Steamboat Pilot & Today

Chad Hollister says he wants his actions and song lyrics to bring a positive message to the music scene.

"People are finally saying something again," said Hollister, a guitarist and singer. "There was almost, like, a period of time in the late '80s/early '90s where there was just a bunch of 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' and crap rock."

The Chad Hollister Band, which is based out of Vermont, tours the country playing American rock 'n' roll.

"Our music is one of the hardest things to classify, but I'd say it's American-roots rock as a style, but our live shows ebb and flow from reggae to island," he said. "There's a funky vibe with an emphasis on the lyrics."

Hollister also does a lot of work with children - from kindergarten to high school graduates, helping them write songs in workshops that can last from a few days to a week.

"Writing songs is one of the things that is so daunting for these kids. They hear the radio and think they can never do that," Hollister said. "Once you get them going, it's amazing to hear these opened-ended brains going nuts."

Hollister got the opportunity to work at Camp Oasis last summer with children who have Crohn's Disease.

"They are digestive diseases that are no fun to have or talk about in public," he said. "These kids are definitely the odd-one-out in normal life and have to take these medications and go to the bathroom all the time, but it just blew me away that all of them were so brave."

The campers wrote songs with Hollister that they performed for the other campers. They then recorded the songs onto CD, and each child got to take a copy home.

"There were a couple funny songs about always having to go poo, and there was one great rap Cabin 12 wrote," Hollister said. "The people went nuts over this song and it was the favorite song of the entire camp."