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"Riley's Island" Free mp3 Download

"Riley's Island" by Jamie Thompson

Jamie Thompson: acoustic guitar and voice     Dedicated with love to Riley Ann Sawyers

Click here to see Jamie's YouTube video of this performance

Click here to read Riley Ann Sawyers' story

Click here to visit Sheryl Ann Sawyers' website honoring the memory of her beloved granddaughter

Click here to go to Jamie's YouTube channel page

In late June of 2011 I saw Riley Ann Sawyers' story on the Investigation Discovery Channel. I've been fascinated by forensic shows ever since the mid-70s when I first saw "Quincy, ME" starring Jack Klugman. So, I've seen and have been touched by many tragic stories. However, Riley Ann Sawyers' story hit me like no other story ever has. Being the daddy of a beautiful tween boy and girl of my own, my instinct for protecting and nurturing my kids was aroused, inflamed, and incensed by Riley's plight. Seeing her photograph I could tell instantly that Riley was a normal, beautiful, smart, sparkling little golden girl who just wanted to be properly loved and cared for. By the end of the show I was devastated and crying. As the days went by, however, I found that the impact of Riley Ann's tragic story stayed with me. I kept seeing her picture in my mind's eye. I kept thinking about how one of the last things she did was to throw her arms around her mother and tell her that she loved her, even though her mother was willingly participating in her murder. I kept breaking down. I finally did what I always do when I need to express my deepest affectations. I picked up my acoustic guitar and started writing a song. "Riley's Island" was unstoppable. It came forth, verse by verse, over a period of two days.

A week or two before I saw Riley's story on TV my daughter came home from her last day of school before summer vacation with all of the papers that were in her desk and that her teacher returned to her. Among them was a poem she had written called "The Personification of Spring." When I read the poem I was super impressed. It was so good I asked her if she had written the poem herself or if she had copied it out of a book. She assured me she had written it herself. In the poem she wrote (I'm paraphrasing) that if Spring were a person, she'd be a beautiful young girl with "green eyes like freshly sprouting leaves, soil brown hair that grows all the way to the ground, a long sunflower pedal headband, a forsythia bud dress, long daffodil pedal robes..." When I saw "Spring" in my mind's eye I thought I might be able to make her concept into a song in the style of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." Then, when I saw Riley Ann's story, and saw how they had named the island where her body was found "Riley's Island" I immediately thought of "Spring" in Lenora's poem. I imagined the island was a magical little spot where the Spirit of a beautiful little girl dwelled in the trees, the tall grass, the waves on the shore, and the sand. I wanted the guitar groove on the intro to sound like it was drifting on the tide in Galveston Bay. As the story unfolds I imagine myself wading ashore to have a visionary, spiritual encounter with Riley Ann. In the encounter little Riley gets to be a normal, playful, giggly two-year-old girl and I get to play the role that I know like the back of my hand - daddy who loves, cares for, and nurtures his precious little girl.

I just want to point out that Riley Ann Sawyers was not a little girl who grew up without a wonderful loving family. Riley was a daddy's girl and my heart goes out to her daddy, Robert Sawyers. I can only imagine the grief he has experienced. She had a wonderful grandmother, Shirley Ann Sawyers, who loved her dearly and took care of her. She also had a large extended family that loved her. Riley's family would've cared for her properly if they only could have. Riley's mother took her fifteen hundred miles away from her home in NE Ohio to TX to marry a man whose twisted, sadistic ideas about child discipline lead directly to Riley's death. If they could've known what was happening to Riley, they would've acted immediately to protect her and she'd still be with us today.

I'd like to thank the Sawyers family for accepting "Riley's Island" as a sincere gesture of sympathy from my family to theirs. We are honored and humbled to stand with them to honor and cherish the memory of their precious girl.

My hope is that "Riley's Island" will raise awareness of the issue of child abuse and inspire anyone who might be tempted to abuse a child to think twice.

Jamie Thompson

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