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John Vento Honors Suicide Prevention Awareness Month With Latest Single
John Vento’s “Sweet Cheslie” tells the tragic story of former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst, while raising awareness about suicide prevention.
Music Veteran, John Vento is well-known for both his award-winning brand of rootsy rock and roll, as well as his work with multiple charitable causes. Not only is John the co-founder of non-profit, Band Together Pittsburgh, working with those on the autism spectrum, but he is also heavily involved with the Remember Me Rose Garden, in memory of the Flight 93 Heroes. Now, Vento is releasing a new song to bring awareness to Suicide Prevention Month, “Sweet Cheslie.”
“Sweet Cheslie” is dedicated to the life and memory of former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst. The recording brings together notable artists from the Pittsburgh area, including Shane McLaughlin (guitar/vocals), Bob Zigerelli (vocals), Cherylann Hawk (vocals) and David Granati (guitar/bass/vocals.) The song was written by Vento, McLaughlin and Granati, with lyrics by Matt Wohlfarth.
An accompanying music video for the song is in production.
John Vento said, “This track is dedicated to the memory of Cheslie Kryst, who was an American television correspondent, model, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 2019. As Miss USA, she represented the United States at the Miss Universe 2019 competition and finished in the Top Ten. Kryst was also an attorney and had served as a correspondent for the TV program “Extra” from 2019 until her death.”
Vento continues, “On January 30. 2022, Cheslie jumped to her death from The Orion, a 60 story high rise apartment building in Midtown Manhattan. Though the world was shocked by her suicide, it once again highlighted the mental health crisis facing our society. After her death, Cheslie’s mother released a statement that her daughter had suffered from high- functioning depression.”
Living in a city of eight million
But you still somehow felt alone
Searchin’ for that rest and peaceful feelin’
May your light continue to shine
Oh sweet Cheslie,
Why didn’t you just come home
Oh sweet Cheslie,
Why we’ll just never know
Ohhhhh Cheslie,
Why didn’t you just come home
You could always come home
Deep beneath your beautiful brown eyes
There was a darkness that fooled us all
Wish we could have reached out and held your hand
Before you took that fall
Oh sweet Cheslie,
Why didn’t you just come home
Oh sweet Cheslie,
Your mama wants to know
Ohhhhh Cheslie,
Why didn’t you just come home
You could always come home
People have a need for love
That they can’t always show
Thirty seemed so old to you
With nothing else to do
Ohhhhhh Cheslie,
Why didn’t you just come home
Ohhhh Cheslie,
Your daddy wants to know
Oh, sweet Cheslie,
Why didn’t you just come home
You could always come home
You could always come home
You could always come home
You could always come home
Come home
Through this song, the artists are doing their best to cherish the loving memory of Cheslie Kryst, while also hoping that they can somehow make an impact in someone’s life during a time of need. More details about John Vento can be seen at http://www.johnvento.com
For more information about Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, please visit https://nami.org/Get-Involved/Awareness-Events/Suicide-Prevention-Awareness-Month-(SPAM)
Artist Spotlight
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds a new direction through Ghost of Panama
Rearranging a song that carries six decades of cultural weight is a creative challenge, but Ghost of Panama approaches “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with clear purpose. The rock band radically reworks Bob Dylan’s counter-culture hit, reshaping its identity while keeping its rebellious spirit. It’s a tribute to musical heritage and a statement of artistic independence all in one.
This new interpretation is very much shaped by the production, made at Ghost of Panama’s home studio in West London. The setting allows an intimate approach to reinterpreting a familiar song and lets the group engage directly with the material, taking it in a new artistic direction.
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” centers on the tension between conservation and transformation. Ghost of Panama is true to the song’s rebellious spirit without adding to its legacy, and this approach gives the release an adventurous feel, grounded in countercultural energy but driven by a desire to see what the composition can become in a different musical context.
Their version of this 60-year-old classic shows that respecting a song’s history can also mean breaking the rules and finding new ways to express its spirit. Fundamentally, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” presents Ghost of Panama as artists who want to engage with the past without being tied to it. The release’s strongest identity is a familiar heritage reimagined through a singularly forward-looking creative vision.
Artist Spotlight
“NO MORE” by Amanda Holley connects healing, awakening, and survival
“NO MORE“ carries that kind of emotional weight, and some songs feel like they come from lived experience but reach for something bigger. Amanda Holley blends R&B and soul, turning a lifetime of survival into a vision of healing, awakening, and the determination to move beyond what caused the pain.
“NO MORE“ is a healing anthem for people who have gone through bad experiences and reached a place of higher awareness, but it’s also an emotionally charged protest. The duality is introspective and outward-looking at the same time, turning personal survival into a broader declaration that some experiences, conditions, or cycles should end.
Holley had a premonition of the song six months before the world went into global shutdown. In the vocal booth, working out melodies with her collaborators, she pictured people in the streets. Those images were hard to imagine at the time, but subsequent events would make them painfully familiar.
“NO MORE“ is given a particularly contemplative underpinning by the context. The identity of R&B and soul leaves room for emotion. The song’s themes link survival, awakening, resistance, and the need for change. Amanda Holley is an artist using music to process personal endurance and a broader sense of social awakening. It’s got a complicated significance, and its release feels like a glimpse of a moment when personal intuition and public reality collided in an unexpected way.
Photo Credit: Yulia Shusharina
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