Thank You For Singing

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Megan L
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 01:19 PM

My mum used to say she sang because she was happy and when she was not happy she sang to make herself happy. A great big thanks to all whose singing lifts heads of weary shoulders and sooths a troubled mind we surely need all the singers we can get in the world today.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Trevor
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 06:39 AM

.....an that should, of course, read "mad and bent and sorry-assed", although "old" would do as wel I suppose.......

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Trevor
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 06:32 AM

About time for another reminder of this old thread. The world certainly feels "old and bent and sorry-assed" - always worth thinking about what contribution we might be making to it being just ever so slightly better........

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 18 Dec 12 - 07:50 AM

I seem to have missed this the first time around; thanks indeed for the singers and the songs. Lately I've been feeling it's the best I can offer. My chorus has its concert this past weekend and so many came up to me afterwards and thanked me for the comfort and return of a possibility of joy they received from our singing.

"We need the comfort of singing voices until the dark time ends".

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 17 Dec 12 - 09:12 PM

Add my love and hugs to Sandra's, please.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Dec 12 - 08:32 PM

sending love & hugs

sandra

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: maeve
Date: 17 Dec 12 - 11:31 AM

I'm having a bit of rough time, and went looking for ways to say "thank you" for those who look for beauty, then bring our attention to it.

Thank you.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 12:28 PM

Thank you, Amos.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 11:33 AM

Amos, thank you for the opening post. Lovely.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Amos
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 11:17 AM

Wow, what a wonderful flock o' birds!! Loved it!!

Thank you all for the nice comments. I am all wet-eyed reading them. :D


A

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Mr Happy
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 08:06 AM

Echo deja vue!

Here's some local lasses in town a couple of weeks back,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDUoSPawmhQ&feature=share
enjoy!

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: GUEST,JohnnyBeezer (Where's my cookie gone?)
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 07:35 AM

Amen to all this

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 07:19 AM

I love how sometimes a thread is revived at just the right time! How true the sentiments Amos expresses. Amos you managed to put into words what many of us think but cannot express adequately.

Thank you!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: KT
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 12:27 AM

I missed it too, Terry! Thanks for the lovely thoughts, Amos. You are a gem!

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Leadfingers
Date: 03 Jul 12 - 01:04 PM

Missed this thread totally til now ! Made good reading .

Subject: NOT singing
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jul 12 - 12:45 PM

I've also learned that sometimes we need to know when NOT to sing. For example, at a recent ash-scattering at sea, my wiser eyes could see that singing would only have inflamed an already-too-tense situation. In that case, a mere squeak proved to be too much for that occasion. So the song I would have sung went, instead, on a photo-montage of the event.

I can always sing something for/with those folks another time when they are ready to hear more than a squeak. And if I ain't there then-- my voice is not that hard to find. :~)

~Susan

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: GUEST,Sue the Borderer currently cookieless
Date: 03 Jul 12 - 10:34 AM

The first post from this thread from Amos has been pinned on my wall since the thread was last resurrected in 2009.
It's now 10 years and a day since it was first posted and it still chokes me up when I read it.
Perhaps it will touch you too in the same way.

Sue

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: jeffp
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 10:55 AM

This was right on time for me as I have a singing gig tonight. Just a short set as a supporting act, but a number of friends will be coming.

Thanks Trevor for reviving this and thanks Amos for starting it in the first place.

Jeff

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: BusyBee Paul
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 07:54 AM

Sorry, I have to smile - I've just spent an hour phoning all 100 members of our local Choral Society to cancel this evenings rehearsal due to the inclement weather!.

I think I'll put a few CDs on when I get home and sing along to those instead.

:-)

Deirdre

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Trevor
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 05:52 AM

My pleasure - it's a thread I've saved and gone back to on numerous occasions over the last 6 or 7 years and now seems the right time to remind ourselves who we really are and what we really do at a time when the world looks particularly 'mad and bent and sorry-assed'.

Thanks again Amos.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 01:45 PM

Amos

What a treasure you are! This is exactly how I feel about judging anyone who wants to sing too harshly in some of the other threads. Creeps sake... everyone should be encouraged to belt it out. It is therapeutic and for my part definitely an act of courage.

