The Estranged Harmonious Muse

I envy those with the ability to express themselves through the beauty of notes through airwaves. I always have, and I certainly always will. And despite the fact that I am musically disabled to a harmonica, I have an indescribable connection to those who broadcast brilliance by emotions through a connection between their hearts, minds, fingers, and lungs.

And it's a curious matter too. I've been given every musical advantage any child could possibly be presented with. My father is obsessed with harmony and displayed this attraction in every possible amplifier throughout my life. This passion was transferred through the crackle of a James Taylor record on Rumford Street, to an obscure folk CD on the way to a youth hockey game, and on to my mothers request of "Fields Of Gold" through the towering speakers that spewed an unutterable connection on to the floors of our kitchen. With my brother thousands of miles away, our late night chats often revolve around our feelings that were so better represented in the words of others.

The modern day music atmosphere presents an entirely different means of finding the lyrics to match our emotion. Pandora and Itunes "Genius" allow for an entire night of searching to be reduced to one click. While I love the ability to locate a song a the drop of a hat, technology has almost taken away the beauty of the unexpected. Thank God my father refuses to upgrade to the newest technology. Dad is still willing to navigate through his 100 disc CD player with a compass that consists of an outdated typed-up list of album titles. Every time I come home we as a family spend the late hours of the night singing, dancing, making requests, and trying to guess which Artist will come up next. And despite the hundreds of thousands of options, somehow my father still remembers the exact track number of the song he is looking for.
This is something that transcends every branch of my family. With each Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Grandmother and Grandfather I can find a connection through much more than just family genes; through the rhythms and sound waves that played a part in making me the person I am now, and play an even bigger part in ensuring I don't forget where I have come from.

Even this past weekend when I visited my cousin Sarah in Charlotte; when the night was winding down and we were collectively heading towards our sleeping arrangements, there was a desire for a mutual request that need not to be voiced, and I knew this to be true when I laid down to James Taylor. We both had the pleasure of growing up to the rhythms that helped to bring us all together and to help to project the strong feelings we all had for each other in the collective singing and smiling to the next song selection. So while at times pop seems too obscene, folk seems to abstract, and country seems all too familiar, it is both the familiar and incidental aspects of songs that bring us exactly to where we want to be.


And in a shameless plug, check out somehow who does an incredible job of expressing himself musically! "Like" my cousin Frank Hurd on Facebook, (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/FrankHurdMusic), or check out his page on Youtube by searching, "Frank Hurd".