of Delaware County. Terry Radigan is without doubt a precious gem who has fallen in love with the same mountain life that has attracted an increasing number of talented artists to our upstate community, now drawn closer together by performing publicly in venues such as the Pine Hill Community Center (PHCC), this past Saturday evening.
Radigan made the move with her family to Bovina from NYC in 2017, after discovering the beauty and calm of upstate NY, a place where she could better focus and feel safe and happy beyond the daily grind that involves city life.
Growing up in Brooklyn, Radigan began playing the guitar at eight years of age. A neighborhood music store opened and provided lessons. “The owner of the music store taught me scales but I wasn’t a very good student.” She gave up on the lessons, but the owner of the store heard Radigan playing her guitar in her backyard and recognized her natural talent. He then shifted her lessons to simply teaching Radigan songs, as she describes that time in her formative development of musical interests. Radigan attended Nassau Community College studying classical guitar for two years. In the 1980’s she met the owner of the legendary NYC music venue the Bitter End, Ken Gorka. Gorka would allow Radigan to attend shows for free to sit in the back and watch the performances but didn’t allow her to perform at first. Gorka suggested Radigan participate in a songwriters and singers contest, at which she won first place. This was a confidence boost for this young performer, which led her to perform at clubs such as CBGB’s at a time when the Talking Heads, Blondie, and the Ramones made a name for themselves.
By the early nineties Radigan moved to Nashville and soon started working as a songwriter for Sony. Radigan explains of this time: “Billy Joe Shaver took me under his wing.” Radigan also worked with various staples of the Nashville music scene such as Don Schlitz who wrote the ‘Gambler’. Radigan worked for a decade as a songwriter and performer in Nashville writing songs for some of the most well-known country musicians such as Patti Lovelace and Trisha Yearwood, increasing her notoriety with both the country music scene and then breaking into creating songs for the film industry, which she continues to do to this day.
Since 2017, Radigan has been traveling around the country working with Writers with Soldiers. Connecting with veterans and first responders at military veterans’ facilities has changed her, “I feel like I’m a better person,” says Radigan. She and other writers meet with veterans over a two day visit, then she goes back to her hotel room and begins writing a song from group discussions of their experiences. She says, "The songs I write are completely in their words.” The next day they polish up the song and Radigan performs the songs for the veterans.
At the Pine Hill Community Center this past Saturday, Radigan performed a mix of songs from her personal experiences of growing up in NYC, such as her song ‘ Brooklyn’.
‘So Come on Brooklyn ~ Say that we can still be friends, That we can still be friends, Sit on the stoop and grab a Yoo-Hoo, Till Mama sends us to the corner store, Tells us to stop at Ms. Tille’s door, and see if she needs anything. And then to look in on Ms. Josephine…” The way Radigan writes and performs feels as if she’s taking the audience by the hand and walking the listeners through time with passion and vivid detail. The ‘Army of One’ song Radigan performed at PHCC from the Writers with Soldier project is a true reflection and honoring of the challenges of military life. Her lyrics don’t candy-coat the hardship and heart of what members of our military endure. Radigan reflects on the magical process of creating songs with soldiers, ‘When I start, they’re calling me ma’am, but when the conversation goes from ma’am to ‘DUUUUDE!’, that’s when I know I’ve made a connection.”
Radigan says she loves performing locally in the Delaware County area and will continue to do so. You can often catch Radigan’s poems in the State-of-the-Art newsletter. It’s an honor to have such a tremendous talent such as Radigan in our midst and look forward to hearing more from her, soon.
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