Being intoxicated with art, or music,
emotions or ideas
is the gateway to the world of spirit,
to God and other dimensions
where the voice of the soul
speaks…
–the writer in me
Tag Archives: soul
JUST LISTEN TO IT!
March 23, 2009
A lot of amazing things have happened to me over the past few years–supernatural and mystical experiences. Many of the events involved concepts I wasn’t quite sure I believed in until they actually occurred in my life. They were so strange and wonderful that I wrote a book about them. Since much of what happened has to do with music–Sammy Hagar’s music to be exact, I will start there. Thank you for listening.
If it makes you happy, do more of it.
Music transports us to a place where words cannot go. It lifts our spirits, takes us on a ride—of fantasy or magnified reality.
It gives a name to the darkness of our pain, wings to the exuberance of our joy. It validates feelings we may not know how to articulate. It draws upon these emotions and by the very act of sharing, it renews our souls.
But music is more than a portrait of life. I think music is a separate entity with a “body” and “mind” of its own. This new creation comes to life through the performance of the vocals, the instruments, the lyrics, the notes and through the passion of the musicians as it merges with the personal experience of each listener.
Live music is even more powerful. When our favorite band or singer takes the stage, the outside world seems to stop. We forget our troubles. We are transported to another world.
And we can take that feeling wherever we choose to take it. We can leave it in the auditorium after the show, forget about it after we turn off the CD player, or we can absorb its energy into our hearts and use its influence as an inspiration for finding meaning in our lives.
Key to the Soul
December 5, 2010
This morning while I sat writing at my desk, I heard a sparrow chirp as it flew from the tree in my backyard and I wondered what it meant. I’m not talking about the fact that the bird was probably communicating with its own species, maybe warning fellow sparrows that “This is my territory, so don’t even think of moving in while I’m out looking for breakfast.”
I’m talking about what it meant to me and why I had heard its voice in the first place. It reminded me of when all our family members used to go camping together at Steamboat Lake. There was a species of bird native to the area there, one I’d never seen or heard before, and its song was “swee-pee-pee, swee-pee-pee…”
Being a lover of wild birds, my dad found this quite amusing and did his best to imitate the bird. My father has been gone for years now, but we still talk about the swee-pee-pee bird with fond memories of Dad’s impressions of it.
And now, I wonder what that bird’s song meant too. It’s as if, to my ears, there’s a hollowness that follows the sound—something the bird’s voice has left behind in me that germinates in my soul and begins to grow.
It’s the same with the stars. When I look at them, I’m filled with such awe that I wonder what their message is, because I am certain that they carry a message just for me. And the ocean and the rocks of Land’s End in Cabo. When I look at them too, there’s this soundless sound that comes to me—and it reverberates in my entire being, telling me there is something out there that I just have to know and if I listen hard enough, long enough or sincerely enough, I’ll be able to decipher its meaning.
It’s a language my head doesn’t understand, but my heart does. And somewhere within it, lies the key to my soul.
Voice of the Blues: Jonny Lang
July 21, 2010
Ah… Jonny…
Last night was the third time I’d seen Jonny Lang in concert. The first was when he was just beginning his career—a teenage boy with a guitar. I couldn’t figure out how such a big sound and big voice could come out of someone so young.
I still can’t. Jonny has as much soul as that of a man in his 60’s.
Some are just born with talent, I guess.
Jonny took the stage Tuesday, July 20, 2010, at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood, CO. It’s a small venue that holds about 1,000. Built in the 1920’s, it’s rather tattered, with brick walls and old paint, but it has character—the perfect place to play the blues.
Lang ripped through his repertoire, combining some slow and some faster songs and always, ALWAYS putting his heart and soul into each piece. It’s almost as if he’s in his own world up there onstage, getting so heavily into the sound that he’s not even aware of anyone else in the room. I don’t mean this in a bad way, because in order for others to be able to relate, an artist has to expose his or her soul with raw honesty. That’s when great art shows us parts of ourselves.
In this department, Jonny never disappoints.
His performance took me out of myself to the point where I leaned over and said to the man next to me, “You know it’s good when the music makes everything feel right with your soul.”
To a packed house, Lang played “Breakin’ Me,” “Turn Around,” “Red Light,” “Rack ‘Em Up,” and “I Am” to name a few. But my favorite was “Lie to Me,” which he started out acoustically, then switched to electric guitar and really kicked it in the ass. With his face writhing between agony and euphoria and sweat flinging off him, Jonny and his band tore the place up.
This is what the blues is all about.
Jonny Lang is what the blues is all about.
