HAGERSTOWN — Local tourism officials could have produced another brochure about Washington County’s Civil War history.

But Tom Riford wanted to do it in song.

When Riford, president and CEO of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, started talking with local musician Jennie Avila about her interest in writing some music related to the war, they decided to produce an entire CD.

Avila relied on local Civil War history and resources to produce the CD.

Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg inspired her to write a song based around a ghost story and the song “A Bullet Lives On” was based on a carved Civil War bullet collection at the Boonsborough Museum of History.

Civil War soldiers sometimes carved bullets into items like whiskey bottle stoppers or a fish sinker, Avila said.

Doug Bast, owner of the museum, recalled asking Avila how she was going to craft a song out of carved bullets.

She ended up creating a “beautiful” song, Bast said Thursday afternoon during a CD release party for Avila’s recording at The Gourmet Goat on North Potomac Street.

The Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau paid for the cost of recording the CD, titled “The Special 150th Anniversary Edition of Civil War Songs by Jennie Avila.” The release of the CD, which coincides with the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, W.Va., will be an effective way to “wave the flag” about Washington County history, Riford said.

About 30 people gathered around a bar at the back of the restaurant as Avila and other musicians, including her fiancee Stephen Wright, performed the songs on her CD. Avila played an acoustic guitar and Wright played ceramic drums he made.

Avila, who has been a musician for 30 years and who has played throughout the East Coast, said she recorded the CD last summer. She got some help on the CD from some other musician friends, like Robbie Carruthers, who played fiddle on the intro to “A Bullet Lives On.”

Avila teaches art at Hagerstown Community College and also plays in a trio of women called “Hot Soup.”

The CD can be obtained at www.marylandmemories.com or at the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau’s welcome center at 6 N. Potomac St.