I like a very wide variety of music.
From AC/DC to Dvorak.
It all depends on my mood, and I have many moods. A wide variety of moods.
After a really trying [difficult] work day I stopped at a Starbucks and read my book for a while, and then got in my car for the ride home. I flipped the dial on my radio and landed on our local country FM station. Instantly the chorus of a song caught my attention and I appreciated the honesty and clarity of the voice. It was truly beautiful, and what the guy was singing about made me think of my own father, now passed away. So I turned the volume up and even started singing along, even though I had never heard the tune in my life before. I made a note of the refrain, which was "they don't make 'em like that anymore" -- so I could look it up on Youtube when I got home. I found it, just as I was retrieving my phone messages from the day. There was one from my sister, about some "news" -- so I quickly called her.
Turns out one of our family's dearest friends died just yesterday. Good ol' Pastor Ness -- a man I had worked with many times when I myself was in the Christian ministry, decades ago in another lifetime.
His 88 years on earth were spent loving God as sincerely as I think anyone could ever humanly accomplish. At the time she was telling me about this, the song from Youtube was already playing quietly on my computer. The guy was singing, "There's something 'bout that generation. These days I think we need 'em… more than we ever did before. But they don't make 'em like that anymore."
I'll admit, country music [in general] can be guilty of a penchant for hearkening back to a sort of idealizing of the past, usually with a steel-guitar twangin' away at your pancreas. But, that aside, I can't help but think there is a lot of truth to the general gist of the song. And the guy's voice is just incredible. His name is Jason Blaine and he's CANADIAN!
Just like ME!
Whether or not you're a fan of country music at all, I place the song here for you to have a listen yourself. It's as "country" as a big ol' wheat field with a tractor in the distance. Maybe it will touch you in a similar way to how it has touched me, this cold Thursday night in November.
Very sorry for your loss of your family friend. It's very neat when you happen to hear a song that corresponds so closely with your personal emotional need at the time!
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about Pastor Ness. He sounds like he was a good man.
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