Fighter Country Talent is a unique collective of musicians, each with connections to the US Military. The group was formed following the COVID-19 lockdowns, which were especially isolating for service members. “There were many concerns about mental health during that time,” recalled Teresa Greenwood, a volunteer and administrator with the organization. Greenwood suggested to her husband, a musician and Lieutenant Colonel, that they start a group for serving musicians to get together and partake in regular jam sessions. “Within twenty-four hours of posting about it on social media, we had ten people on board,” recounted Greenwood. “After two years, we had about fifty.”
While the group has no official affiliation with the military, it consists entirely of active duty service members, veterans, and their families. “We have some people from the Navy, Marines, Air Force,” explained Greenwood. “We opened it up to all active duty, as well as Veterans and Department of Defense. There’s no exclusion.”
As membership continued to grow, Greenwood had to start allocating time slots to different genres of music, so that everyone had a chance to use their designated space at Luke Air Force Base in Maricopa County, Arizona. “Monday is heavy rock, Tuesday is rhythm and blues, Wednesday is for punk music, Thursday is country and indie, Friday is a free-for-all, and Saturday is for jazz.”
With more and more musicians, Greenwood also saw the group’s equipment needs change. “We were using a tiny little PA system with four inputs in the back. We would daisy-chain it to another tiny PA just to get the volume we needed for our vocalists. It was a bit of a nightmare to balance everything.” The lack of a central mixer also prevented the group from performing live in venues that did not provide sound equipment.
To solve the problem, Greenwood consulted with a local audio engineer. “He said the best product on the planet is Allen & Heath,” she recalled. Through a donation from the company’s US distributor, the group was soon upgraded to an analog Allen & Heath ZED-22FX mixer. “The next practice with the mixer, the group was so excited that they spent the whole time fiddling with the buttons and knobs – they didn’t even get to practice!”
The new mixer allows for the performers to easily balance between 16 mono and 3 stereo channels, and also has three auxiliary busses the musicians can use for monitors. The built-in FX processor can add reverb, delay, and chorus effects as well. The ZED-22FX is part of the wide range of ZED mixers offered by Allen & Heath, offering solutions from compact double mic/line input interfaces up to the 32 input channel ZED-436.
Greenwood hopes that, with the addition of a new mixer, more opportunities will open up for the group. “We already have a Christmas performance booked. This ZED mixer enables us to accept any gig that’s offered to us, because we can provide our own sound. It’s really made a difference.”
Fighter Country Sound may have started as a way to manage isolation during the lockdown, but it’s grown into far more than that. “This is a legacy,” stated Greenwood. “It’s been going for two and a half years, and we’ve now ensured that it will continue for many more years in the future.”
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