End of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere Part 1
September 14, 2011
So many periods of my life have soundtracks. I was fortunate enough to come across some mixes I made for an old buddy who now lives in Greenville, South Carolina. Mike is the type of guy who takes care of things. Listening to the songs, especially grouped together was like going into a time machine. Music can bring you right back to that feeling and that time from when it was prominent in your life. It is why I continually seek for new music. When I was younger it would sometimes be classics that my father or brother passed on to me. That happens from time to time with something that slips through the cracks and was missed when I was younger. You might think, ‘I always wanted to be a bigger Charlie Parker fan, but…’ But that’s not how life works. You either are or you are not. You either have done or have not done.
July 4th in the city of Brotherly Love
I cannot stress how cool the 4th of July concert was on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. With The Roots as the house band, the stage could do no wrong. It was old and young, black and white, urban and suburban and all of the above who enjoyed the OJs start the Love Train, Boyz to Men sing of Motown Philly and Michael McDonald impress the huge crowd (at least 100, 000), possibly because there was recognition of a Nate Dog and Warren G riff.
Overall, I forgot how much I enjoyed that day in Philly every year. It was one of the best days to have your place in the Art Museum neighborhood. I do miss city life for many reasons, but mostly because I spend so much time alone, doing my thing. And living in the city, I never felt alone. I can’t say the same for rural New Zealand!
‘Never gonna break, never gonna break’
..are words that linger in my head from my trip down into the Mid-Atlantic and South Eastern USA. I particularly will remember Charlottesville, Virginia that way. I was heading up to my hotel room and listening to songs and half of songs between sessions of a very good conference in July. The heat that weekend was a dominant force, a reality that could not be avoided. The excitement of pouring my wine for so many new people and meeting some very talented, passionate winemakers and writers fueled the constant trips up and down from the lobby to the 8th Floor. But for the rest of my life when I hear the lyrics ‘never gonna break, never gonna break’ I’ll be right back downtown Charlottesville walking the cobblestones with sweat beading up on my temples, resting in my beard.
Music, for me, is a sense memory. Like smelling fresh bread and being brought back immediately to my grandmother’s kitchen making pizzelles, on a patterned grill press. Music does the same. When I heard ‘Unlikely Cowboy’ I was right back in 2007. A flux year. The year I decided to move from the Art Museum area of Philadelphia to Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Heartache, wonder and excitement were all rolling around as I tangled with a goodbye to new friend and a new start of finally living my life. The best music brings you to times when you most needed it. Times when you were scared or lost, even if you weren’t aware of how scared and lost you actually are. Actions and results show more true than the daily garbage that can fill your brain. So I am able to look back and feel back to those times and have a feeling on a whole when I hear a certain song. And that song can lead to a revisiting of other music in my life at the time.
Today’s music
So today I’m in a period of new music. Always searching for a new album and a new sound that fits. I am aware that many times I choose melancholy. It somehow drives me . Feeling down sometimes keeps me happy. It must come out. And that’s probably why I listen to the kind of music that exists because it has to. Music that at its core relates to my human experience. My soundtrack today is much different than it was two months ago. Sure there are still those songs on my Ipod, but they’re not in the rotation in the frequency that they once were. It must progress or I will go stale. July was dominated by Bon Iver’s new album. Today it’s Beirut’s new album, a bit of Sallie Ford and a recent flashback to Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson.
