Soothes my soul

It’s not readily obvious to those who’ve only recently visited my blog, but if there’s one thing that’s been a constant in my life, it’s music. I’ve been playing since I was old enough to hoist myself on a piano bench, and growing up, the only way I could fall asleep was to leave my stereo playing. (And the best way to wake me up was to shut it off. It drove my mom insane.)

 
In my mind, I think I naturally assign songs to certain moments or phases in my life, almost as if I’m compiling separate soundtracks for each event. There are songs, with words or otherwise, that manage to hit me hard every time I hear them, even 48 minutes into a “repeat single track” loop that ends up lasting half a day. I seem to instinctively attach something to every piece of music I enjoy, and if you ever even just casually mention your favorite song, that’ll be one of the things I’ll always remember about you.

 
So I thought I’d share something different with you today. Because:

1. I’m feeling a bit reflective.
2. So much is happening in the world.
3. I’m almost out of antibiotics.
4. I’ve been eating too much bread and I need to come clean.
5. My two burnt fingers look gross and they still hurt.
6. It’s cold and I haven’t been out in a while.
7. I need to do something else other than this three-day bread-making madness.

 
Some time ago, during an impromptu jam session with a few friends, we actually managed to play through a song without getting distracted halfway and mashing in snippets of old rock songs during the bridge. We started with a simple chord progression, a laid back acoustic guitar background, and slipped into “the zone” for a few minutes. There was nothing pre-planned, no sheet music, and no discussion of who comes in when. For that brief moment, everything just fell into place.

 
For the next few days after that, I couldn’t stop listening to the song. If we we were still back in the days of vinyl, I’d have worn that puppy out. And then I’d have to hit eBay for replacement needles for the phonograph. Except there was no eBay then, so I’d be stuck.

 
That was months ago, and today, I re-discovered the track as I was moving some files around. It’s nothing special, really, unless you were there in the room as the song wrote itself for us. It’s rough in some spots, and it’s a fairly simple chord progression. But I like it. It’s simple. Relaxing. It’s easy on the ears. And right now, it soothes my soul.

 
It has no title, but to me, of all the songs and instrumental works that I’ve ever written or helped write, this one is pretty special. Not just because of how it almost fell on our laps, but because … because … because that’s my son that you hear on the acoustic guitar. And there’s just something truly wonderful about creating something you love with someone you love.

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