THE GUITAR MAN (Sherwood)

I am attending a concert by a country singer. I won’t name him. He sings from way down deep in his heart. It is actually more of a friendly performance than a show. And he is effervescently enthusiastic. Anyone can see that he just loves to sing, and that his guitar is one with him.

But the acoustics are bad; as in real bad. It seems that the organizers were not sensitive to the requirements of the sound systems for a solo singer in a big hall. Or did they not care enough to make the necessary adjustments? Either way, the echoes are an insult to his effort, to his art, to his love for music.

He’s alone on stage with his guitar and I can’t help thinking that he’s a brave man.

He likes to talk to the audience between songs. The echo is such that most of the audience cannot understand a word he says, but his spirit is infectious; they clap their hands for him gamely. His guitar plays magic on the strings of one’s heart, but the sound rolls over itself and is lost in the reverberations.

I am a weathered old cynic. The audience are mainly teenaged; enthusiastic, fresh, less easily perturbed than I, more ready to absorb. My frustration at the sound arrangements evaporates as I feel his enthusiasm and see the children soaking it up.

He gets a standing ovation, and then again.

His words of thanks are not understood by most of us, but he has touched our hearts. We feel the music in the man.

Ha ha! He sang some of the old favourites, with such feeling! ‘Seasons in the Sun’, ‘I Love you More Than I Can Say’, ‘Honky Tonk Man’, ‘Country Roads’, ‘El Paso’, ‘Oh Carol’, ‘Theme for a Dream’, ‘Que Sera Sera’, ‘Summer Wine’, ‘Jamaican Farewell’….

I am suddenly young again, and I want to thank him. For the thousandth time I resolve to lose myself more readily to whatever life has to offer, be less demanding, be one with it all, merge, dissolve, enjoy the passage. It’s not going to come back, this moment, unless it is gratefully savoured and allowed to become a part of my being.

I want to dive deeper. And somewhere deep within, I feel His Presence, in the form of joy, and thanks, and beauty, and love.

And He smiles.