The Music Last Night

The Music Last Night April 5, 2025 I thought I'd share with you about the music last night. It's on my mind and I'm up before full daylight, so I'm going to do this while I'm thinking about it. First of all, music, as you may know, is a powerful force in this world, for good or for evil. Well, actually, everything in the hands of a human, is a powerful force in this world for good or for evil, but I will try to stay on topic. I'm drinking my tea, it's morning, and I woke up thinking about these things. Actually, first of all, is why am I doing this? Because a human is a powerful force in this world for good or for evil, just like music is a powerful force for good or for evil, and on November 19, 2024, God spoke to my heart and basically said, "You are going to write every day." So, that is why I am doing this. I don't know about you, but I need to think things through. (I'm thinking of a T-shirt--or is it "tee shirt?") a 5th or 6th grade girl was wearing the other day that said something like, "Hold on a minute while I overthink this." I need to get that shirt. Anyway, the music last night. This should not take long. Okay, they did one song I loved and one song I hated. The rest of them were familiar in melody and vibe but I couldn't tell you the name of most of them. They were (or a lot of them were) from the 70s, I think, which is when I was playing music myself and didn't listen to a lot of it; that is, I was learning to play country, mostly, and this group was not country. The players were all old men. Okay, wait. The song I loved was, "Never Ending Song of Love" by Delaney Bramlett (1971). I have to sing it for my ladies. My ladies are the women who listen to me the third Monday of the month at a retirement center here. I mostly sing old country love songs that I either didn't learn in the 70s but always wanted to, or songs I sang in the 70s. So before I started writing I wrote down the lyrics. It's going to be easy, don't even need to write down the chords, and it has basically only a verse and a bridge with a variation on the “second” verse and it's over and over (as in "never ending") and fades out at the end, which means I can end it however I want to. There are actually songs I could sing forever, but you can't do that because people probably wouldn't love it as much as you do... The song I hated I am not even going to tell you what it is because a lot of you might like it, but I can't stand it. There are songs like that. It is one of the reasons I don't like to sing in bars anymore, because if you sing in bars you have to sing what people shout at you that they want to hear, even if you can't stand the song. I love singing songs I love. I love singing songs about what I want to sing about which is mostly love and sorrow, one way or the other, and songs about Jesus, which I mostly write. It's very interesting how you come up with things to sing about, and why you sing them. Anyway, so this band, I couldn't remember which one it was, that plays at this coffee house a lot, actually, although they're not singing there again until June, I think, which is weird, because it seems to me they've played there several times this year, but maybe they've only played there every three months or so, I don't know. Time goes so fast anymore. The older you get, the faster it goes. So, I've been a Christian longer than I wasn't a Christian, and I don't like to sing in bars. I would sing in bars if God asked me to. I used to think I wanted to sing in this particular coffee shop, but now I'm not so sure. I don't know if I can sing 50 different songs anymore. I sing for an hour once a month now, except for at church, and I only have to sing about 21 songs. Okay, they played one song I loved and one song I hated. I wanted to plug my ears, but I forgot to bring my ear plugs. Otherwise, I absolutely loved listening to the bass player. He was just so smooth and so mellow and it just sounded great, and I need to practice because I now play the bass once a month at church. Why do I need to tell you this? I don't, except, as I said, music is a powerful force in the world, for good or for evil, and, obviously, I don't want to be a force for evil. I have heard this band before, but I never really heard the bass until last night. A couple of other things. Two of the guys sing. One of them sounds like Neil Young and the other one, when he talks, he sounds like Mr. Rogers, but when he sings he does not sound like Mr. Rogers. He sings the more tender songs, but he also sings lead (I think) on the song that I hate, which is unfortunate for me, because I like his voice, but I hate the song. It creates a bit of cacaphony in my head. Their harmony is beautiful. Their guitar playing is okay, and they have a steel guitar player whom I have met because I used to play with a friend of his, and he has played with this friend of mine, and that's how I met him, when I used to go hear the friend I used to play with when he was playing in a bar--the American Legion or the VFW or something like that, not the bike bar in North Topeka. Now, I'm getting off topic, again. Why do retired veterans want to go to bars to listen to drinking music? Now that is a question to ponder. But I do not want to ponder it this morning. Is there anything else I wanted to tell you about this band? They were too loud. My friends had decided on a place to sit far away from them, although I think they are almost louder in the back of the room. Isn't that strange? Not louder, actually. Still too loud, but I could actually hear them sounding good when they were sounding good, but I was almost able to talk without getting hoarse. I'm just so glad I found Jesus (or he found me, however you want to think about that). I absolutely love that song, "Never Ending Song of Love" by Delaney and Bonnie. The 70s were the last time I loved any popular music, I think. We old timers like to say the music was better in the 70s and it's pretty obvious. Why? Because the kids still love to listen to the music of the 70s. What's interesting to me is most of the songs last night were familiar sounding but I didn't know what any of them were except the one I loved and the one I hated. The one I loved I could listen to all night and the one I hated I wanted to plug my ears. And now I am hearing "Spring Waltz" by Chopin, and I want to share it on Facebook. Why do I do this? I don't even know. This song is bringing me to tears, and it's the first thing in the morning. It's not even light yet. This is a new thing for me on a Saturday morning, because of starting to try to go to bed earlier. Today is the book sale at the library where you buy cheap books on Saturday and Sunday once every three months or so, and the Friday night before if you pay $20 a year you can be a "Friend of the Library" and get to stand in line for 45 minutes before they open the sale on Friday night. Music, as I said, is a powerful force for good or for evil. I will not go into the theology of that at this time. All I want to say is, Jesus wants you to know him, like Keith Green said in his talk before he sings "Make My Life a Prayer to You." You can look it up. Good morning, friends, this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. I really wish I could do this better, I wish I could do everything better that I do, to give glory to Jesus Christ, although you may never hear my songs, some people will, and God will hear and remember every one of them, as he remembers every tear and keeps them in a bottle. He is the author of everything beautiful, everything true, he's the Creator of me and the Creator of you, And I think that's all for now. I love you and Jesus loves you. Whatever we do, let us do it in love. Our God reigns!