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DREAMS REALLY DO COME TRUE

JUANITA FORD'S STORY

FROM BROOK HOLLOW

As little children our lives revolve around dreams; dreams of what we can become, dreams of our name up in lights... But as we grow these dreams gradually fade into those dim recesses of our minds, and we rationalize that our dreams will never become a reality.

There are some, however, who refuse to allow these dreams to die. One such person is Juanita Ford.

Juanita's dreams began as a young child of six years old. She was attracted to Tammy Wynette's early songs and listened to them over and over again. Juanita sang along with those records until she got every note perfectly correct. She listened to Eddie Rabbit's story about his songwriting and she figured that if songwriting was good enough for Eddie Rabbit, then it could be good enough for her.

Juanita started writing songs with a passion in 1978. So many things in life inspired her. Although, by now, her legs would no longer carry her to places that you and I take for granted, Juanita's rich mind worked
overtime to compensate. Her imagination carried her near and far to visit interesting places. Juanita found that to write song lyrics was like recording a journal of these adventures.

 

She got plenty of ideas from the real world too. The soap operas on TV gave her ideas. Her favorite soap, "The Young and the Restless," gave her the idea for a song entitled "STEPPIN OUT." Shortly after writing this song, she had her first DEMO with "A Song for Linda."

The dreams still lingered and lived on. Most of us find it hard enough to promote yourself when you have full mobility, many of us don't even think of the challenges that face a young person trapped in bed.

Shear tenacity and dedication to her chosen career has led Juanita to the point she is today. She has won numerous AWARDS for gospel tunes like "Jesus Is Alive And Well," and in 1996 her song, "Those Duke Boys From Hazzard County," co-written with Kirk Comiskey of Nashville, won Country Song of the Year from the Downeast Country Music Association, and also the same from the Maine Country Music Association.

Juanita has proven to many that dreams can become a reality. She says, "Just reaching for your dreams can make life worth living. The real sadness must come for those who never try to make their dreams a reality."

Many trophies and plaques decorate the walls of her room in testimony to the fact that her dream is alive and well.

Perhaps the words of the following song, written by Juanita Ford, can inspire all of us to search the far reaches of our minds, and bring to light those long lost dreams that we have so conveniently stored away.
Will it be your turn to fly next?

IT'S MY TURN TO FLY

There was a time in my life
I felt the world on my shoulders
And somewhere along the way
I lost touch with what was real
I was just there; a puppet on a string

But starting today it's a whole different story
I'm finally looking out for number one
Gonna leave the past behind
For the first time in my life
And do exactly what I want

It's my time to fly
And it's my time to shine
Now it's time for me to take charge
I've felt like a bird that's been trapped inside a cage
I'm ready to make a new start
Everything that seemed so wrong, all of a sudden seems so right!
And now it's my time to shine
I feel just like a blind man
Who's been given back his sight
I'll soar high just like a kite

For the longest time
I let others control my life

I felt battered and bruised, hopeless, and used
But I've left those days behind
Now I've found the meaning of life
I live every day just looking for the Truth
'Cause it's my time to fly...

Written by Juanita Ford ©1994 All rights reserved

This was an article written about her in May of 1998. It appeared in the Portland, Maine newspaper called: "The Portland Sunday Telegram." I know you will find it interesting.

Sunday, May 31, 1998

 

Walking On Air

NAPLES, MAINE - Juanita Ford has spent most of her days in the past 20 years in her hospital-style bed, composing country songs - songs about love, songs about heartbreak, about kissing in the rain and men holding back their tears.

Last year, she got the attention of a small Nashville record label, which had singers record two of her songs. The songs are being played on the radio, not that Ford can listen to them - the radio stations are in Denmark and the Netherlands.

Nor has Ford gotten rich off her success. Though European listeners have heard her songs on the radio hundreds of times, she gets just a nickel each time one of her tunes is played. So far she has earned about $40.

Ford, who has muscular dystrophy, would love to build on this small success and bring her music to people in her own country. She dreams of writing tunes for country stars like Garth Brooks and George Straight. She'd like to make enough money to buy a special van that could take her away from her tiny apartment more than twice a year.

But even if none of that happens, she'll keep writing songs. It's what she does.

''If I had to just sit here all day and watch TV, it would drive me crazy,'' says Ford, 36, who lives in an apartment at the Brook Hollow complex in Naples. ''It keeps me busy, it lets me be creative, and I've met an awful lot of nice people.''

Ford writes old-fashioned country songs with titles like ''Sweet Kisses in the Summer Rain'' and ''A Man Ain't Supposed to Cry.'' As she lies in bed - with a TV, a radio, a cat and her mother for company - the songs pour out. She has about 4,500 of them.

While Ford piles up the songs, she has been just as prolific about writing to anyone who might listen to her songs - from record companies and disc jockeys to country music stars. That's how she got Keith Bradford at KMA Records in Nashville to listen to her a year ago. Bradford makes country records for Europe, where fans prefer a traditional tear-in-your-beer style to today's glitzy, rock-influenced country.

Bradford thought Ford's lyrics fit that style, so he showed a couple of her songs to two artists on his label, Sherry Robinson and Tom Grant. Grant picked ''A Man Ain't Supposed to Cry'' and recorded it on a compilation album called ''Alternative Country.'' Robinson liked ''Sweet Kisses in the Summer Rain'' and included it on ''KMA Records Presents Sherry Robinson.''

The music for both songs was written by musicians working for Bradford. Ford writes only the lyrics. The tunes are slow and twangy, and sound like American country tunes of the late 1960s or early '70s, the kind of stuff Jim Reeves or George Jones might have sung.

