Mario Monterosso, a Sicily-born singer, songwriter and guitarist, describes the synchronistic events that led him to move to Memphis not as whims of fancy but the arc of his destiny.

Monday, Feb. 13, it was if the path all this time has been girded with concrete. The applause was uproarious at Theatre Memphis, where Monterosso and a handful of collaborators introduced “Simple Song of Freedom Memphis,” the song and video he hopes will become the global anthem for peace in Ukraine.

It features Kallen Esperian, Rev. Charles Hodges, Carla Thomas, Larry Dotson, Priscilla Presley and a chorus of Memphis voices — from the Stax Music Academy to First Baptist Church Broad. Scott Bomar was the recording engineer.

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“Music, more than any other form of art, can give something to the people, and especially music coming from Memphis,” said Monterosso, 50.

He has been under the spell of it and the legends the city produced since he was a 10-year-old growing up in Italy.

“Memphis had Sun Records and Stax Records. They made the music of the world. Before then, it was nothing,” Monterosso said last week in the studio at Sam Phillips Recording, where he produced the song and where even the dust motes seem gilded in significance.

“It was a big, big deal and it turned out fantastic,” said Jerry Phillips, son of Sam Phillips. “Mario put a lot of work into it, and so did we at the studio. I just think it’s a worthwhile project, and it’s time for it to get out in the world.”

“Simple Song of Freedom Memphis” begins with Esperian singing over Hodge’s famous work on the Hammond organ, an unmistakable ode to the gospel in the city’s soul.

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“Starting the song, like a prayer literally, was a good thing,” Monterosso said. “I have to say the first part of the song has pretty much the same folk vibe. I wanted to keep that from Bobby Darin.”

Dotson from the Bar-Kays sings the next verse, followed by Thomas then Peter Molinari with backup from The Coasters.

“Imagine coming from Sicily, dealing with this whole thing in a place like this,” Monterosso said gesturing around the studio that Sam Phillips built in a muffler shop on Madison.

Cigarette burns in the countertop are shrines to Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.

“Simple Song of Freedom Memphis” is Monterosso’s largest undertaking here. The seven-minute piece is a rework of Bobby Darin’s 1969 folk song, “Simple Song of Freedom,” which became a hymn in the anti-war songbook.

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Monterosso’s version — which includes Priscilla Presley speaking Mother Teresa’s quote, “A life not lived for others is not a life” — was produced around his nightly gigs and tours that take him out of town for weeks at a time. The process took nine months.

The hours of driving in the dark between city stops, often by himself, turned out to be critical.

“You start hearing voices,” Monterosso said. “You start to know the sounds you want.”

All the genres, juxtapositions

From the beginning, Monterosso knew the work had to have the juxtaposition of genres synonymous with the Memphis sound. An elixir so powerful, he jokes, he could take music from Jamaica and Greece, produce it here and the magic would be baked in.

“Memphis creates a sound,” he said.

Darin’s original includes a bridge that spoke so much Memphis soul to Monterosso, he took it as permission to add even more.

“I added three more choruses at the end,” Monterosso said. “We definitely added more Memphis sound, more rock ‘n’ roll. We used horns; we used strings and that big, big choir.”

In all, about 65 Memphis musicians and technicians were involved. A public debut is planned for the spring.

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“Mario is a virtuoso rock-and-roll and rockabilly guitarist. … He has produced albums all over the world,” said Dabney Coors, production manager. “But when this war broke out, he said ‘Dabney, I’ve got to do something about this. I’ve got to do something, and I’ve got to do it with Memphis musicians. We’ve got to say something; we’ve got to help.”

Through Coors, Monterosso met Memphis philanthropist Dorothy Kirsch, who underwrote the project.

“I told Dorothy, ‘Here’s the vision,’” Coors said. “Every single person I’ve met is so heartbroken about this war. Dorothy said, ‘I am worried about the children.’”

Distribution is next step

While proceeds from the sale of the song will go to Darin’s estate, Monterosso has partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to manage the giving for relief in Ukraine. Those gifts will come through ssofmemphis.com.

All the musicians were paid. So was the studio.

Monterosso now is working out the final details, including the label for distribution.

He heard Darin’s song for the first time last winter, shortly before Russian invaded Ukraine.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute; let me listen to the song again,’” Monterosso said. “Sadly, you realize that lyrics written 60 years ago are still good for something. It’s crazy. I don’t want to talk about the intent because then it becomes a political thing. The point is not to say who is right or wrong. The point is that in 2022-23 it cannot make sense to be warring and killing people. It means that you haven’t learned anything from the past.”

A kid with a yen for rockabilly

Monterosso began performing at 14, accompanying himself on electric guitar, including an orange Gretsch like the one he first saw as child when his sister took him to see The Ramblers.

“This guy came on stage with this Gretsch, a pompadour and sideburns,” Monterosso said. “Wow, I want to do that. Literally, rock ’n’ roll changed my life.”

Monterosso moved here in 2016 at the age of 43 when he felt a pull he couldn’t ignore after a stop at Lafayette’s Music Room while touring with Tav Falco’s Panther Burns.

“When I put the foot in this town, immediately I said this is the place where I would love to live,” Monterosso said.

Monterosso returned home after the tour to his life as a court clerk. Staying, he realized, would be giving up on himself.

It’s been six years.

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“That Christmas, I went down to Sicily,” Monterosso said. “The most difficult part was telling my mother, ‘I quit the job at the court. I sold the house. I am moving to Memphis.’”

The Rev. Keith Norman, senior minister at First Baptist Broad, was in the studio the day the vocals were done. He sang in the choir. So did Priscilla Presley.

“It was eclectic,” Norman said. “It was nostalgic. It was fun.”

Presley originally was only scheduled to tape the reading. When she heard that the choir was going to lay down its track several days later, she changed her schedule.

“She said I want to do that, too,” Monterosso said. “She changed her flight so she could stay for it and sing.”

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Monterosso, sensing the value of the project, hired a filmmaker to capture the process, including interviews with each of the musicians.

“We interviewed Priscilla in Sam Phillips’ office upstairs,” Monterosso said. “It was great. Everybody was interviewed. For me, it was a huge experience.”

Norman hopes people everywhere will see that what good can come when people have the heart and mind to do intentional good.

“The great takeaway is that little, small things, right where you are, matter a lot, from Memphis, Tennessee, across the world to the Ukraine.”