I listened to this song three times before I decided to write about it. This prompted me think about why we relisten to songs. Do we pick songs we know to match and reinforce our current mood? Or do we pick songs to alter our mood towards a more desirable one that we recall during our previous listen?
When I first heard this song, I liked the way it made me feel. Then afterwards, I wanted to listen to it again to emulate those same feelings in subtle variations. Like feeling the wind blowing from slightly different directions. Like a tap dancer touching a different spot within the same circle. I find no two listening journeys are ever the same; we start listening in one mental state and end up somewhere else.
And so, I have clarified my understanding of the metaphor of ‘the song’. The song is not the destination, the song is the compass, and we follow it’s direction from wherever we find ourselves. With every listen, we go further in the direction the artist established. We started there, now we here.
Joey’s compass leads us by the scenic route, by the place where we can dote upon and imagine beautiful things. Beautiful things such as the flutist Anne Drummond’s melody. Joey models this through his own piano performance. There is some kind of meta-dance within his playing in that he is both observer and participant. Joey’s vibrant style and reflective phrasings are bursting with expression and is instructive of a delightful way to approach life.
Then you realise that it is the Kendrick Scott on drums. Within the opening 14 seconds, Scott manages to communicate everything we ever need to know about musical rhythm, style and grace.
poetic reverb 