AUTHOR NOTE

Finding your voice is not as easy at it sounds. It comes naturally to some, but for others, our insecurities can turn us into our own worst enemy.

After doctors dismantled my face in 1991 to remove a tumor the size of an orange, I was left with more than physical scars. So I know the feeling of not fitting in with the norm. One large employer rejected me for a customer service job because of my scars. They said I was unpresentable. That rejection, however, propelled me to keep writing. Lesson learned: sometimes, the hard knocks of life are blessings in disguise.

And that is what this short film is about. It’s about Olivia, a budding young country singer who was rejected from her debut performance for not looking the part. So she retreats to the tallgrass prairie of Oklahoma, and there finds the strength and inspiration needed to press on and not give up.

SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOADING
ON SPOTIFY, AMAZON MUSIC, AND OTHER
PLATFORMS HERE.

Bonus tracks below of
THIS ROCKIN’ CHAIR  and SAY IT ANYWAY

LYRICS

I was always lonely in a crowd … it was not where I fit in.
But crowds were my protection … from me looking deep within.
I’d tried so many times … to love the mirrored face I saw.
But the ugliness of what I glimpsed … was just too real and raw.

All I saw were imperfections … nothing good within to see.
I wasn’t wrapped and pretty … like a gift beneath the tree.
I was a weed among the flowers … to be pulled and thrown away.
I had no place … and no one cared … ’bout what I had to say.

So I begged that God would change me … but God seemed not to hear.
All I heard was empty silence … it was the answer that I feared.
So I knew right then my worthlessness … meant He had passed me by.
That my song was not worth singing … I should quit … not even try.

So I drove out to the prairie … went as far as I could go.
And found a grassy hillside … just a place to be alone.
I wept until I fell asleep … and darkness settled in.
All I had was salt upon my cheeks … despair where hope had been.

I awakened to the brushing … of the tallgrass on my face.
Where yesterday proved silent … something new was taking place.
Bees were buzzing in the blossoms … birds were singing in the air.
Bison roamed the grassy hillsides … life was teeming everywhere.

These fields so wild … have value … is what I learned today.
And I am made just like those weeds out there … with something good to say.
I don’t need to look like all the rest … for me to have a voice.
I wasn’t a mistake … I was God’s deliberate choice.

I don’t need to look like all the rest … for me to have a voice.
I … wasn’t a mistake … I was God’s … deliberate choice.

Produced by Ruby Rock Films.
Lyrics © 2026 by James Houston Turner.