Music... my constant companion. My sister Steph supposedly sang before she could talk. My earliest memories include laying on the floor in the St. Paul house and watching the reel to reel as I listened to the music. Paige was 2 or 3 when we sang a trio at my uncles' wedding. Music has introduced me to friends, paid for my dinner, given my sisters one more thing to share. It has become one more language to speak when the years have taken traditional conversation from my great grandparents, and something to hypnotize my babies with before they know how to say one word. My parents would sing in the car on trips, they arranged music together, practiced together, Dad played guitar and learned to harmonize from mom. We made a "tape" when we were all in elementary school and then sang at camps, banquets, churches, prisons, outdoor venues and sold them. Mom got us all playing piano and Steph violin lessons. Steph ended up playing in the Edmonton Youth Orchestra at a very young age. When "band" became an option in school, mom told us all to play the drums. She wanted to hear us play when she came to the concert. She didn't want our sound buried in among the other flutes, trombones, clarinets. It wasn't for coolness that *all* of us took drums. It was so that mom could hear *her* kid in the band! We joined the choirs at church and school. Mom wrote music and poetry and we caught a glimpse of her faith when she sang the song she wrote "I'll Trust You Lord". It's from her that we all took the leap and continue to make the attempt at writing music. Dad would tell us never ending stories from his guitar, playing as he told the story and we were hooked early on. As teens we looked forward to the nights mom and dad would invite all their music friends over to sing and play. I remember laughing at their crazy songs like "King of the Road", "Ghost Riders in the Sky", "Sue City Sue". I also remember one get together when their good friend Anne Eagle sang. They were going around the circle and joining in on all the good songs. Anne was requested to sing a specific song. I don't remember which song it was but it was a praise song to God. She was sitting on the floor against the wall and just closed her eyes and started to sing. The sound was full and rich and filled the whole basement. My chest ached as she sang and the whole room sat in awed silence. Music has been passed on to me on 80's mix tapes, long ski-trips sharing earphones with friends, extended radio listening sessions locked away in bedrooms and recording what we could off of the radio when we didn't have means to buy it. I feasted on music by sifting through the record collection in the KSS music room and staying hours after school to listen to Bob Marley, Billy Holiday, Jaco Pastorious, Earth Wind and Fire, Manteca, Steve Gadd, staying out late at the coffee houses (Igor Okos and Cafe Safari) to jam with my sisters and friends on the drums and congas till the early hours. None of us were partiers or drinkers, but we soaked up the music. Our church choir was vibrant in those days as well singing powerful Brooklyn Tab songs and we got involved in the huge Christmas productions every year. These days, when my sisters come, we share new music we've written, songs we've discovered lately....It continues to be a kind of thread that joins each new generation to the last. So thankful for this treasure... Another offering to return to the One who gave the gift to begin with.
5 comments:
Yes - you've covered so many of my own memories here too, jess... love this.
Like the little sign marion gave me says, "if music be the food of love, play on". :)
I didn't include the time you caught me playing along to Twila Paris on my 5 cm long wood flute off key and just silently closed my bedroom door again with a smirk on your face, or the time you and Rochelle Fulford caught me trying to write out and sing the spanish words to one of Stevie Wonders' songs...Or the time you caught me bawling my head off to Beethoven... (that song is on my blog page. haa haa! ahh, good times!--j
I think i should just let you talk about all my memories - you have a much more gentle and kind memorybox than me :) - i thought we played drums because that way nobody had to buy ANOTHER instrument! Ha ha!!!
But so much of what you wrote here is part of my heart, too...
I remember learning parts with mom banging out the part, and having that alto line forever indelibly imprinted on my brain for the rest of my life :)... playing along to the 101 strings minus one tape (um... math?), i remember thinking WHY would anyone on purpose use those "backing tracks" when real instruments sound so much better, even if they are just plain bare piano instead of the full Gaither orchestra :)...
I remember having my breath taken away by Steve Green in the car over and over and then getting to sing backups for him with the choir in Evangel, and he was human :)...
I remember Keith Green when i fell in love with Jesus, and feeling like someone knew JUSt how i felt...
I still can't sing "Knocks me off my feet" without almost crying with happiness and excitement...
Stevie is really unbelievable isn't he?! :) So much to choose to enjoy in life isn't there!-j
And I remember having taught you all the first two lines of Fairset Lord Jesus, in three parts and when Leroy came home from work, you sang it for him and almost knocked him over. And I remember suggesting the arrangement for the medley "Take my Life"..."and Here I am wholy available" at a time when I was worried about the possibility of Stephanie being drawn away from the Lord, then going outside, to work in the yard, tears streaming, listening to her play and sing it on the piano...and the tears springing at the first practice of the Edmonton Youth orchestra. I remember Paige singing in the Children's musicals and Jessie, jamming on the congas in Waikiki...and the Darren Jarman Jazz quartet.
In a way it sort of ruined it for Leroy and I when we started taking you girls along. No more long drives alone together solving world and family problems...haha...now we had to referee on the way to and from banquets and such...never knowing when someone might fall asleep, or put gum up their nose...haha...but wow....how sweet to take you along and hear your sweet music. And now....how wonderful to see you nurturing the talents and skills of your own little ones...Just love that fiddling and singing.
mama
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