In Endless Song

"Through all the tumult and the strife i hear that music ringing, It sounds an echo in my soul, how can i keep from singing." -from "How Can I Keep From Singing", a quaker hymn


Our lives are filled with music:the beating of hearts,the honking of horns,fax machines, toilet bowl flushes, boiling water, hammering nails. check books ripping, debit cards swiping, keyboards tapping, ran plopping, 16 wheelers driving on busted tires,ca clunk ca clunk, grocery bag crinkles, the thump of the gas hose telling you your fill up has finished, the buzz of news on the television, the static of the radio. Church hymns, dance clubs, birthday parties, commercial kitchens, funeral parlors, late saturday pickins. work radio, elevator radio, commercial jingles, kwanza festivals, bar mitzvahs, weddings, the clank of silverware against soap against brillo pads and china.
All around us music.
Touches everyone.
Touches every heart.
Touches every tongue.

In our time of birth and carrying us into death: music guides, renews, transforms, and refreshes our spirits. Like a stranger said to me once," you not singin' you not livin'. "

I started this article around Christmas thinking of how much Christmas music affects us as individuals. I asked around to different individuals what their favorite Christmas time songs were. It was great to watch as people searched their memories and hearts to find what epitimized that season for them and no doubt, everyone had at least a few to name even if they could not nail down a definitive 'favorite'.

The time for Christmas is long past, but the time for music is ever present. It is strange how so many of us begin to loose the sense for the need of music as we get older and how much we do not realize how deficient we have become when we have gone a while without it.

I read a book that documented a walkabout with a tribe of aborigines in the bush of Australia. Some of my favorite recollections were of the end of their days where the the family would sit down together and gather whatever nature provided,(sticks reeds rocks and shells) to make music together and celebrate living the beautiful life the creator had given them for that day.


As a musician seeing live music is particularly challenging in a spurring kind of way. I have made a commitment to see as much live music as possible while i am living in such a musical town making steady income and gathering days off. It is a worthy investment for me because there really is nothing like seeing live music. It grows something inside all of us, something full of life and color that enriches us into our days adding moments of true breath to our life. I will fill you in on different acts I come upon on this blog. Stay tuned for some critique of local mountain music.

Until then, I encourage you to find a moment to fill your day with music or piece it out in the sounds you hear today. and let us all bind our hearts together to live our lives more fully through this universal being.

"In my heart's sequestered chambers lie truths stripped of poets' gloss
Words alone are vain and vacant, and my heart is mute
In response to aching silence, memory summons half-heard voices
And my soul finds primal eloquence, and wraps me in song

If you would comfort me, sing me a lullaby
If you would win my heart, sing me a love song
If you would mourn me and bring me to God,
sing me a requiem, sing me to Heaven

Touch in me all love and passion, pain and pleasure
Touch in me grief and comfort, love and passion, pain and pleasure
Sing me a lullaby, a love song, a requiem
Love me, comfort me, bring me to God

Sing me a love song, sing me to Heaven "

- from Sing Me To Heaven, a song written by Daniel E. Gawthrop

Your Mountain Muse,
Leigh Worrell-Lupton