Sacramento musician Lori Sacco-Nelson had seen those red-line badges of courage on the faces of nurses and doctors in countless television news reports throughout the long weary month of March. So when a nurse friend in Australia emailed, asking her to write a song for fellow healthcare workers risking their lives, Sacco-Nelson had the first line – Lines on our faces from the masks that we wear – ready to go. Sitting at her piano, the rest of the song came fast, within 90 minutes.
She called her Curtis Park musician colleague, drummer/producer Rick Lotter (Mumbo Gumbo) and asked if she could come over to his Good Dog Studios and record, right away. He said yes – tonight. In only two takes, her reflective, poignant folk-pop song, “The Frontline” was done.
“I’m a musician and music helps to heal the soul,” said Sacco-Nelson, “and we’ve all been trying to figure out things we could do to help our communities get through this trying time. When I finally stepped back and listened, as if I were a doctor or nurse … that’s when I cried.”
So did her videographer friend George Holden. After one listen, he immediately offered to make a video for her. Using powerful COVID-19 news footage from inside hospitals, and outside nursing homes, the earnest, caring and exhausted faces of young healthcare workers amplify the lyrics.
The song and video, now on YouTube, is being used as a theme song opening a nightly radio show in Adelaide, Australia. Locally, it was featured both on Capital Public Radio’s “Insight with Beth Ruyak” and on KFBK with Kitty O’Neal, Sacco-Nelson’s current band mate in Skyler’s Pool.
Credits at the end list three websites to donate assistance to the healthcare workers referenced in “The Frontline”