Jamie Trent (center) shares the stage with Big Kenny and John Rich of Big & Rich at the Knapheide’s 2018 Awards at the annual convention of the National Truck Equipment Association in Indianapolis.Photo: The Knapheide Manufacturing Company
By day, Jamie Trent is a mild-mannered strategic account manager with The Knapheide Manufacturing Company. But, even while busily promoting the truck body manufacturer’s wares, his star is rising in the world of country and folk music songwriting.
Just last month, Trent marked a musical milestone. “Bullet Holes in the Sky,” a song he co-wrote, was featured on an album nominated for a 2019 Grammy Award.
Music has been a lifelong passion for Trent, 44, who lives in Lynchburg, Va., with his wife Tammy and their four-year-old daughter Kardigan.
Gulf War service
Quiet and mildly shy as a teenager, Trent fell in with musically inclined friends and discovered an outlet for expressing himself. Then, dispatched to the Persian Gulf with the U.S. Navy in 1993 during Operation Desert Storm, he served with a communications team.
“If a soldier lost his life, the American Red Cross would let the families know stateside,” Trent told Service Truck Magazine. “All of that sort of information came through the communications department, and I was one of the ones responsible for that.”
He eventually wound up his service stateside, refurbishing vessels at Newport News, Virginia, before enrolling in college. Extended periods at sea afforded Trent the time and opportunity to hone his songwriting skills, and he soon found himself in demand at parties, weddings and private clubs.
“Along and with the Navy College Fund and GI bill, the money I made singing and performing on weekends helped me pay my final stretch through college,” he said.
A few years after graduation, while employed in snowplow sales, Trent experienced the first of several heart attacks — at the tender age of 31. While his health soon stabilized he was beset by other chronic conditions, including severe migraines.
A hit with Knapheide
Trent persevered with his work and music, and a recruiter soon steered him toward Knapheide.
For more than a decade, Trent has thrived with the Quincy, Illinois company, serving first as regional sales manager handling distributor relationships throughout the Northeast and more recently working direct with national fleets throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Music has proven key all along. At annual National Truck Equipment Association conventions, Knapheide holds parties featuring popular artists such as Big and Rich and Huey Lewis and the News. One year, management invited him on-stage as an opening act, prompting him to pen “1848,” a musical tale about Knapheide’s founding.
Later, for a contest at a sales event, Trent reworked the lyrics of “American Made,” an Oak Ridge Boys song, to help pitch a Knapheide Utility Van (KUV). “My Knapheide’s American Made” scored a victory and became a hit in company circles.
“He’d sing a bit, stop and point out a few things about the features of the product, then finish the rest of the song,” recalled retired sales vice-president Jim Bockenfeld, who frequently traveled with Trent and was at that particular sales event. “He absolutely brought the house down.”
In 2017, when Bockenfeld retired, Trent delivered a song rather than the conventional congratulatory speech. “It was about our travels together selling Knapheide products,” Bockenfeld said. “It will probably never show up on the top 20 of any hit list but will always be a number one song to me.”
Connecting with veterans
While striking chords within Knapheide, Trent maintained a connection with fellow veterans, knowing that many returning from combat never truly leave war behind. While Trent embraces veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress, he explicitly excludes himself from that degree of pain.
“I can’t put myself in the same category as the soldiers who have experienced the really, really heavy stuff on the front lines,” he explained.
Still, Trent’s own health challenges deepened his empathy to the plight of combat veterans. His physicians attribute his various illnesses to his exposure to asbestos, lead and other chemicals at the naval shipyards, and he’s been in litigation for eight years, seeking official recognition and compensation.
“I was bitter for a long time, but I’ve gotten past that,” he said. “I don’t want it to slow me down going forward. It is what it is.”
Just as songwriting offered Trent an emotional outlet when he was a teenager, so it has in his adult years. Through country music and military connections, Trent discovered SongwritingWith:Soldiers, an organization which helps veterans tell their stories and share their pain.
Through this network of artists, Trent met a kindred spirit and mentor in one of the organization’s more active members, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier.
“She gives me advice when I ask for it and doesn’t sugarcoat anything,” he said. “If I have an idea, I’ll throw it her way. She always keeps me grounded.”
How music was made
Trent credited Gauthier for advice that has influenced him profoundly — that songs are like three-minute movies, with a beginning, middle and end, and good storytelling tells the audience who the characters are and where they’re going.
One evening, Gauthier texted him seeking lyrical input to an idea. “Mary was in the Johnny Cash room at the Grand Ole Opry, getting ready to go on stage,” Trent said. “The chorus had come to her suddenly but she didn’t have the ‘movie’ for it — she needed the verses.”
The chorus, about physical and emotionally wounded veterans feeling left behind, resonated with Trent. He immediately envisioned the opening scene — a soldier, alone at a restaurant table on Veterans Day, wistfully watching a parade pass by.
Over the next few hours they texted back and forth to flesh out their movie. As a result, Trent is listed as Gauthier’s co-writer for “Bullet Holes in the Sky,” which is on her album Rifles & Rosary Beads, nominated for a Grammy in the category of best folk album. (The winner in that category turned out to be All Ashore by Punch Brothers.
“Bullet Holes in the Sky” also landed on Esquire Magazine’s list of best country songs of 2018, with the magazine calling it “the most visceral cut on an album full of show-stoppers.”
Trent said the recognition has left him “shocked” and appreciative.
Knapheide president and CEO Bo Knapheide said he’s awed by Trent’s accomplishments and the company is fortunate to have him on its team. “He’s a loyal and skilled employee, and we’re proud of what he’s done for our country.”
Tara Gilroy, vice-president of strategic accounts, said she and other Knapheide personnel have heard Trent live in Nashville and are glad he’s part of their team.
“It’s an important part of our family culture as it relates to Knapheide,” Gilbory said. “We all support what he’s doing,”
Trent said he cherishes Knapheide’s enthusiasm for his songwriting and for the country’s veterans.
“Some organizations tell you to keep your personal life personal and your work life your work life, but Knapheide has gone above and beyond to support me, and I don’t know how I’ll ever thank them. I guess one of these days I’ll write a song about it.”
— Saul Chernos
Saul Chernos is a freelance writer based in Toronto.