H,
The songs we love also speak to us of the ancient things. The things
that will always be. Sometimes it is not even in words. A rising note can take
its place in an open heart and, somehow, alter feeling. In the most hopeless of
times songs can tell us that things pass. They can bring together and elucidate
the deeper things we all know exist but cannot somehow fathom.
I try to listen to these old voices, to find healing in the songs that offer
that balm. Music has always been that for me: the expression of the human soul
above the shackles that bind us to see hopelessness in a fallen earth. There is
much to be hopeless about if we keep our feet on the ground. Thank God we were
made to take flight.
There is no distinction for me. Genre is almost irrelevant. The truth of
the human heart will speak. If a thing is said with the heart it will show. When
the old “whiskey and guitar” god says: “I bargained for salvation/ and she gave
me a lethal dose/come in, she said/I’ll give you/shelter from the storm”, I know
exactly what he means. The eternal voice speaks in everything.