The Magic of a Song

The Magic of a Song

“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.”

Pablo Casals

I grew up loving music. I knew the words to every song and the names of each musician in my favorite groups. Looking back, I realize that I must have gotten that from my dad, as he was encyclopedic about the music he loved, traditional jazz.

My dad was born in Lawrence, Kansas, a dry state. As a young man, he would sneak across the border to Kansas City, Missouri, a wet state, to see the great performers of the jazz age, as they came through town: Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Count Basie, to name a few.

He had all their records, and the jazz era filled our home and garage, where my dad worked on restoring his antiques and listening to his music. It didn’t mean much to me early on, but as I grew older I began to turn to the jazz of my dad’s youth, as it was upbeat and full of hope and tremendous performances.

I still loved rock and roll, but I loved old jazz too. My favorites of the jazz era were the small groups, which you can still find on Spotify by looking up the artists individually.

Years later, when I met my sweetheart, I shared my expanding love of music with her and was happy that she liked the old stuff too. One day, in a casual conversation about music, I asked her, “What’s your favorite song?” When she replied, “Red River Valley,” you could have knocked me over with a feather. Her answer was so surprising and endearing to me. It’s a beautiful, timeless song from the late 1870’s that touches the essentials of life and love.

And in that particularly musical moment, and many other ways, I knew that Liz was the one for me.

-Hank