My love affair...

I am…in love…again. It’s a re-occurring love…that swells and surges throughout the year, but gets a boost every summer. Every summer I get to renew my love affair, as oftentimes the waning sun and early evening breezes provide us the perfect opportunity to be together. My ongoing love affair is with…music. And my summertime concerts are what I look forward to every year.

A few weeks back, I went to see India Arie for the first time. I was mesmerized. The venue was perfect and helped to enhance the vibe. (I am a firm believer that different venues cause performers to perform differently. I prefer either intimate venues or outdoor venues.) Anyway, she brought this awesome energy to the stage. I felt as if everyone there might as well have been holding hands, passing the energy on from one to the next. At times I just closed my eyes and absorbed it all. At times I stepped out of my own personal experience and looked around me to find other sistas with misty eyes and tears…relishing in their own experience with India’s lyrics and voice. Just…amazing. Sigh.

I have discovered that female vocalists have more of an emotional affect on me than do the male vocalists. I think it’s the innate ability that women have as nurturers and sensitive creatures that comes through in their songs. And as a woman, I can relate to their emotions, reactions, experiences…in ways that I can’t always do with men’s songs. Makes sense I suppose. When Chrisette Michele sings…one day he’ll come on bended knee and ask my love away from thee…and when I give my love to him, you’ll always have a place within…no one loves me just like you do…I feel it. I had my daddy listen to it and told him that this is the song we will dance to at my wedding. Sometimes it makes me cry…sometimes it makes me smile. When Deborah Cox sings…can you look me in the eyes…and honestly say that you don’t love me??...we can’t be friends…I shake my head. In the past, my voice has cracked singing that song with such feeling while thinking of a him that I knew I could never just be friends with.

When Martina McBride sings…this one’s for the girls…who’ve ever had a broken heart…who’ve wished upon a shooting star…you’re beautiful the way you are…this one’s for the girls…I have to roll down my windows, turn it all the way up and sing it like an anthem.

A few of the male voices captivate me too…they tend to be the one’s with very distinct voices…raspy, edgy, ‘charactered’. John Legend, James Blunt, James Morrison, Anthony Hamilton, Al Green…

Anyway, back to my concerts…
Music moves me in ways I find almost unexplainable. It resonates in my spirit. At the India Arie concert, I closed my eyes and her words and voice took me someplace else. When I stood outside in the nighttime breeze and listened to Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, I got chills. When Norah Jones sat down at the piano and sang with her clear poignant voice, I might as well have been sitting on a beach somewhere. At every (good) concert, I close my eyes and inhale the music and feel such a peace, even if only for that moment.

So, here’s to the summer concert line-up…I look forward to our time together. Lighters in the air…