The day after Christmas 2004, Texas Music Hall of Fame inductee Eliza Gilkyson was channel-surfing at home when the other side of the world turned upside down. A 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck the west coast of Indonesia and the resulting damage ended the lives of 230,000 people in 14 countries and displaced more than 1.7 million from their homes. Gilkyson knew that she had to write about it.

“I was so profoundly affected and disturbed by my lack of connection to the tragedy in a very first world kind of way,” says Gilkyson in a phone interview.

The result was her haunting song, “Requiem,” in which she was able to pour out her grief and try to help the nations mourn their lost ones. Less than a year later, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and her song was revived as a rallying cry for healing in the damaged area. Gilkyson’s music touched millions of hearts and helped them to heal. And that’s what she likes best about music.

Another of her songs, “Vayan al Norte,” again helped to bridge the gap between people’s suffering and actions that could be taken. When a construction worker in Austin, Texas, died from sunstroke because of inaccessibility to clean drinking water, Gilkyson joined The Workers Defense Project and advocated to provide better working conditions in Austin. “I was so moved emotionally that I had to process it. I have a need to understand why these people suffer,” she says.

Gilkyson performed with Mary Gauthier and Gretchen Peters in “Three Women and the Truth,” May 12, Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem.

Gilkyson’s songs have been covered by artists like Joan Baez and Roseanne Cash, but the underlying themes of peace and honesty have been there since she released her first album in the year for which it was named, “Eliza ‘69.” As a child of the 1960s, Gilkyson began to write songs about the turbulence that she witnessed around her.

“It was like a veil was lifted and we all began to look outside ourselves. There was a feeling of solidarity and we questioned everything: male patriarchy, the government, and I realized it was more than about me.”

These days, Gilkyson has been working with her son and producer, Cisco Ryder, to bring her songs to YouTube.

“It used to be that you could put $10,000 or $15,000 into a video and they either sink or swim. But my son found a way to make it more affordable. He’s much hipper than I am,” she adds, laughing.

The most recent music video they made was for the song, “Fast Freight.” It depicts Gilkyson on guitar and her collaborator, Ray Bonneville, on harmonica, singing as trains whiz past them.

Gilkyson enjoyed the experience. “We had a lot of fun, but we got yelled at by a lot of train people.”

The song was originally composed by Gilkyson’s father, Terry Gilkyson, a singer-songwriter who composed music for Walt Disney in the 1950s and ‘60s, most notably “The Jungle Book” movie’s “The Bare Necessities.”

Gilkyson remembers her father performing his songs in front of Disney’s desk. “He actually wrote eight songs for that movie, but all except ‘Necessities’ were rejected for being too dark.”

Gilkyson hadn’t seen the new iteration of “The Jingle Book” (2016) as of this interview, but she plans to see it with her family. While the new film explores the darker side of the franchise, Gilkyson thinks it’s good to let the darkness have its place. “Culturally, I think it’s healthy to have more honesty in films.”

Honesty is a theme in Gilkyson’s tour which brought her to Bethlehem. The name of their tour, “Three Women and the Truth,” seems self-explanatory until one delves into what the truth really is. For Gilkyson, the truth must constantly be sought because everyone’s truth is different and audiences can sense exploration in the songs that are played.

“The kind of songwriters that we are, we find the deeply personal but universal truths that unite us. The theme of throwing a light on something is very prevalent in the way we write.”

Gilkyson, Gauthier and Peters enjoy traveling together to discover their truths. Touring together has taken their friendships to new levels onstage and off.

“The three of us have crashed and burned and lived to tell the tale. As women in the music industry, were programmed to compete, but we break through that stigma as artists together.”