And thanks to Trevor for ressurecting this excellent thread from the tombs of oblivion.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Amos
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 01:27 PM

Trevor:

Thank you so much for refreshing this.


Amos

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: frogprince
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 12:09 PM

(I wanted to sing the song badly, and I probably succeeded).

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: frogprince
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 11:54 AM

What a delightful thread, from before my time "around here". I actually sang something in public a few weeks ago, at a local sing-around. I can hardly imagine anyone thanking me for singing - you'd understand if you heard me - but I wanted to share that song so badly at the time that I did it. Some others there were also much more song-writers than vocalists, or I would never have had the nerve. You would thank my wife for singing, though; she does it beautifully.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: topical tom
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 11:27 AM

Thanks for those great thoughts, Amos. To quote a well-known song "How can I keep from singing?" I cannot play any instrument well but I sing for my own pleasure.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 11:20 AM

Thanks, Amos.

What is it within us that compels us to overcome one of our most basic fears to get in front of others to sing and play? It is a most profound way of sharing something very personal. For many of us, it is also about handing down this love of music to the next generation and seeing it carried on, as I have been fortunate enough to see in my own son and others. If it weren't for music; singing and playing, this would be a planet as dead as the moon.

I'm also glad for this vital organ that allows us to exchange music, thoughts, feelings and experiences with folks we will likely never meet, but with whom we are connected through song. What a gift!

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Beer
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 10:53 AM

Amos, I haven't read anything anyone else has said except your wonderful wishes. I will do this shortly.
Music truly has a soul.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: quokka
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 10:44 AM

What a beautiful thread! Even if I do only sing for my own pleasure in the privacy of my car,(or on rare occasions with friends who don't judge too harshly!) I couldn't imagine life without it!

Cheers,

Quokka

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Trevor
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 09:49 AM

Just thought that Amos's original post on this thread was worth resurrecting as we battle on through stuff, large and small, world-wide or at home, personal and public.

Have a good day and enjoy your music!

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Deda
Date: 04 Jul 02 - 04:07 PM

Dearest bro -- That would be vox viri (the voice of a man), or vox feminae (the voice of a woman) or vox hominis (the voice of a person). Let me know if you want the plurals.

I hope there's a LOT of singing from sea to shining sea today. Let's all sing our little hearts out.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 10:00 PM

Re: Fraises

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:20 PM

Vox vir, vox Dei, in my lexicon! Or whatever the P.C. equivalent would be for a human individual.

Thanks, Deda!! I had a whale of a time!! Love that nephew for a folksinging fool just like his nuncle! And if I may say so, what I heard was you singing quite loverly and improving the revelries, nothing less!



A

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Deda
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 06:16 PM

Vox populi, vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God)is usually applied to elections, but it takes on a whole new meaning when it's about the sound of people singing just for the pure joy of it.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 03:26 PM

Oh! DUH! THAT's where he was! Good for you all! *G*G*G*G* happyhappy!!!!!

~S~

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Deda
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 02:46 PM

HEY AMOS! THANKS FOR SINGING with me and Adam and Gail and whoever else would pitch in. Thanks for singing and singing, hours and hours a day, until we were all just about hoarse. Thanks for remembering all the lyrics so I could sing along and look as though I remembered them, too. Thanks for singing whaling songs and railroad songs and pop-rock songs and hobo songs and protest songs and french songs and Irish songs and songs we learned from our Mum. Thanks for welcoming me to sing even though I can't be counted on to stay in the same key for three measures in a row. Thanks for sharing all the songs and the guitar-play with my boy. Thanks for being a conduit for the incredible power of singing -- it's the voice of God.

(We just had a GREAT, GREAT visit!)

Love, Deda

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 01:08 PM

The mariachi band strolls up to the table and grins at the man while his wife and daughter look away, somewhat embarrassed to have the center of attention brought to them. The man speaks quietly to the tall, thin Mexican with the violin, the band counts off and launches into Cielito Lindo with surprising volume, amazing tenor harmony, made flawless from frequent repetition. The black outfits carry sequins that glitter in the overhead light as arms and hands work the instruments. The song concludes to scattered applause and the man folds a bill and hands it to the fiddler.

