Awakening

Music is something that was around me as a child. I listened to my parents records and as I grew older I listened on and off to the playlist of the day on the radio but was never enthralled by too many artists. Brother Anonymous and Baby Sis took piano lessons for a time and I followed along for a short year. They said I had 'the touch' but it was something that I never followed up on. As I grew older, I rarely listened to music. It had no pull on me.

Then a funny thing happened. Well, not 'ha ha' funny. More along the lines of peculiar in a sad sort of way funny. The senior voice of this blog, North of 50 became ill. At the time we did not know the extent of his illness. With that in mind, I began to search the great world of the www for a recording of Danny Boy. With our Irish heritage, it was a favorite of his. My plan was to have Baby Sis make a recording singing 'Donny Boy'. She has a lovely singing voice and I had planned to give it to him on St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, his illness took a quick turn and we were not able to fulfill the plan.

But during my search for a memorable 'Danny Boy', I stumbled across an absolutely phenomenal rendition of the song by a group I'd never heard of. Celtic Woman. I sat listening to this rendition for nearly an hour playing it over and over again. Somehow, this made a fundamental imprint and reawakened a desire to listen. With Youtube the search for discover was easy and the sounds of music was reawakened within my soul.

But it was not just any music. It was lyrical melodies with clear notes and tones that touched the heavens. So much of modern music now seems to be just noise. At the time of his passing, for some reason country music entered the picture. I'm still not sure how as I had never listened to country my entire life. For the next two years my car radio almost never left the local country station. However the pull of Celtic Woman continued. As I would write across my keyboard in the late evenings, their angelic voices surrounded my thoughts. It was soothing. For the first time in my life, music was alive for me. As of late, mixed along with Celtic harmonies the classics have come alive. A week ago I wrote to the symphonies of Vivaldi, something that would never have happened even a year ago.

If you follow me, you might occasionally see a posting link to some of my favorite Celtic Woman songs and videos when the group was only a few years old. Their members have changed, cycled through as the women have grown and gone on to their own singing careers. However, I shall be eternally indebted to their early years as they have reawakened something I never realized I had lost.

Celtic Woman

And I am eternally thankful.