Friday, March 4, 2011

Scratchin' Circles

Ah, February and March wear on a fellow here in the gray Midwest. The first quarter of the year is all about the cold wind, snow, and skies that might as well be made of concrete. Couple that with doing seven days worth of work in the span of five and you got a recipe for misery. By the time the weekend arrives a fellow needs a little time - time to blow of some steam, time to shake the blues, time to pick himself up.

Tonight we're heading south to Mike's Dance Barn again. We're going to spend some time with Terry Lee and his Rockaboogie Band. It's a much needed pick-me-up. There are too few things in the world that can make you forget your troubles and listening to Terry happens to be one for me. There's something about Rockabilly music, some kind of magic booze for the soul. Like a good stiff drink, a good rockabilly band can make your troubles fuzzy and forgettable. All the woes of the workplace still exist, they'll be there in the morning (along with a few extra aches and pains), but for the moment they sink to the bottom of your priority list.

Music can do a lot of things but one of the most important seems to be to act as a salve, to ease the weariness the soul. We're not talking Land of the Lotus Eaters here - trouble informs good music so listening to good music means taking in the troubles of the world. The thing is good music transforms the trouble of the world, metamorphoses it into rhythm and harmony which the dancer turns into motion. Like a voodoo ceremony, the music inhabits your body and you're moved to a transcendent state. So when JD McPherson sings about Scratching Circles, he might just be talking about magic circles.

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