Along the Gulf Coast, love is often measured not just in words, but in loyalty, faith, and showing up when it matters most. Just ahead of Valentine’s Day, SongwritingWith:Soldiers delivers a love song that speaks directly to those values.
“The One They Call” isn’t your typical candlelit ballad. It’s a steady, soul-deep promise forged in the shadow of deployment orders and uncertainty. Written by Army Sergeant First Class (Retired) Matthew Chapman and his wife Debbi alongside acclaimed Texas songwriter Radney Foster, the track also features the unmistakable voice of Kelly Willis.
The song was born during a retreat at Boulder Crest Foundation, where veterans and their families are invited to turn lived experience into music. For the Chapmans, it meant revisiting the moment that defined their marriage.
Radney Foster and Kelly Willis - Photo: Jasna Boudard
Matthew, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician, had proposed twice before Debbi finally said yes. But it wasn’t a grand romantic gesture that changed her mind, it was deployment. As his unit prepared to ship out after 9/11, they married at a courthouse in Fayetteville. Not for fanfare. Not for a party. But so that if the worst happened, she would be the one the Army called.
That line, “I want to be the one they call,” anchors the song’s message. It’s about commitment without conditions. About claiming your place in someone’s life when everything is on the line.
For Gulf Coast communities, where military service is woven into daily life, from Pensacola to Biloxi to Corpus Christi, the story hits close to home. Families here understand long deployments, missed holidays, and the quiet courage required on the home front. This song honors that resilience.
“I was so moved by the Chapmans’ story,” Foster shares. “The love they share together, it’s powerful.” He invited Willis to join him on the recording, knowing the song’s emotional weight deserved two voices that could carry it with strength and grace. Willis, whose father served as an Army officer, brings her own understanding of military family sacrifice to the performance.
The Chapmans themselves never imagined their story would become a song others would hear. “We are humbled,” they say. “Even after so many years, those feelings put to paper still bring us to tears.”
That transformation, from private memory to public understanding, is central to SongwritingWith:Soldiers’ mission. Since 2012, the organization has brought together thousands of service members, veterans, and military families in trusted retreat settings to co-write songs grounded in real experience. Every lyric is shaped with care, consent, and dignity.
Research from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital has suggested that the organization’s collaborative songwriting approach may help reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress and depression—proof that storytelling, when honored properly, can heal.
Now, through its new music program, SongwritingWith:Soldiers is releasing select songs from its retreat catalog to major streaming platforms, ensuring these voices are not only heard within the military community, but across the country.
For Gulf Coast listeners, “The One They Call” feels less like a Valentine’s release and more like a tribute, to the men and women who serve, and to the spouses who stand beside them.
It’s not flashy. It’s not fragile. It’s steady.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what love looks like.