There's nothing better than listening to live music. I drag my family to live local venues all through the summer, usually outdoors and around our beach area. We've seen Keith Mack at many of these, playing guitar with the likes of the Funsters and Ed Shockley.
Recently I saw an excellent article by Charlies Sands on Facebook. He talks about Keith's interesting and prolific history in the music industry and highlighted an album he just released. I was hooked, and ordered the cd.
Once music grabs my attention, I tend to listen to it repeatedly for a while. While I've never written a song myself, I listen because I understand what it's like to pour yourself into creating, to labor over the process. It's work. It doesn't come out right the first time. And when it's done, you want someone to appreciate it and to at least give it more than a passing moment of attention.
I don't pretend to know what was in their heads when Keith and co-writer John Thompson composed these songs. But by default, I tend to assume there's a story being told, and then there's another story you have to dig for. The last song on the album, "You Found the Song", really made me wonder.
Perhaps the song is simply what it sounds like - a tribute by Keith to the seasoned songwriter John Thompson. Certainly Keith's liner note on the inside of the cd cover would suggest that.
But is there more to the song? Whether Keith and John intended it or not, I heard something else.
You Found The Song
Keith Mack, John Thompson
You were the first one
You were the only one who gave it half a chance
You didn’t hesitate you couldn’t wait to see
If there was a song in me
You took a blank page
And waited like a poet waits for the right words to come
And then you set them in the perfect melody
You found the song in me
So many songs left unsung
So many hearts without anyone
Who will listen?
You were the grand exception
You saw the things the others could not see
There beyond my careful self protection
You found the song in me
So many songs left unsung
So many hearts without anyone
Who will listen?
Who will listen…
You found the song in me
You found the song in me
I heard the age-old plight of mankind - finding one's place - finding one's song to sing. There are many ways to go about it. Personally, the driving force behind my own search is faith. But it wasn't John Thompson who found the song, it was God Himself.
I believe we were created with the purpose of singing a song. It's isn't obvious what that song will be. There are many false starts - songs that sound awful, songs that we aren't meant to sing, songs that bring no one pleasure. The song may change along the way. In all cases, the song is for the benefit of others. At the age of 54, my song is not finished, but it's further along than it was, and hopefully it is beginning to actually sound good. So when I listen to Keith singing, it resonates within me.
This is what great music does - it makes you think. It puts you in the head of the songwriter, and lets you identify with their experience. Your life moves from an "I" to a "we". There is nothing better.
http://www.keithmack.net/music/
