Entertainment News

GIJams.com puts WY soldiers on the map in Iraq

Posted: Feb 25, 2010 5:01 PM by Angela Douglas
Updated: Feb 25, 2010 5:01 PM

BILLINGS - With a chorus of "You want to thank us for freedom? Send beers cause we need 'em," the Joe Speed Band is making waves among soldiers in Iraq.

"Jeremiah had a guitar and we didn't have any electricity or anything, so that was our only way of releasing after missions and stuff," explains the band's bass player and back up vocalist, Dusty Scott.

The group of three Wyomingites are singing and playing their way through their down time while serving with the U.S. Army in the Middle East.

Scott and Nathan Harvey grew up together in Laramie, WY, while Jeremiah Eaton was raised in Rawlins, WY - he now lives in Billings.

The three met during their first deployment to Iraq and then volunteered together for a second time in 2009.

During their second trip, they heard about GIJams.com, that's when their music career really took off.

"We sat in the tent and recorded it on his (Eaton's) computer, pretty much on a microphone," explains Scott about recording their #1 hit, "Cowboy Soldiers."

The creators of the website couldn't believe their ears when they heard the raw talent coming straight from Iraq.

"It was a real war song because these guys were really right there, you know, in the Iraqi desert right in the middle of everything and they're talking about their situation," explains GIJams.com's co-founder Denny Randell. "But on the other side it had this certain humorous fun quality about it.

Originally the band posted the song to the website for their family and friends back home, but the song's popularity quickly grew making it the number one song on GIJams.com.

"We had a couple hundred hits, and then the next thing we know we have over 1,000, and then after that we started getting some recognition," Scott says. "Started working with radio stations, and it was like, 'Wow!'"

GIJams.com co-founder, Biddy Schippers, says she got chills the first time she heard their song "Cowboy Soldiers."

"I mean, these are the people that put their lives on the line for all of us back here," Schippers says. "And they have the spirit and the ability to put a song up, it really just caught our eye."

Scott says the Joe Speed Band will continue with their musical endeavors when they return state-side in early April, but their main objective will remain.

"Our main goal is to make people smile," Scott says. "As long as we can do that I think we'll all be happy."