I just returned from a week in my happy place, a wellness retreat center in Mexico. I’m always in heaven there, but I was in double-heaven this time because the centerpiece of the week was a folk music festival. Each evening we attended a concert by one of several singer songwriters who’d come in from Nashville. During the day there were opportunities to hang out with the artists, write a song together and hear their thoughts on the theme of the festival: the healing power of music.

The healing power of music. Yes, indeed.

Music is always in my head. I tune into it to lift my spirits, validate my sadness, ease my despair, connect me to someone close, search for answers, loosen my inhibitions, fuel my creative flow, express my gratitude and celebrate joy. It’s always there. It calms me, brightens me, heals me.

It provides me with a sense of community.

I’ll never forget the first concert I went to. I was around 14, and on stage were The Supremes. It was the first time I’d sung along with tens of thousands of people. You can’t hurry love, no you just have to wait. We all knew the words, believed them in our hearts and felt them in our bones. All of us. No matter our color, our age, our background, our religion, our politics. I know you’ve experienced this, too. Music brings us together.

I’ve been to so many concerts now I lost count years ago. In college, I managed to hear (or dance to) live music just about every weekend. Eddie and I still go to hear our favorite artists and check out new ones whenever we can.

Music, whether it’s opera or rock, blues or country absolutely has the power to heal. These heavyweights said it a lot better than I ever could:

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which spirit lives, thinks, and invents. – Beethoven

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. – Einstein

The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with. – Springsteen

Music seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music. – George Eliot

The power of music to integrate and cure is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest non-chemical medication. – Oliver Sacks

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between notes and curl my back to loneliness. – Maya Angelou

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. – Thoreau

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. – Plato

One good thing about music is that when it hits you, you feel no pain. – Bob Marley

Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them! – Oliver Wendell Holmes

My granddaughters are getting into music in a big way now, playing instruments, singing and writing their own songs. This song, written by the youngest one for her band at Girls Rock camp, kind of blew me away (she just turned 9):

Stuck With Me

Standing out in ordinary clothes

Like a summer day in snow.

Polka dots in a sea of stripes

Sun out in the middle of the night.

You have to let go of your anger to lose your fear.

You should’ve put up a better fight

Because you’re stuck with me, I’m staying here.

This world is a jumble of faces

You used to be a perfect tracing

Of the greatest in our day

Now you’re fading into gray

You think I’m not worthy because I’m weird

But you’re stuck with me, I’m staying here.

Talk about a wonderful way to connect! We can discuss music we like and dislike, share songs on Spotify, talk about the songs they’re writing, sing together and try to play music together (I’m pretty limited on my ukulele). When I hear a song like “Stuck With Me” it gives me an opening to talk about a lot of things with a very young girl whom I love and admire. It gives me insight into how she sees the world. It’s a connector. Music bridges generations.

When I was in college, I worked for the campus newspaper. Because of that I got a press badge for certain events. Wearing that badge meant I could lean against the stage to shoot concerts, which I did on many, many occasions. Talk about being in heaven!

Here are a few of the pictures I made back then, during the mid-1970’s. I’m going to share them with my granddaughters when they visit this summer. I thought I’d share them with you now. Just a few I was able to dig up. Enjoy. And rock on!

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
David Crosby
Bette Midler
Jethro Tull
Liza Minelli
John Denver
Neil Young
Allman Brothers
Leon Russell
Jim Croce
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
Poco
Jesse Colin Young
John Prine
Kris Kristofferson
Jim Messina
Kenny Loggins
Roberta Flack