Culpeper soldier an inspiration for     songwriter Vaughan Penn’s song ‘Holy, Holy’

Singer-songwriter Vaughan Penn oozed appreciation for U.S. troops overseas during a telephone conversation from her North Carolina home Wednesday.

Any one who comes to Lord Culpeper Bar & Grill to see her perform Sunday is thereby supporting the troops, she said in a slightly raspy voice with a charming Southern twang.

Penn is well known in the television and music industry. Her music is that catchy background song in movies and TV shows. You know you've heard it someplace before, but you can't quite place it. (Think "Bring on the Day," which kicks off every episode of MTV's The Hills, "I Can't Help Myself" on the MTV Laguna Beach soundtrack or "Ready to Rise," which appeared in Grey's Anatomy and My Name is Earl.) She's got more than 30 tunes playing in the background of popular TV shows.

Penn's music feels a little like her favorites: Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac; but she easily rattles off other influences like her big band-and jazz-musician parents, her rock band uncle, Neil Young and Sarah McLachlan, who, she said, played in her CD player at least 3,000 times before she was ready to digest another artist.

But Penn is, perhaps, most known ('round these parts, anyway) for "Holy, Holy" a song on her last album Angels Fly. The song was inspired by a letter from her friend Army Capt. Kerr Chase, 31, of Stevensburg.

"It triggered something in my heart for him and for all the soldiers," she said.

Penn met Chase at a performance in North Carolina more than a year ago, right as he had been recalled into military service for a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan.

Chase, son Board of Supervisors representative Bill Chase and his wife, Judy, is still in Afghanistan with the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade. His father said he is due home in a few weeks.
Penn became friends with the entire Chase family through older sister Liz.

But the letter, she said, struck a personal cord.

"He was a personal friend that went to go fight for us," she said. "He asked me to pray for him…  The letter brought it all home."

It's been nearly two years since Penn stopped in Culpeper to perform for an intimate gathering of friends. She's excited to return this Easter, partly on a promotional tour for her new album Over My Head, which will be available at the show Sunday before it even hits stores.

The best way to give back to the troops is through prayer, she said.

"Just thanking them for being there for us..." she said.

Katie Dolac can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .