music

my relationship with music is shifting (see previous post) and its amazing.  i'd always heard about and talked to people who talked about "their music" in a hushed, reverential tone.  never understood it though.

Fiddlin' on top of a fire-breathing dragon 

it started with re-discovering greg brown.  I listened to my parents greg brown records when i was about 10 years old and on; I saw him play live when i was but a wee lass.  And that voice, those slow funky chords, or groovin' fast chords, still just get me down deep.  Pull out something sweet and strong and delicious.  I listened to him solidly training to NY for the 10 day meditation course 2 weeks ago, and then he sang to me all through the course.  When i plugged in my ipod in the car afterward, it was the yummiest of reunions.

Then came Johnny Cash.  Listening to those prison albums (he recorded an album of a show at Folsom Prison and one at San Quentin), to his deep southern twang and the guys just going' NUTS in response...and then there's him and June Carter (this video is from the San Quentin show).

In the zone w/one of my all-time favorite musical buddies...

We're going to start a bluegrass band when I return to Twin Oaks, and I am so excited to dive into this music again!  Last weekend I re-learned a few guitar chords and got back in touch with the fun of guitar chords after YEARS of melody fiddle.  I'm slowly learning to play more rhythmic fiddle stuff.  And I'm starting to sing, something I've always loved and always told myself i couldn't.

But the best part is that instead of pressuring myself all day to practice scales, chords, etc. and then finally either breaking down or resisting admirably, I'm listening to music all day and am slowly shifting to just playing along with it.

The other best part is the feeling of a constant companion--the bit that merits the hushed, reverential tones.  I get it now; I can never truly feel alone as long as I have this body of amazing music to listen to, and increasingly, inside me.