music has gotten me through so much stuff. i went through high school with my walkman and made mix tapes of songs to get through the day. later on, it was mix cds. and now it’s long playlists for my ipod.

i appreciate you very much. hugs to you.
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@Andy – An amazing musical flight… that’s awesome! And I think pipe organs are all kinds of incredible. I’ve heard one live before. And it blew me away. I felt the music rushing through my bones. It was such a cool experience. Thanks for your note. I also loved the post you made about this on your blog.

@Char – I know what you mean about music being a huge help when there aren’t words for what we’re feeling. That’s been one of the biggest piles of awesome I’ve found with music and sound. The ability to express something I can’t express any other way. And thanks for the heads up on the guy covering Oleta Adams. I’d love to hear that!

@Abby – I hear you completely on music being a constant. I can’t really remember any part of my life that isn’t punctuated by music in some way. I’m so sorry to hear about the abusive relationship. That’s a ton of hard. But I totally clapped out loud reading what you said about believing in yourself and aspiring to make your own music. Rock on! And rah rah for you too!

Now I’m 31 and finally understand that it takes a lot of time and stick-with-itness to get to that magical place and that we’re all pretty much capable. It’s taken a lot of courage, but I believe in myself enough now to take lessons and sound sucky until it sounds good and aspire to make some of my very own music.

Thanks again for sharing! I think my hear will feel touched by it for a long time to come. And rah rah for you for how far you’ve come!

There have been many many songs that have held me together when I’ve felt – uh – less than together and didn’t have the words for my feelings. Sometimes I’ve played the same tune over and over again til I’ve outgrown it – just giving myself permission to work it through as many times as I wanted to.

That recently happened to me with Oprah’s most recent Karaoke winner – I can’t remember his name but I wanna say Abraham McDonald who sang “Get Here When You Can” by Oletta Adams (I think).

Thanks for this – you’re an awesome writer too.

Thanks for sharing such an amazing story. I can’t even imagine going through something like that.

I’ve had so much music help me get through difficult times, I’ll pick a few to mention:

More then anything else, the thing I turn to is The Visit by Loreena McKennitt. She starts from a celtic base but blends seamlessly sounds from all over the world. Her music touches me deeply, and is just wonderful for getting unstuck or being soothed if that’s what I need.

I first heard The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams when my friend Sonja Bode played it on her recital when we were in college. I think it affected me so powerfully because the piece is so close to her heart – and that came through so powerfully. It is an amazing musical flight.

Lately when I want to get myself moving, I often turn to music recored on theater pipe organs – these amazing instruments were built in the late 1920s and early 30s in movie theaters, to allow one organist to accompany a silent film. The goal was to give the organist as much of the tonal pallet of the orchestra as was possible with 1920s technology. Sort of the same idea as modern synthesizers – but done with blowers and organ pipes. To hear one of these Mighty Wurlitzers played live is truly amazing. I particularly tend to listen to recordings by Clark Wilson, Chris Gorsuch, Lew Williams and David Wickerham.

I could go on and on – in fact I think I’ll do that, but on my own blog rather then continuing to ramble here…. the post will be at http://andydolph.com as soon as I write it.

Be Well!

Andy
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Your homelessness story sounds awful, it’s scary how quickly the rug can be pulled from under our feet.

I love how what sustained you through that period is connected to what you do now, I bet your CD’s help heaps of people through the hard and scary.

For me, I landed in AA in my mid twenties a physical and mental wreck. I lurched from meeting to meeting carrying around a walkman cassette player listening to David Bowies’ ‘Heroes’ obsessively. “We can be heroes, just for one day’ Ugh. I totally took thing literally in those days. Can’t listen to the song without cringing now though.

Wow.

I’m touched by what you’ve all shared.

And to all of you that have shared your hard and your scary… big hugs and big thanks and deep, teary-eyed gratitude. To all of you.

@Hayden – Big and powerful and beautiful and awesome. Right next to all kinds of hard and scary. I love where you said That song holds the deepest parts of our family. Because it really does feel like songs hold certain things. They create these spaces where things can hang out. I’m glad that The Rose held family for you. Like really, really, really glad.

@Lori – Enya… right on! I dig Enya. Listening to her first CD was a total experience for me. So much more than just playing a CD. And Sting + SCUD alerts + Saudi Arabia = WOW.

@Wulfie – I love that you have music for pretty much everything. Rock. On.

@Katie – I totally relate to what you’re saying. I find myself doing similar stuff sometimes. I swear I had a Krishna Das CD on repeat for months and months when my wife was sick. It was literally all I could listen to. There’s some kind of transfer o’ mojo or something happening there.

@Bridget – Breakups… argh. It kind of blows me away at how much they hurt. So so so much. And so so so deep. And when there’s extra stuff on top? Ouch x 1000. What a big bunch of gorgeous from Dar Williams. I’ve heard that song a hundred times, but I never really clued into the lyrics until you posted them. Amazing.

@Sulwyn – I’m so glad you had music to get you through the hard. And I love Phantom of the Opera. I used to listen to religiously when I was a teenager. I hadn’t heard of Dougie MacLean until now, so thanks for the mention.

@Emily – Peter Gabriel rocks my world. I’ve just about worn out his Passion CD. And I love almost everything of his. Seriously good schtuff!

@Lilly – I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I lost mine in ‘93. So I get at least some of the hard around this stuff. And the story you shared? Big. And beautiful. And the Oh Darling lyrics totally found my a wet-faced mess. Wow.

@Alexia – I had a total ohmygodohmygodohmygod moment when I read your comment. That’s amazing that The Soul Cages was your talisman too! Wow! I don’t even know what to say. And yeah, I can still hear every note of that CD. It’s woven into my bones, I think. (And plans for a trip to ATL is in the works as we speak.)

@Spring – So much hard and scary there. And what an incredible trip you’ve had. Amazing. And another big yay! for music helping to get through all of it. I remember when I first saw Fiona Apple on TV, she struck a chord. There was just something there. That something that’s hard to put into words. Her words, and her eyes, said a ton.

@Josiane – You know, when there’s strange beauty in an unexplicable sadness, and the soundtrack is just right? It was like that. Yep… I get that totally. And I’m glad you’ve got a CD like that. It totally makes me wish I remembered enough French to hear it. Because it sounds all kinds of incredible.

@Tami – More hard and scary. And more hanging-in-there and making-it-anyway. Yay! And I love the lyrics you posted. I’d love to scribble that all over my arms in permanent marker. I also totally agree with what you said about the impact music has. Huge huge huge.

@Laurie – Ben Harper is totally a healer with a guitar in his hands. That’s a brilliant way of describing him. And just about every word from that song gives me chills.

@Gina – I bet you’re right. I think music has saved countless people. Which is one of the things that wows me about it. How far and how deep it reaches. I also hear you on the being-alone-listening-to-music bit. Total quality alone time. And how cool that you mentioned Reign Over Me! I just put that in my Netflix basket. Knowing that there’s a bit of musical mojo included means I’ll be bumping it to the top of my list.

Thanks again to all of you. To the people who commented. To the people read. To the people that have been through hard and scary and come out on the other side. And to the people who made the music that got us through.

Big hugs all around.