i return to cleveland. and a little bit down on my luck. >> four years of hell. ♪ block out the memories ♪ and break this insome me a spell. >> i hear about this national song writing competition on the radio and decide to assemble a group of vets who are also swing musicians and we build a band. and the show sort of chronicles our journey of making our way through the ranks of this competition. >> what i love about this show is you guys are dealing with veterans as well. see what happens when they come back from war. we are dealing with this right now. >> it's a balance. how can we address the truth and the deep substance of what these men and women go through, as well as balancing that with the joy that they are trying to find and discover. every show we dedicate to a different vet. we have a veterans wall that we put up the picture of every vet that we've dedicated to. >> speaking of vets, recipient of the top gun award.