Todd Souhrada is trying to form a country band.

You may know his name from his time serving as a District 9 state trooper. Or perhaps you may have heard about him as the first responder who was injured while saving two lives after the tornado in Parkersburg in 2008, which earned him the Sullivan Brothers Award of Valor. Or, you may have met him as the Navy lieutenant commander who serves as a member of the Funeral Honors Team and as an Adviser Trainer for a NATO ACT Unit.

 

But Todd Souhrada, 52, is also an aspiring musician who’s working on his second album, getting his music on the radio, and putting a band together. Souhrada’s appreciation for music began sitting beside his mother, Mary Ellen Souhrada, at the piano at age 7. “Mom was very musically inclined and I enjoyed listening to her sing and play,” said Souhrada. “She started giving me lessons by locating Middle C on the piano but was killed in a car accident. So, I lost interest in music for a while because it was so closely related to my mother.” As he got older, rather than going out on the weekends with his friends, he watched musicians perform on the Grand Ole Opry with his father, Dalyn.

 

During Souhrada’s junior year of high school, his father bought him his first guitar, though he wouldn’t pick it up until years later in college. There, he met his friend Mark Shaefer who shared his interest in music.  Souhrada taught himself to play the guitar and began writing music. In 1982, he wrote his first song “Get a Little Love,” about a girl he was dating at the time who would later become his wife, Karen.

By the end of his college career, Souhrada was married and had children. 

 

Fatherhood, along with his job duties, took up all of his time, so he put his hopes of a career in music on the back burner again. But he didn’t stop dreaming about it. “I played for the kids, and kept writing,” he said. Life became his inspirational score. “Most songs I write are about my life,” he said. Songs just come to him. When the muse strikes, he tries to get the words on paper as fast as he can.  One song called “Don’t Go” came to him when he was saying “good bye” his wife at the airport after being to deployed to Afghanistan.  “She hates it when I’m gone,” Souhrada said. “As I’m walking away I hear her say, ‘Don’t go.’” When he got on the plane, it came to him.  Stuck without a pen and paper, he frantically asked a stewardess for anything he could write on.  She returned with a white vomit bag.  “Every crease of the sack I wrote on,” Souhrada recalled.

 

On another occasion, when he found himself without writing tools, Souhrada grabbed a stick and scribbled the lyrics that flowed in his head onto the snow.  When he finished, he ran back to his truck and grabbed a piece of paper before the falling snow could fill in the imprint. He happened to be splitting wood in Decorah when he noticed two sticks that reminded him of the cross. That’s how “Father Hold My Hand” was born.  He said he wrote the song from the perspective of “Jesus looking out.” But the toughest song he penned he wished he never had to. “Anna’s Song” is dedicated to his daughter who was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 16. “I walked right through the way I was feeling,” Souhrada said. “It is very, very close to my heart.” Souhrada believed this is the reason why his fans relate to it — because the emotion is so raw and so real.

 

Since the release of his first album, “Souhrada Country,” a nod to his authentic lifestyle and sound, he has refocused his life on music. “I did it [that way], because I’m a country kid,” he says. “This is my version of country music, but I also love my country.” He has sold nearly 200 copies, to friends and neighbors but also to fans as far as Japan, Denmark and Germany. “It isn’t a lot to someone who is a big-time star,” he said. “I just want people to hear it.”  Souhrada recorded his album in Nashville in a professional studio. Before his most recent deployment to Afghanistan, he made a recording of his music for his family in case the worst happened while he was overseas. He gave one of the copies to his friend from college who is in the music business and when Souhrada returned from Afghanistan he received an invitation to record.  “I thought it was an April Fool’s joke,” Souhrada said. “I wasn’t overly polite to the guy. I thought somebody was pulling a trick on me.”  And for Souhrada, that’s when the ball got rolling.

 

After realizing one dream of recording in a professional studio, Souhrada is looking to accomplish another — hearing his music on the radio. He currently has 13 to 14 radio stations interested in airing his music including Charles City, Hampton, Parkersburg, Waverly and more. He is also getting his music available for digital download on programs such as iTunes and Spotify. After retirement from the military, Souhrada is looking to make this hobby his main focus. 

 

Right now, he is keeping busy with “military stuff,” but he has already taken a major step in pursuing his dream by putting a band together. Souhrada currently has a guitar player and a drummer and is still searching for more band members.  He has been asked to play at numerous events, and he is excited about his future in music. A friend once told Souhrada that a lot of people don’t make it in the music business.

 

“It depends on what your definition of making it is,” he said. “For me, every CD I sell, every song I write, every album I make and every opportunity to perform is success. I have already achieved more than I ever thought I would. I am just having fun doing what I like to do!”