The band moves to the next table, where a heavy-set hispanic man is eating with his wife and two sons. The man takes a sip of his Corona and speaks to the fiddler. The band measures the intro and the heavy-set man closes his eyes and begins to sing. His voice is a pure, arching tenor, not loud but clear as it reaches everyone in the restaurant. His children munch chips and salsa, in seeming unawareness that their father is transcending the mundane reality of dinner in a rather shoddy restaurant. The other diners, not as jaded, place forks and knives quietly by plates, fold hands, listen in awe. The unknown words in Spanish evoke emotion, more heartbreaking and beautiful in their mystery than clear comprehension could make them. Suddenly, the song ends, the last ringing echo of the voice dies in silence. Some applause, but mainly the resumption of suspended conversations, noise of utensils on plates. The man sips his beer and dives back into a plate of enchiladas, ignorant of, or too used to, the magic he has momentarily brought. At the next table, the mariachi band is playing Aye Como Va.

Thanks, A.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: DonD
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:34 PM

I only have trouble singing when I tear up and choke up at the wonder of ... singing! Especially when a group of like minded singers get together -- the larger the better -- to express their determination not to be terrorized, in song. Ain't music grand? Well said, Amos!

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 11:54 AM

Thanks for the sentiments, Amos. It makes me realize that there is a determination in a singer to find a way to keep singing. Our old session that used to be held in a great acoustic room was pushed into the dead sound space of the corner of a bar. I could cry to think of how bad it makes the session compared to what it used to be. Now it's hard to even hear a flute player across the circle from me, and impossible to hear a singer, when the sound in the original room used to ring pure and clear to all corners. I gave up trying to sing in the bar session, as now only the loudest of tunes go on there. I decided to find another location where we can have a session conducive to the inclusion of songs. I found a spot in a new coffee shop that will let us test out a session this coming Saturday evening, July 6, and if the staff approves, they will continue to host one there. It's painful to stop singing.

Alice

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: greg stephens
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 09:46 AM

Does this apply to the man who got such a hostile reception for singing too loud at the Lancaster Maritime Festival?

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: My guru always said
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 08:47 AM

Thankyou Amos - wherever we are. May you always have music!

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Hrothgar
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 05:18 AM

Is there any alternative?

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Trevor
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 04:52 AM

Brilliant Amos - I'm filling up!

As well as the folkie stuff that I do, on my own and with Rapsquillion, I'm in a little chamber choir, and last night was the AGM. We'd been going for about ten minutes before somebody said words to the effect of 'sod this, let's sing something...'.

Afterwards it was standing around the pianola singing old standards till late - never mind the buffet!

How can we NOT sing?

But I do worry about whether the assumption that other people will enjoy it as much is egotistical.

And I seem always to be hit with a dose of inarticulitis when I try to express these things, so thanks Amos.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Escamillo
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 03:45 AM

And thank you Amos for reminding us what's the value of what we do, singing from our hearts, even when we feel a little (or very) down, even when our voices are not in their best shape or our soul is in grief.

Un gran abrazo - Andrés

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Mudlark
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 03:30 AM

Ah, Amos....thanks for the thanks, thanks for being so eloquent on all our behalfs....

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 02:26 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 01:40 AM

Beautifully said, Amos. My great grandfather expressed it somewhat more succinctly, though considerably less eloquently.

He said,"God gave us music and laughter so that we'd have the strength to spit in the Devil's eye."

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:33 AM

Oh Amos, if only you knew.....

Basically exactly what Morticia said, with extra mush.

I'm still singing, despite everything, and you know, singing helps! You can (if you know the right songs) get it all out in a couple of song sessions, like some harmonized group therapy session!

(Thread creep alert - how's that for a song challenge?? A group therapy session in song titles... I'll start with.... ah, maybe not just here....)

I like the typo - enemies of friends! I trust you meant enemies or friends? Although sometimes it's really REALLY hard to tell the two apart....

Keep singing and smile as you sing.

LTS

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:18 AM

And a fine toast and fond good night to those who refuse to be terrorized -- whether by enemies of friends!

A.

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Barry Finn
Date: 03 Jul 02 - 12:13 AM

The song is more than the singer & both only exist because someone is listening & enjoying. Those that live to sing would never surive a winter of silence. Barry

Subject: RE: Thank You For Singing
From: Mr Happy
Date: 02 Jul 02 - 09:42 PM

ditto with knobs on