Special lyrics to echo in Jonesboro

— Two Alabama songwriters, moved by the rash of shootings in schools the past year and a half, tonight will perform a song they wrote aimed at quelling the violence.

Eddie Martin of Russellville, Ala., and Susan Welborn of Muscle Shoals, Ala., will sing "Listen for the Wings" during a free performance set for 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Books-A-Million on Caraway Road. The couple will also sell compact discs of the song, with proceeds going to the Listen for the Wings Foundation, an organization established in June to promote ending school violence.

The performance coincides with the opening day of public schools this year in Jonesboro.

"We're looking for a positive way to get people's attention and keep them aware that violence could happen anywhere. It happened in this community," said Kara Kennedy, the songwriters' spokesman, referring to the March 1998 shooting at Westside Middle School. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were wounded.

Martin said he wrote the song in November, following shootings at schools in Arkansas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Mississippi. The song was changed slightly in April to include references to the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

Alabama legislators voted to make the song an official gift to Colorado and Martin and Welborn performed it in Littleton about a month after the shooting there.

"When something like that happens, you automatically think of kids you know," Martin said. "I transferred my thoughts of what happened there to those I know in Alabama."

Martin said he was invited to perform in Jonesboro by Mitch Wright, the husband of slain Westside teacher Shannon Wright. Wright attended a ceremony in Decatur, Ala., to honor his wife and saw Martin and Welborn perform their song.

"There's a sense of hope about it," Martin said about the song, which is classified as both a country and western and spiritual song. "Kids get a steady diet of anger and violence. It's up to us to let them know that good things happen too."

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