Life Changes - But I Still Have The MUSIC!

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on ARTFIRE

You may wonder - well, WHAT???

It's been a while since I have been in here.  Since late July I have been working on a Life Change that has taken a lot of work and time -- overall it is very good for me, but there were problems with it along the way.

But through it all -- with my trusty computer, my ipod shuffle and my itunes -- I had the MUSIC I wanted all through it!!

I can't remember when MUSIC wasn't a major part of my life.  Of course, I had a Father who had sung since his childhood -- and he sang around me all the time.  I grew up with all kinds of MUSIC -- and I definitely have my favorites.

Here is where itunes and my ipod shuffle come in.

Oh - since I was a kid, I had albums of MUSIC.  My Uncle Saul gave me an album of the MUSIC from Peter Pan and I still remember it.  We always had a record player and a selection of albums - I grew up with Classical Music, Musicals -- and various types of Folk Music.  I collected them throughout my life - now they are CD's or just digital downloads!!

But those are whole albums -- which I still highly appreciate and buy.  After all, when an artist puts together an album -- very often, that album tells a story or is a "song cycle" or is just on some theme, but there is usually a purpose to a whole album.

But ipods -- I love my ipod shuffle!!  I can put individual pieces I want to hear -- and I can make playlists with the pieces in a certain order -- or I can just load all these songs on it -- and listen to it on Random, so I have a surprise with every song it plays!!

So, from some of the CD's I have, I have chosen some of the songs and loaded them on my ipod shuffle, so I can hear these "favorites" when I listen.  And the great thing about an ipod shuffle is that you can attach it to whatever you are wearing and listen as you go about doing things.

My "favorites" change -- why I do not know.  Mood???  Life??? Aesthetics???

Well -- what I feel like listening to changes!!!

I have figured out that the Vocals and the playing of the instruments have something to do with my favorites.

Here are few of my favorite lines from my current musical favorites -- which helped me through this recent period of change!  You have to realize that when I read the lines, I hear the music and the songs in my head!   

DAN FOGELBERG - From the song "Ever On" - on the Album "The Wild Places" copyright 1990

"May the trail rise up to greet you
 May your heart rejoice in song
 May the skies be fair above you
 As you journey ever on.
 ....
"May your love be there to guide us
 May it always keep us strong
 May we walk within your footsteps
 As you lead us ever on"
"Ever On ....

GORDON LIGHTFOOT - From the song "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" - on the Album "Gord's Gold" copyright 1975

"We have opened up the soil with our teardrops and our toil
  Oh, there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
  When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
  Long before the white man and long before the wheel
  When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
  When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
  And many are the dead men .... too silent to be real"

LEO KOTKE - his arrangement of "Cripple Creek" on the Album, "The Best of Leo Lotke" -- his fine pickin' says it all!!

WOODY GUTHRIE - From the song "Talking Dust Bowl Blues (Alternate Version) on the Album, "Dust Bowl Ballads" - re-publication of the original 1940 Album in 2000 by Buddha Records.

"That stew was so thin you could read a magazine right through it
  Always have thought and always have figured that if it had been just a little bit thinner
     there here politicians could have seen through it"

Note about WOODY GUTHRIE:  My Father introduced me to him when I was a kid and I just loved Woody's singing, harmonica playing and guitar playing -- and his stories and his sense of humor.  Here are a few notes from the Album, "Dust Bowl Ballads".  First from Dave Marsh in May 2000:  "So these songs are not only historical, they are history itself, history being that which links present to future.  That is why, sixty years after they were recorded, Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads still deserve their place among the greatest American stories and songs."  Second, from Woody Guthrie's Original Liner Notes:  "This bunch of songs ain't about me, and I ain't a going to write about me, 'cause every time I start to do that, I find that I run out of material. .... Sing as loud and as long as you like, but don't mention my name.  Take it easy, but take it.  True as the Average - Woody Guthrie"

WHATEVER IS GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE -- DON'T FORGET THE MUSIC -- WHATEVER MUSIC YOU CHOOSE!!  TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN!!!