Ground Zero

I've started decluttering my office this week and I came across a stash of old photographs in an album

tucked near the bottom of a bookshelf hidden between garden and writing books.

Many of the pictures are black and white ones from my childhood, but there's one of me in my Army khakis. Also, filed loosely between the pages, were a number of photographs of Jilda and me with our friends. Flipping through the photographs brought a smile to my face.

Near the back were several pictures of Jilda and me that were taken the first time we went to Memphis in the 80s. We did photo ops of us at several historic places there including the one here at Sun Records.

Sam Phillips, the owner of the legendary Sun Recording Studio did the first recordings of Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis. It was a humbling experience just being there and considering the impact this little studio had on the world of music.

Later that evening we performed in a small club at Layfayette Corner, playing our songs for people we didn't know. 

It's good playing for people who don't know you because you get a sense of how your songs resonate. When you play for your friends and family, they usually tell you "you're great" out of a sense of moral imperative, but strangers are under no such obligation. 

We did well that night and the songs we played seemed to work and our four-hour drive home the next day was upbeat and full of promise.  Maybe it was playing for a receptive crowd, or maybe it was being near ground zero for the music that had been woven into the tapestry of our lives.