Story of the Week:
How Music Moves Us
Music inspires us all the time. It can be motivating... connecting us to its lyrics, pulling us in to want more, to do more, and to be more. It can remind us of a time in our lives, luring us to a precious moment, person, or even painful heartache. I could go on and on about the power music has in our lives, but what I want to focus on, is how moved I have become over a song I wrote and recently recorded. The song is one I have mentioned to you all before in my “How to Write a Song” video, which was featured in my very FIRST newsletter. The title of the song is, “Last Day on Earth”. I was asked to write this by David Cohen, who was turned on to my music by David Parker. David P is a family friend of ours and the amazing artist of my “Blue” single cover. When David Cohen called me, he told me he had a dear friend of his, Nancy Butler, who battled breast cancer for sixteen years, before it took her life. Nancy, who was the most incredible human being, loved and cherished by all who knew her, wrote her own eulogy. David gave it to me, and through her words and David’s portrayal of Nancy and her mantra, “postpone nothing”, I wrote the easiest song I’ve ever written. It only took me two hours…. the words and melody just effortlessly poured out of me (maybe I had Nany’s divine help). When I wrote the song, I knew I was writing it as the song for the foundation that David Cohen was starting in Nancy’s name. What I didn’t know at the time, was that this song would really take a hold of me. It began to move me in many ways. I started looking at life differently, because “we never really know what day will be our last one on earth” (lyrics from my chorus). I’m now living Nancy’s mantra, “postpone nothing”! One project I have talked and talked about doing, but busy life just keeps getting in the way, is to film my papaw, Ralph, and ask him questions about himself to document his incredibly interesting life. He’s always full of great stories and I always think, “I wish I could bottle these in some way so friends, family and future generations can hear these”. He will be 90 this year and although I hope he has many years left, I wanted to live Nancy’s mantra, “postpone nothing” – so when he was visiting us I had my videographer, James, who has captured all my BTS footage in the recording studio, come over to help me document his life. I told James it would only take 30 minutes, but my papaw was in full performance mode and gave us over an hour of incredible memories. James then had the idea to add in photos of him while he’s talking. Special thanks to my aunt Susan for digging through all her photos to find the most precious memories of him growing up, to showcasing his ministry, and the sweetest pics of him dating, then marrying my grandma, June (who unfortunately passed away last July 2020). They were high school sweethearts and would have been married 70 years this past Dec. 1, 2020. They are wonderful role models to me and my brother, Cole and such a huge support to our family in every way possible. I regret not getting a video of my grandma, June, and my great-grandma, Joe Anne, before they passed away. But now that Nancy has touched my life, I hope to have fewer regrets moving forward.
Here are some photos of my papaw that will be used in his video.
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