Tall Tall Trees - Millennium Stage (August 18, 2023)

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@maikeli7 Жыл бұрын

This wondrous music is spinning an entire journey through emotion, introspection, and memory. Reminds me of a moment that has stuck with me since 1994: I was sitting on the Inbound side in an almost totally unpeopled Harvard Square Station on some nondescript Wednesday afternoon in March. I had just come from Schoenhof's Foreign Books, and I was waiting to take the train back towards downtown Boston. As I sat waiting in the quiet, flipping through my little book of French Synonyms, I noticed a disheveled and threadbare man on a bench over by the tail end of the platform where there was a separate row of benches on the other side of the walkway entering the platform area. He was sitting in such a way that I could only see the back of him. He was hunched and totally focused on what he was doing. He was preparing to busk with his electric guitar, amp, mic, and some sort of pedal. I was transfixed, waiting to hear what this solitary frump of a man would play, when he started in by hitting the wood of his guitar rhythmically. He pushed the pedal and the sound repeated. He did this with a few more sounds, strums, and notes--thus commenced his weaving of a sonic tapestry the like of which I had never experienced. It moved me so deeply, I let three trains go by just to sit and listen to this artist. He played with a clarity and complexity that captivated and stirred. The solemn quiet of the empty station reverberated with the haunting quality of his contemplative yet rhythmic composition. The beauty of it was astounding, and he was playing it for no other reason than to play. He seemed oblivious of anyone who might be there to serve as an audience, and I doubt he even cared. That moment was his, for him, and I was just lucky to be able to witness it--the two of us all alone on that dusky platform. I edged over to him as another train made distant encroaching squeals on the track, put a twenty in his case, and very reluctantly boarded my train back to my life and all its various necessities. I never forgot that moment, that magician, and the impromptu journey he took me on. Ever since, I've always considered it a kind of goal of mine to learn to do at least a small bit of what he could do so effortlessly. It would be a dream come true to one day sit in that station--or any station--and busk the way he did. It was pure joy! This is what Mike's music reminds me of, and I am grateful for it.