''I look for songs that are believable and down to earth and maybe a little romantic in nature,'' Robinson said from her home in Nashville. ''I read her song, and I knew it would work for me. I could feel that she was writing from her own experience.''

But she wasn't.

Neither Robinson nor Bradford knew Ford has muscular dystrophy and has used a wheelchair since age 8. That's one thing Ford leaves out in her letters to record producers and performers. Not that she minds talking about it, but she doesn't want sympathy to be thing that grabs someone's ear.

''I want people to judge the songs by themselves,'' says Ford. ''I know I have physical limitations, but that has nothing to do with writing songs.''

Ford was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when she was 3 or 4, growing up in the village of Sebago Lake. When she was 8, she fell and cracked a bone in her knee, and it didn't heal properly. She hasn't walked since.

''They didn't give you therapy or nothing back then,'' Ford said. They didn't have special classes in local schools, either, so Ford was taught mostly by a tutor until she was in her early teens.

After that, she learned by reading and experienced the world through television. Even today, she takes a car ride maybe twice a year. Renting a special van is just too expensive.

Ford always listened to country music, especially legends like Tammy Wynette. As a teen-ager, she was a fan of the hillbilly TV show ''The Dukes of Hazzard.'' The wall by her bed is still plastered with pictures of the show's hunky star, John Schneider.

When Ford was about 18, she was watching the daytime soap ''The Young and the Restless'' when a character named Jill was cheating on her husband. The words ''steppin' out'' popped into Ford's head, and she wrote a song of the same name. From there, she just kept writing.

Almost anything - a line from a TV show, a picture, a chat with a neighbor - can put a song idea in Ford's head.

She heard the song ''Rock of Ages'' one time and wrote a song called, ''Mama's Favorite Song was Rock of Ages.'' She wrote ''Sweet Kisses in the Summer Rain'' after seeing ''a good-looking guy with pretty blue eyes'' on TV. She read newspaper stories about teen pregnancy, so she wrote ''Children Are Having Children.''

''It's hard to explain,'' she said. ''I hear something or see something and the brain just goes.''

Ford writes from her bed, which can be propped up like a hospital bed. At the foot of it is more clutter than most office desks can hold - including a foot-high stack of songs, a dozen cassette tapes, and piles of magazines and country music newsletters.

Just three feet from the bed are her TV, boom box and a karaoke machine for testing out new songs. On the wall near her bed is a phone, a phone that has called Nashville more than a few times.

Her apartment is small: Her bed is in the living room, which is also the kitchen. She lives with her mother and her cat, whom she calls ''Frisky the Savage Killer.''

Because of years of not walking, Ford's legs are short and undeveloped. Her arms don't get much exercise either, and she can't lift herself out of bed. She does have enough strength to type, though. After writing her songs with a pen, she has her mother and a nurse lift her on to her wheelchair. Then she rolls over to an old electric typewriter.

After getting ''Sweet Kisses in the Summer Rain'' and ''A Man Ain't Supposed to Cry'' recorded, Ford wrote to disc jockeys in the
Netherlands and Denmark, knowing they favored traditional songs like hers. She also knew, from all the music magazines she reads, that many radio stations in Europe are publicly funded and don't feel the same pressure to play the music of big stars, the way American country stations do.

This year, because of her letter-writing, Ford got her songs played on a few European stations.

''She wrote me and asked me to listen to her songs, so I did,'' said Rein Wortleboer, who hosts a weekly country music show on Radio Venray in Venray, the Netherlands. ''I liked her style, so I played the songs.''

Ford earns 5 cents each time a song is played on the radio. She didn't get any money when her song was recorded, because that's not the way it works in the record business. Most songwriters earn their money through royalties, said Irv Licheman, deputy editor of Billboard magazine.

Ford says $40 is better than nothing.

Even before getting her songs recorded, Ford got recognition in Maine. Since 1994, she has won six songwriting awards from the Downeast Country Music Association and the Maine Country Music Association.

Ford's goal is to be successful enough at songwriting to be financially independent. That way she could buy a van and other equipment that would let her live without anyone's help.

Bradford, at KMA in Nashville, says it's hard to say whether Ford will achieve her goal of writing for big-name stars on major record labels. But she does have an advantage over thousands of other would-be songwriters: She has had her songs recorded and played on the radio.

''Most people trying to get a major label to read their song have about a 5-million-to-one shot,'' Bradford said. ''But now when Juanita calls those places, she can say she's had songs recorded, she's had songs on the radio. And she just might get an appointment.''

Ford says she'll keep trying for that appointment. She's spurred on by her determination to be independent, her love of songwriting and the realization that music is an unpredictable business.

''Nobody ever thought 'Achy Breaky Heart' would be a hit, but it was,'' said Ford. ''So I'll keep trying too.''

   
By RAY ROUTHIER
Staff Writer
©Copyright 1998 Guy Gannett Communications

 

June 2002

Since that article 4 years ago, she added the task of music publisher to her already busy schedule by forming her own company in 2001 and won several more awards for the work she has done.

A CD is available from ERNEST TUBB RECORD SHOPS

You can find some of her songs by clicking one of these links…

J. Ford

Juanita Ford

To learn more about Juanita or her music go to Music From The Heart  You will find all kinds of wonderful links to the Country Music Industry.

Make sure you visit TammyWynette.com =)

In 1999, in addition to her other writing…Juanita ventured into fanfic which is the stories you will find on this page.

Thank you.  Enjoy the stories. =) Email Juanita