Nashville-based hit songwriter, singer and guitarist Eric Paslay doesn’t just write lyrics about everyday angels making a difference in the world.
He also takes time every weekend on tour to visit and thank them.
“Y’all have time for a few?” Paslay, a towering native Texan with a boyish grin, asked some 35 excited employees of Heartland Hospice in Frankfort on Friday afternoon as he took a seat with an acoustic guitar after shaking their hands. “The point here is to thank you for doing miraculous stuff every day.”
In town to open Friday night for Toby Keith at Tinley Park’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Paslay gave a private performance of five songs, including “Angels in This Town,” the miracles-inspired latest single from his sophomore release “Dressed in Black” due out next year.
“Thank you for ushering people into heaven,” Paslay told the nursing assistants, social workers and other employees. “There’s a magic behind what you do. A lot of people toward the end of their life may not be responsive, but they hear music. And music is the best drug.”
While he has visited police and fire departments, Boys and Girls Clubs, Habitat for Humanity and a Ronald McDonald House in various states to thank everyday folks, Paslay’s team chose Heartland Hospice for his first hospice stop as part of his “angel visits” while on tour, Heartland administrator Cathy McBride said.
“For someone to acknowledge we make a difference in helping life travelers on their last journey is important for our staff,” she said. “It’s an honor and a privilege to work in this field.”
Dressed in a brown baseball cap, a long-sleeved shirt and dark jeans, Paslay tapped his right cowboy boot as he performed, pausing between songs to modestly ask, “Can I do one more? I know you all have jobs.”
Amber Johnson and Erica Collins, music therapists at Heartland who use the gift of song to reduce patients’ respiration rates and level of agitation, lent their pretty voices to “Friday Night,” his No. 1 single from his 2014 eponymous debut.
The opportunity to not only meet but also sing along with Paslay was “incredible and empowering for us to continue doing what we do and knowing it makes a difference,” said Johnson, whose parents planned to attend the concert Friday night. “He’s such a humble person. I was moved to tears a couple times.”
Jill Long, Heartland’s bereavement coordinator, said hospice workers routinely are thanked by families. Yet Paslay’s visit helps to expand the story of hospice, unity and community.
“We’re grateful for families for letting us care for loved ones and to receive recognition from outside of the circles we serve in,” said Long, an Orland Park resident who volunteered at Heartland for five years before joining its staff. “Usually it isn’t until you need hospice that you learn about it.”
With locations also in Westmont and Northbrook, Heartland Hospice is part of the HCR ManorCare family and the country’s third largest hospice provider.
Paslay, 33, also performed “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” his No. 1 single for Eli Young Band, and “Wild and Young” from his upcoming album.
Then he chose the perfect ending with “Deep As It Is Wide” which he recorded with Sheryl Crow and Amy Grant with his grandparents in attendance:
“There’s a place at the edge of the sky;
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Where there’s a love deep as it is wide;
The weak are strong, the hungry are all fed;
And there’s a breeze from the angels flying overhead.”
Vickie Jurkowski is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.