“My big sister learnt this song!” “My cousin can play this!” The excitement in the room was palpable. The look on the faces of the Grade One/Two students was a sight to behold. This is what bliss looks like.
It’s not a mistake to transpose your own experiences onto a song (or a poem or a novel or a painting…). It’s inevitable. It’s part of art. But it can be a trap if you’re not careful.
A group of young men in the corner sing along, happy drunk. It is their song. I drink my beer, my heart beats fast. The harmonica plays, the guitar keeps time, keeps strumming, then the chorus starts up again.When I close my eyes, I can hear Soren sing along too
Vin Maskell Wellington St, St Kilda, 1982Five songs in and I was wrung out. No light, no shade on this album. Black rivers. Serial killers.
Vin Maskell Melbourne, Midnight, November 29, 1982On a piece of foolscap paper, at my desk in my single-bed bedroom or maybe at the small table in the little kitchen at the end of the long hallway, I wrote a little poem. Nothing special.
Colin Ritchie DBA’S New Orleans, April 2015“Jimbo Mathus is playing tonight at DBA’s, anyone interested?”Jimbo Mathus?To be honest I had never heard of him but as the suggestion was coming from Brian, our tour leader, undoubtedly, it was an option worth pursuing.
Laura Grace Weldon Ohio living room,1970Supervising little kids’ baths was one of my dad's chores in the parental division of duties, so he’d sit on the toilet lid singing and strumming the guitar while we played in the tub.
Lucia Nardo Family gathering, Melbourne, 1996I felt a plum-size lump, unyielding to my touch. Dan yelped with pain. That moment is etched in my memory. I knew our lives were about to change. I wanted to push the lump back down, along with all the terror it was about to unleash.
Vin Maskell Moggs Creek, Australia; 1983 to 2013The third and final part of our series about family, a beach house and its record collection.
For Paul Chai, music and travel are inseparable. A photo might trigger a memory, he writes, but the right song will trigger a feeling.