LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A new music video has debuted for Memorial Day to honor young local men who over the last decade have given their lives in the service of their country.
When he's not working as a Lake County supervisor or bail bondsman, Rob Brown spends time writing songs, a passion to which he's devoted more time in recent years.
This year, in honor of Memorial Day, Brown has written and produced “21 Guns,” a song that remembers three young men with Lake County ties who have died in the past seven years while serving overseas.
Those three men are:
– Lance Corporal Ivan Wilson, 22, of Clearlake, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in June 2008;
– Sgt. 1st Class David Hartman, 27, who died as the result of a roadside bomb in Pakistan in January 2010. He did not live in Lake County but much of his family does; and
– Sgt. Richard Essex, 23, a Kelseyville High School graduate who died in August 2012 in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan.
Brown said the song is not only meant to commemorate the three men, but also to remember the sacrifice made by their families.
“I would also like to dedicate this to all of those that have sacrificed for the freedoms that we enjoy,” he said. “That is what Memorial Day means to me.”
In addition to writing “21 Guns,” Brown did the song's vocals and also played guitar on the track.
He was joined on the song by other musicians who will be familiar to Lake County residents, including Pat Ickes on pedal steel guitar, Dan Prather on 12-string guitar, Don Hoberg on bass guitar and Don Prather on drums. Dan and Don Prather also did background vocals on the song.
The five-and-a-half-minute video, edited by John Jensen of Lake County News, can be seen above.
While the song honors all three men, the video primarily features scenes from the services for Essex in 2012 based on available footage.
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'21 Guns' salutes fallen Lake County servicemen
- Elizabeth Larson
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