A Random Remembrance

Alan & I

Music has always spoken to me.  Since my earliest days it has had the power to influence my moods and effect my memories.  It seems that lately the lyrics to songs both old and new have been opening my ears and my mind to new insights into the human condition, and especially to my own.  I have spent many hours in recent weeks with my I-pod. I have smiled, I have cried and I have remembered.  I have been lifted to spiritual highs, and revisited the joys and the pains of relationships. Music is often my emotional medicine.

Thursday afternoon of this past week I was hit with a particularly random musical memory from around 1975.  I attended a Winter Camp at Quaker Lake after Christmas, and met this guitar playing legend named Alan Brown.  One late night in the Campfire Room of the lodge a bunch of guys were playing and singing, and Alan played a song called I'm Easy.  Never having heard the song (even though it was about to win an Oscar for best song from the movie Nashville!) I was simply entranced.  Alan sang it with such power and feeling that I assumed he wrote it, and was in awe of his talent.  Even after I discovered the truth, the beauty of his singing and the power of that lyric stayed with me a long time.  

Many of my friends and regular readers know that Alan Brown went on to become one of my very best friends, and a guy I was blessed to play and sing with many times over the years.  But I have to confess I had not thought of the song in years until Thursday. It popped into my head and soon I was remembering that moment (and all of the lyrics) from all those years ago.  I checked YouTube and found this video, which I share with you today.  Enjoy. Pay close attention to the the words- 'cause that's what cool people do.  And never underestimate the power of music...