Our Story

It started with a nap

In 1985, a daycare provider asked Terry Woodford for help getting the kids to sleep at naptime. Terry was a hit record producer, songwriter, and publisher with more than two decades in the music business. He had no idea the request would become his life’s work.

His idea was simple: record a real human heartbeat and use it as the rhythm for traditional nursery songs. Working at his Wishbone Recording Studio with Brandon Barnes, a three-time Grammy-nominated songwriter and musician, he created arrangements that were simple but sophisticated, meant to carry the warmth in the singers’ voices.

When the recordings were tried in a hospital newborn nursery, nurses reported that most of the crying babies settled to sleep within a couple of minutes.

From the nursery to the ICU

Later that year, Terry visited a cardiac intensive care unit where nurses had started playing the lullabies for infants and children recovering from heart surgery. They were eager to show him how quickly a frightened baby could settle. Rest is part of healing, and the nurses felt the music was helping their young patients get it.

That visit changed his direction. In 1987, Terry left the music business to focus full time on Heartbeat Lullabies and on getting them to the people who needed them.

Where it’s used today

Heartbeat Lullabies have been used in more than 8,000 hospitals and special care centers, and in over 3.4 million homes, where tired parents play them to help little ones wind down and sleep.

Because constant crying is a major stressor for caregivers, the recordings have also found a place in family support work. More than 1.5 million copies have been purchased by the Department of Defense, public health departments, hospitals, insurance companies, and child abuse prevention organizations to share with parents who could use extra support.

Comfort beyond the nursery

Over the years, parents began writing to say the recordings seemed to soothe their dogs, too. Animal care providers noticed the same thing, and that led to Canine Lullabies, which Terry provides free on request to shelters, humane societies, and animal clinics.

Heartbeat Lullabies have also been used with older adults. In a small study, 15 residents living with dementia and Alzheimer’s listened to the recordings for 30 minutes, twice a week, for six weeks. Researchers observed reduced anxiety and fewer dementia-related behaviors among participants.

About the founder

Terry Woodford began making music in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in 1962. As a producer, publisher, recording engineer, and songwriter, he worked with artists including The Commodores, The Temptations, The Supremes, Jimmy Buffett, Alabama, Hank Williams Jr., Wayne Newton, Barbara Mandrell, and John Kay of Steppenwolf. He twice served on the board of governors of the Nashville Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and chaired the Alabama Music Hall of Fame board for five years, during which a four-million-dollar museum was built in Tuscumbia to honor the state’s music achievers. He also co-founded the first four-year music business degree program in the country at the University of North Alabama.

Terry holds a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and a master’s degree from the Institute of Textile Technology. He also completed continuing education courses at the Mind and Body Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School.

Today he speaks nationally and internationally to nurses, doctors, social workers, parents, and care providers about how music can help calm frightened children and adults. He has appeared on CBS, TNN, CBC, the BBC, and The 700 Club, and has been featured in more than 400 TV, radio, and newspaper stories.

Contact: terry@audiotherapy.com

Terry Woodford, 1985 - Wishbone Recording Studio, Muscle Shoals, AL