Anyone who knows me even a little bit understands how much I love music.
I think the fact that the subtitle of my podcast, “Many little people in many little places” is inspired by the opening lyrics of the Michael Franti song, “Gloria,” is a tell-tale sign of the influence that music has on my life.
I’m far from a musician, I played a little bass when I was in high school and shortly thereafter, but was never that good at it. I ended up giving my bass guitar to my nephew, Donnie, who is an amazing self-taught musician. I now occasionally play the harmonica, but would say that I’m a novice at best. Nonetheless, I love music. Everything about it touches my soul. On any given day, I can listen to just about any genre of music and it can impact my soul in different ways.
So, when we had a week between our Y2V projects in Lake Charles, Louisiana and Roan Mountain, Tennessee, Memphis looked like a great spot for us to spend it.
I had spent a day in Memphis back in January of 2019 on my way to Dallas. Sandy and I stopped for just a few hours while passing through in September of 2020, but we never really spent time there. We knew we wanted to, and this created the perfect opportunity for us.
I would certainly recommend a trip to Memphis for anyone who is a lover of music.
We stayed at the Graceland Campground, which was right next to Graceland and a short Uber drive into the city. Our first day in town, we just walked around a bit, had some great barbeque, walked Beale Street, went to Mud Island, and then to the visitor’s center to plan out the next few days.
Tuesday it rained all day, so we just stayed in the RV with Youk, but were also able to plan out the next few days better.
Wednesday, we started our day at the National Civil Rights Museum, which was the old Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. After several hours in the museum, we went for a late lunch and headed off to the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum just off of Beale Street.
We were able to get a special combination discount for tours of the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, Stax Records Museum, Sun Records Studios, and Graceland.
We knocked out the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum and I was just completely mesmerized as I walked through and traveled back in time. Seeing how the early music of slaves in the cotton fields helped to not break their spirit and slowly led to Blues, Soul, and Rock and Roll music. Yet, all had deep spiritual roots to Gospel. After slavery, that same music united both black and white sharecroppers and allowed them to focus on the things that they had in common as opposed to their differences. Music is what allowed them to get through a hot summer day in the fields.
The next day, we went to the Stax Records Museum and I was again deeply moved by the history of Memphis Soul. To think that the day before, we were touring the Lorraine Motel where one of the leaders of the civil rights movement was gunned down through an act of hatred while at that same time, just a few blocks from where he died, Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream was already becoming a reality in the studios of Stax Records. Black and white musicians and staff would come together for one common theme. Creating music that would touch the souls of all people for generations to come.
After our tour of Stax, we hopped in an Uber and headed over for our tour of the Sun Records Studio. Again, incredibly rich history of a studio that is still active today. To think that in the same studio where Elvis Pressley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and other icons of the early days of rock and roll got their start is the same studio where the likes of U2, Tom Petty, and many other modern-day musicians have also recorded hit songs was mind boggling for me to say the least.
Like Stax, Sun Records was using music as a tool to unite the black and white communities that still hadn’t healed almost 100 years after the last shot of the civil war was fired. Music was being used as a healing power in an otherwise tense time of our country’s history.
On Friday, we walked over to Graceland. This was the tour that I was least excited about on our visit. I was never a huge Elvis fan growing up. Both of my parents liked Elvis. For whatever reason, I distinctly remember playing in our living room in Oley, Pennsylvania the day that my dad told me that Elvis had died and seeing his reaction to the news. Other than that, though, if I would hear an Elvis song randomly, I’d enjoy it, but certainly wouldn’t add one to any of my playlists.
However, while touring Graceland and learning more about Elvis and his early days, you could say that I had a new found respect for the King of Rock and Roll and the role that he played in shaping much of the music that I love today. I’ve even flipped on an Elvis song or two to listen to since that visit to Graceland.
As much as music was bringing the races together back in those days, not everyone was a fan of this new tool of unification. Many in the white community ostracized Elvis because his music was “too black.” Still, he pressed on. Unaffected by the naysayers, Elvis knew that black and white didn’t matter in the gray world that we live in. It wasn’t our skin tone that mattered, it was our souls. He knew that his music could speak to the souls of anyone who listened, if they allowed it to.
And that’s the magic of music. It allows us to be color blind and takes us to places where our minds, bodies, and spirits can heal. Music helps us get though our most difficult times in life. It also makes our best times in life even better.
So many times, we can hear a song and immediately be transported to the place where we first heard it in our minds and be accompanied by those who we heard it with. There are very few things in the world that can do that, but music is certainly one of them.
Throughout this RV journey of ours, we have made so many memories, but personally, my best memories have been those that involve music.
One of our early stops on this journey was at the Woodstock Museum in Bethel Woods, New York back in October of 2020. I was again transported through time and able to see how music was used to help calm the storms of our society at the time.
Whether us touring the likes Woodstock, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Tina Turner Museum, my old recording school, or any of the spots in Memphis, the power of music was at the core.
When we sat at breakfast in Key West listening to a guy with a guitar, or when we were talking to the street musician at Mallory Square, listening to live music on Beale Street, in the Graceland Hotel lobby, at Talona Ridge RV Resort in Georgia, listening to Greg, Caleb, and Jimmy play at the Dream Center, or my nephew’s old band back in Pennsylvania, music was that calming common denominator.
Live music even more so than recorded music is extra special. You can see how the musician and their instrument become one during a live performance. That was one of the things that I was able to experience years ago when a couple of my old players and their dad convinced me to jump on stage and play the harmonica with their band at one of our fundraisers. Charlie, Gerry, and Gerry Werner are phenomenally talented musicians and yet somehow in that moment with my harmonica, I fit right in. It was magical and again shows the power of music.
Music is the thread that keeps binding this journey together for me personally. What I listen to while driving, hiking, cooking, writing, or just sitting by a fire speaks to my heart. Music has played such a large part of the shaping of my life; I can’t even imagine what it would like without it.
I believe that God speaks to us through music quite often. I have a few friends who we’ll occasionally text links to a song to each other. It’s absolutely amazing to me how so many times, completely unexpected, one of them will send me a song that hits me at the exact time that I need it. I don’t believe that’s coincidence; I believe that’s God using them to speak to us through that song exactly when we need it. I know that some of the songs that I’ve sent to them have done the same because they’ve told me. That is why when I get that urge, and I hear that voice that says, “Send that song to…” I do it without hesitation. So, if you ever get the urge to send someone a song, do it. It’s not just in your head, God is using you as a tool to speak to someone through that song even though you have no idea why. They need to hear it at that exact time, so just send it.
Music is being used more and more in therapy for brain injuries, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. Again, proving the healing power that exists within it.
According to Jillian Levy, a Certified Holistic Health Counselor, there are six major health benefits of music therapy:
- Music therapy reduces anxiety and physical effects of stress
- It improves healing
- It can help manage Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
- Music therapy reduces depression and other symptoms in the elderly
- It helps to reduce symptoms of psychological disorders including schizophrenia
- Music therapy improves self-expression and communication
When I first read that, it wasn’t a surprise at all, I just think of the role that music has played in my own life and understand how important it is.
Music heals us, music unites us, we just need to listen to it.
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