Belinda

Belinda Huesman Has the "Write Stuff" By Ray Weaver
Belinda Fraley Huesman is a songwriter. She may not be a household name, but she has a poet's soul and hears a deep calling to put her words to music. The passion in her voice when she talks about her craft is inspiring.

A native Baltimorean, she was drawn to music at an early age, singing along with her family on long road trips. Inspired by Carole King's classic "Tapestry" LP, she started writing poems at age 11 and by 17 those poems started to become songs. Huesman married at 21 and was living in Dallas, TX, with two sons by time she was 27. Her songwriting career was put on hold for awhile because, as she says, "Real life kind of put my dreams on the back burner for a few years." Her Mother passed away when Huesman was 30, but before she died, Huesman recalls her mother gave her some powerful advice. "She said 'don't get to my age and have a wish list of things that you will never do, Even if you try and fail, you can at least say you tried."'
Huesman began making demo recordings of some of her songs, and then made the requisite trip to Nashville to pitch them. The experience could have crushed her dreams, especially after Huesman and her father were taken in by one of Music City's many con men offering a recording session and guaranteed superstardom - at a price. Even though the recording session did not turn out to be Huesman's big break, a chance meeting with Jim McBride, one of Nashville's most successful writers, opened up avenues the novice writer did not expect.
Huesman was just unfamiliar enough with the Nashville pecking order to invite McBride to write with her but he politely declined. "He was so nice," said Huesman. "He told me about the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) so I joined and started to learn more about songwriting and networking. I became a coordinator for the Dallas branch of NSAI and when divorce brought me back to Baltimore, I started conducting the workshop in the Baltimore/Annapolis area." The NSAI consists of professional and amateur songwriters from all over the world in all genres of music. The local chapters support the mission of the larger organization: "to educate, elevate, and celebrate the songwriter and to act as a unifying force within the music community and the community at large." Songwriting is a tough business. Most of the people that get into it never even get a song recorded, much less have a hit. While she never stops hoping for the chance to catch commercial lightning with one of her songs, Huesman's idea of "making it" is much more personal.
"My goal is to touch people with my songs," she says. " I wrote a song about a young man from Mardela Springs on the Eastern Shore who died in Afghanistan. I didn't know him; the song was based on a conversation I overheard. I later had the opportunity to meet his parents and share my song about their son with them. To be able to touch someone that way is why I write."