Words and Music

When I was a younger man, I spent about ten years touring the country as a folk singer. I played a lot east coast colleges, Rocky Mountain ski resorts, fine dining and drinking establishments and more than my share of local pubs with…well…questionable clientele and reputations. In my life, music has always owned my heart. I’ve had the privilege of singing lyrics that can stun the soul. And it has never failed to amaze me how, when in the right hands, words can capture moments in time and save them forever. There are songwriters that can paint scenes and share thoughts and emotions that can take us places we never knew we could go. Words in the right hands. Like Michael Murphy’s…”In the mist and smoke by the twisted oak, we’ll listen to the branches whisper “ from Dancing in the Meadow. You can feel the damp, cool October night air surround you. Or Joni Mitchell’s…”When the wind turns traitor cold and shivering trees are standing in a naked row” from Urge for Goin’. Can you see the frozen, silver moon? Words in the right hands can help us name our own joys and sorrows. Gorden Lightfoot’s…”She walked away into the night, I lost her in the misty streets, a thousand months a thousand years, when other lips will kiss her eyes, a million miles beyond the moon…that’s where she is” from The Last Time I Saw Her Face. A heart…breaking. Or John Sebastian’s…”Floating along with a whimsical twinkling in her strange green eyes” from She’s a Lady. I knew you. Words in the right hands can give us amazing gifts.