Crying For Help
Country crooning paralegal finds therapy through music

Christy Bowles takes her work home with her. She also brings her experiences at home to work. “It started in my childhood,” Bowles confides. “I had an abusive stepfather and watched my mom go through that, and watched my sisters and the things that we had to go through.”

A mild-mannered legal services paralegal by day and smoldering country singer by night, Bowles has drawn inspiration from the many survivors of domestic violence she has helped during her day job at the Legal Aid Society of Roanoke Valley. Bowles’ own experiences growing up in a violent home prompted her to pursue a career in legal aid.

One night, as she sat on her bed with her pen and notebook, she thought of all those tear-filled nights of the past. And she started to write. So began the process that produced “For Crying Out Loud,” a song that rocketed into the Top 10 of the Christian Country charts after being recorded by country singer Jeanie Kay Truesdale. “I wrote it from my heart and my own experience,” Bowles says. “Having been there, and having met other people who have been there, gives it more power. They hear those words and think, ‘I’ve thought that before. I’ve felt that before.’”

Once Bowles finished the lyrics, she made a rough homemade recording by singing into a tape recorder. Bob Hamm, a music producer and publisher in Nashville, Tenn., commissioned a demo and pitched the song to Truesdale, for whom the song also resonated. “I really felt a lot of sadness for the victims,” Truesdale says. “My sister was a victim of very physical domestic violence, and I was actually in a very verbal domestic violence marriage at one point.” What made the biggest impression, she says, was the song’s positive ending, where the victim chooses to leave her abuser. Truesdale immediately called Hamm, telling him of her intention to record the song.

Following its release in April 2004, “For Crying Out Loud” made the Christian Country charts in only four days. The song garnered Truesdale a nomination for Female Vocalist of the Year by the Christian Country Music Association. According to Hamm, the song has become an anthem for hundreds of domestic violence organizations in the South.

While Truesdale has performed the song at countless churches and candlelight vigils—she’s already booked solid for October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month—Bowles continues to sing it in bars and clubs with her band, Point Blank. Each performance brings a new audience, and many listeners approach Bowles and share their own stories of domestic violence. “I actually carry my legal aid cards with me everywhere I go,” Bowles says. “I’ll give them a card and say, ‘If you can’t find the resources you need, call me and I’ll see if I can find them for you.’”

Bowles hopes to one day record “For Crying Out Loud” herself, but for now she’s satisfied performing in night spots across Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, where her band has opened for well-known country acts like Tim McGraw and Diamond Rio. While proud of her song’s impact on violence victims, Bowles cannot deny the therapeutic effect it has had on her own life.

“It’s kind of a process for me, too, because I’m still healing from the things I’ve seen,” she says. “When my mom comes out to see me perform, she’s standing right there in front of me, crying her eyes out.”—J.H.

PHOTO CAPTIONS. TOP RIGHT: Christy Bowles is a legal services paralegal by day and a country singer by night. Her work helping domestic violence victims inspired her to compose “For Crying Out Loud,” a song about spousal battery and mustering the courage to escape it. BOTTOM LEFT: Christian country singer Jeanie Kay Truesdale recorded Bowles’ song, which became an instant Top 10 hit in its genre.