Music is what feelings sound like!
I heard that quote on the radio yesterday morning and thought it was superb! So true to me on so many levels…
As a musician, to express my soul, heart, lungs, and skills through playing music, for me these days it is with a guitar and my voice, with a little ukelele and washboard on the side! To play songs that have some sort of meaning to me is cathartic, can be energizing in an inspiring way, and like a therapeutic hug.
And listening. To watch and hear someone play a song, when they play it with their whole being, you can feel it. It can be riveting, like on the edge of my chair, it can make me cry, swoon, laugh…feelings.
And don’t certain songs bring memories back to you? Especially from my teen years, the hours I spent just sitting and listening to albums, singing in my room, and teaching myself how to play guitar. Way more time than I spend now listening. And when I hear those songs from that age, I remember all the words, even if I haven’t heard them in 20 or 30 years. And I can evoke memories of friends and events too, conjuring up old boyfriends or parties or concerts that went with that song. Those formative years…
Songs can still do that to me.
Now I get a giddy high playing tunes with friends, in our circle of song, passing the turn, we each play a song to share. Laughter, wrong notes, new versions, great harmonies, wine sipping, and in my case, bringing back songs from before I was born. The old country songs from the legends no longer with us, honoring those traditions–Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, Hank Snow, George Jones, and those who are still kickin it — Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Dale Watson. So many songs… like adrenalin shots into my heart.
And a mean boot scootin’ I can do too, whether it be a partnered 2 step or a repetitive line dance… Because I love to dance!
I just freakin’ love to dance…
I have to dance!
And music moves not only my heart and soul, but when my body feels it, I can’t stop moving. I remind myself of my mother now, as I sing and dance around the house. She has always, and still does, sing and dance like there is no tomorrow. Wonder where I got it! Can’t stop when that tune kicks in and I have to move my feet and my hips.
The dance, my dance.
Same for the other styles of music that I love to dance to. Beautiful world music, like the tunes of Gypsy Caravan, Mizna, and now the Caravan Project. My man Jeff shares his voice through those strange but hypnotic sounding and aptly named horns like the mijwiz, the zurna, arghul, snake charmer. Add the deeply resonating heartbeat of the drums and whoa, can’t stop me again. This time with a more sinuous, gliding movement of that feminine bellydance, with isolations of body parts layered over undulations and shimmies. Give me a trancey walk to a deep didgeridoo wail…heaven…
And that puts a smile on my face, a shimmer in my eyes, a quickened pulse of excitement…
and that feels so good.
And I want to feel good.
Always…
Desires…
So many styles of music, so many ways of expressing the soul…and finding the songs that turn me on and turn me loose…
Name that tune…
If you haven’t heard the latest CD that came out in 2015, get your hips moving with these songs...
