Just some thoughts I need to get out of my head…First of all, the video of Marc Martel singing "Somebody to Love" that has gone viral for the Queen Extravaganza contest is one to which I keep returnin...

Just a quick note from me… As artists, we are in a climate where music is stolen from us, without our consent…Art we made is given away by thieves for free on the internet. I hate to advertise this...

The sun is finally shining here, and it looks like summer just might be on her way...She's been slow to arrive this year...It has felt like March, but it's the middle of May. I spoke and sang at a ret...

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I saw a young woman…an Asian woman, although I could not tell from which country she came. It was at a food court in the airport in Minneapolis…The cold, generic kind who’s fast food counters are repeated like postage stamps on countless envelopes all over the airport. She had a red appliqué on her MacBook, but that’s not why I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She was pouring over papers, with her nose only inches away, and crying. Alone at her table, with a spattering of travelers at tables surrounding her, she sobbed, wiped her eyes, sobbed again. My heart was so moved with compassion. What little I know of Asian culture includes an understanding that intense public expression of emotion is unusual…I knew she must be very distraught. I walked over to speak with her and asked her if she was okay (clearly she wasn’t) She sat up and tried to pull herself together. I asked her if I could buy her a coffee. No. I didn’t know what to say, but I couldn’t ignore her. I told her several times that everything would be alright. I blessed her. I prayed for her in my heart. Could I have done more? I hope she will be encouraged in her inmost being and experience the presence of God in a profound and life-changing way.

A woman came of from the “Wok n Roll”. She said something in Asian and they exchanged a few words I didn’t understand. A man also approached me and said he was a Math professor who noticed she had been studying math…Could he help her? I encouraged him to ask her. When I walked past a few minutes later, they were still chatting. I wonder if he was able to help her in the way she needed. It seems to me that there are angels around her today, and that God is in pursuit of her. He sees her distress. He prompts us to go, even if we feel inadequate to do anything.

I’d like to imagine that she has a mind that will change the world…She will discover cures for diseases or devise a way to renew the economy or invent a time-travel machine…I don’t know. Maybe she’s just a soul, like we all are, in need of people prop her up today as she walks her road, whatever it is and however spectacular or unspectacular.

I am surrounded by people speaking on their cell phones, connecting with people in other parts of the country, en route to somewhere else. It’s loud and impersonal, and seems really inappropriate, frankly. Someone close by is grieving today, distressed. I want the world to stop for her.

Well, the schedule for my writing trip is nearly completed with writers, and I am very excited about this! I'll be writing with people whose music has touched me and who I respect a lot, as well as so...

The other night I suffered insomnia...again. I had a song swimming in my head, and I just let it percolate. I fell asleep just before 4AM, and as soon as I woke up in the morning, I wrote it down. Ris...

Yesterday I had the chance to go to two Winnipeg venues, one for a meeting and one for a show. I thought about all of the performers that have graced the stages for decades now...there is an energy there, a spirit of music history; of hopeful and sometimes broken hearts.

Admittedly, I catch American Idol here and there...the now decade old 'venue' for new hopefuls to have their hearts broken. There is some crazy talent on that show. I know some people who hate it and find it utterly exploitive of young people. I suppose there is an argument to be made for that. But we frequent the show for the same reason we go out to hear live music, don`t we? Isn`t it that we want to be caught up in a surreality for a while; lifted out of ourselves and in the "moment" of music and the story being spun from the stage?

The beauty of hearing it live though, might be that chance to sit for a while (or dance, or stand, or eat, or drink, or sing along) in a moment that will never be recaptured again. Sure, it might be videotaped and pinned up on YouTube...Not the same. The warmth of other bodies, the sounds of chairs scraping across well-worn floors as people adjust themselves to see the artist take the stage, pick up her guitar and bare her soul...The smell, sight, sound, touch of people who make a one-time community in that instant, experiencing something so special and leaving a piece of their energy to add to the history and spirit of the venue. Photos and old posters on the walls hint at this, of days gone by, of magic moments..."I saw `Neil Young` play at...Amazing"

All this to say: there is nothing like hearing music live.

 

I'm just reflecting, I guess. Feeling like a tree that's been split down the middle these days...I think it's just a "human" thing...Not that I'd know what it's like to be super-human. So many artists...

I'm just reflecting, I guess. Feeling like a tree that's been split down the middle these days...I think it's just a "human" thing...Not that I'd know what it's like to be super-human. So many artists...