Do you ever find yourself feeling full, alive with much, touched by many things, yet unsure how to capture any of it with words? I have been finding myself in this space off and on lately–full of much, moved and enlivened by much but unsure how to express all that it stirs, what to say.
Here, I might offer my recommendation of a concert that was recorded last February (2006) in honour of Black History Month. You can listen to the concert on-line at CBC Radio Two’s “Concerts on Demand” website–a site, I might add, that appears to be amazing, full of live-recorded music to explore. Click here to get to the show.
As detailed on the website, Alan Neal, the host of CBC’s radio program, Bandwidth, commissioned various musicians to write a piece of music about Canadian Black historical figures including Eligjah McCoy, Mary Anne Shadd, Portia White, Harry Jerome, Dr. Daniel Hill, and Carrie Best. The musicians had less than two weeks to do this and the results are truly impressive with songs and stories that are informative, deeply moving, sad, inspiring, strong. I listened to the concert for the second time last night on the radio, and it stirred that full feeling in me–absolutely powerful and real though leaning toward the intangible. If you have time, I encourage you to listen to the show all the way through. (To do this, click on the tracks in the order that they appear, beginning with the “Introduction” and ending with “That Lonesome Road”. Mac users will need to have downloaded Windows Media Player for Mac or Flip4Mac or some other program that will play windows media files.)
I also wish to draw special attention to Jill Barber’s song, That Lonesome Road. It is a song that moves me. I first heard this song on the radio about a year ago; next, near the end of this past year, 2006; and third, last night, while listening to the repeat broadcast of the February, 2006 Bandwidth concert. When the song was played on Bandwidth near the end of last year, Alan Neal explained that it was the most requested song of the year. I’m not surprised. Do have a listen. When I heard it last night, I stopped what I was doing (preparing some tasty food) and I sat on my little wooden rocking chair near the radio speakers, listening with attention in full.
Now there’s a fire where there once was a spark
And a woman who made her mark
With the strength not to take it,
find the silence and break it
and to lead with her head and her heart
Jill Barber
If you click here, you will find a legible photograph of the lyrics for the song from a blog by a young, Canadian teacher who attended the recording of the show last year and writes a bit about this experience on her blog, Easy on the Butter.
A word that comes to mind to me now (and often) is journey. I am thinking of the journeys people find themselves on and how they navigate these. I am also thinking today of questions related to how to help another feel that the fight is worth it when they are in a low place, how to help inspire another, how to help them connect to that spark within where they may find their strength.
~
So a young girl makes a choice
Hears the sound of her own voice
She makes up her mind, she’s
determined to find
a way to hear it rejoice
Jill Barber
(And a way to find her own voice.)
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