Sonsee Cloud releases her emotional debut single to help others dealing with loss
“Anybody that has had someone pass, it’s going to hit them.”
Bobbie Dill, senior regent at the Noblesville Moose Lodge, said Noblesville resident Sonsee Cloud’s song is an emotional one that almost anyone can relate to.
“It’s just a really amazing song,” she said. “The girl sings her heart out … She puts her heart and soul into it – her family and friends.”
On Feb. 28, Sonsee Cloud released her debut single, “How Do You Say Goodbye,” to a hometown crowd filled with supporters and those who helped inspire the song.
“Stuff like this brings people together,” Dill said. “When it comes to someone in the community needing help, Sonsee is there.”
Wendy Gibson has been best friends with Cloud for the past nine years.
“She’s a beautiful person inside and out,” she said. “She has a heart of gold and is the first one to step up if someone needs something.”
Gibson said she cried when she first heard “How Do You Say Goodbye.”
“It brings back memories of my dad, he died of cancer, and our friend Simone. They did an amazing job on it,” she said.
Simply put, “How Do I Say Goodbye” is a song “dedicated to the loved ones that left us way too soon.”
“This song expresses the feelings of the last precious moments of someone’s life where you want to comfort them and let them know you are there for them and they are not alone,” Cloud said. “It’s the question we all have inside our hearts, ‘How do you say goodbye?’”
“It’s an inspirational country song,” guitarist Randy Martin said. “It starts out with a fiddle.”
Martin said the idea of the song was his and he brought it to Cloud. It was the first time the two had worked together on a song before.
“What I originally thought about it was something different but she put it in the perspective of how do you say goodbye to people who are passing because of cancer or whatever,” Martin said. “That’s what the whole thing is about, people who are lying on their deathbed and the people, their loved ones, they don’t know what to say.”
Martin and Cloud said co-writing the song was a mutual effort.
“It’s kind of amazing how you come up with a thought, and then you come up with the words of the song, and then you put the melody with it,” Cloud said. “It’s really neat how it starts out and how it ends up.”
Simone Newton, Sarah Livesay and Teonia Clark were the three main people who inspired the song.
“The big inspiration to me was when Simone was passing away,” Cloud said. “I was sitting there watching her go through this whole cancer thing and from the beginning to the very end. In that transition it’s like, ‘How do I say goodbye to her? What is a good way to say goodbye to her? How do you? That’s what the song is about. That’s when you toss out these ideas.”
Cloud said performing the song live is still emotional for her.
“When you do a song like that sometimes you can’t make it through that. Sometimes you can,” she said. “My sister passed away a month before Simone did unexpectedly so it is very emotional because the words to me and the song are so real.”
Cloud has resided in Noblesville most of her life, with a brief exception when she lived in Bloomington. Her family worked at the foundry and on the weekends they would all go to her grandmother’s and sit out on the pouch with guitars and sing.
“I think that is what first caught my interest in it,” she said. “My uncle had a recording studio and always tried to get me interested in it. I was 16 but not interested in singing. I was kind of shy and didn’t want to get in front of people.”
Cloud said it was her father who asked her to start a band.
“He kept begging me to do it with him (in 2009),” she said.
That is when Cloud met Martin, who had returned to Central Indiana after living in Nashville since 2001. Martin previously lived in Noblesville since 1974.
“I have all the respect in the world for her and her voice. It doesn’t matter if it is this song or not, I love to hear her sing,” Martin said. “This song in particular is like it opens up again. The way she sings it is from the heart.”
Jason Roller, a friend of Martin’s and band member of country artist Kelly Pickler, has Magic Shack Productions in Nashville, Tenn.
“She sings it from the heart. I think you’ll fall in love with it, I really do,” Martin said.
When they aren’t performing, Martin said the two are taking trips to Nashville.
“We’re developing her as an artist, not just a songwriter,” he said. “We want to perform as much as possible. We have a love for that and a love for songwriting. We’re doing what we love.”
“We have a terrific following. We have a really good fan base and they are all ages, 21 to 86,” Cloud said. “I definitely want to write more. We’ve got a song we are working on right now.”
Meet Sonsee Cloud
Age: 48
Family: Husband, Jerry, and daughters, Brandi and Jeri Lynn Thompson
Residence: Noblesville
Birthplace: Noblesville
Hobbies: Music and helping with a lot of benefits
Musical influences: George Jones and old Country
Which musician would you like to share the stage with? Miranda Lambert
Favorite food: Mexican
Meet Randy Martin
Age: 56
Family: Sons, Travus and Brandon
Residence: Elwood
Birthplace: Indianapolis
Hobbies: Music
Musical influences: Merle Haggard, Vern Gosdin and Sonsee Cloud
Which musician would you like to share the stage with? Merle Haggard
Favorite food: Mexican
Hear the song
Versions of “How Do You Say Goodbye” are available at sonseecloud.com, cdbaby, iTunes, amazon.com, Spotify radio.
