For me, it was Neil Diamond – and I’ll tell you why. My brother, Phil, was 19 when I was born. (Mom had Phil when she was 19 & she was 38 when she had me. Talk about symmetry!) He was already out of the house by the time I arrived; his presence in my life was not a constant thing, shall we say. Until…

Phil was diagnosed with cancer in late 1973 – I was 11. He lived in Mississippi, but was undergoing treatments in St Louis, which was closer to us. So, I got to see him every month for nearly a year. I have more memories of him from that year than in all of the previous ones put together.

He loved (adored, worshipped) music. He was a teenager in the 50’s – go figure. I came home from school one day to find him sitting in the middle of our dining room floor, with my mother’s albums – ALL of them – scattered around him. He was “organizing” them. Oh yeah – and he was drinking a beer. I’d never seen a beer in my house before, so that was another shocker. (It helped with the chemo side-effects. That’s what they told me, anyway.) So, being the pesky little sister that I was, I asked if Mom knew what he was doing? He just looked up at me…”So, are you going to help me with these or what?” Okay! I plopped down next to him and spent the next several hours helping him sort the albums…listening to him explain who was who and who was the greatest whatever. That was just a little bit of heaven right there.

I suppose it was as a result of that lovely afternoon…at some point after that, Phil gave me an album – Taproot Manuscript, by Neil Diamond. He didn’t buy it for me – he gave me the one in his collection. Wow. He told me that he had a hunch that I would love it. I did…I do.

On side one are songs like Cracklin’ Rosie and He Ain’t Heavy…He’s My Brother; oh but it’s on side two where the beauty is. It’s ND’s exploration of the roots of black gospel & the music of Africa. (This was released in 1970…which predates Graceland by eons. Just sayin’.) One song in particular – African Suite (instrumental) – is still my favorite piece of music in the whole world. It just soars…and takes my soul along for the ride.

This Friday (Aug 31st) will be the 38th anniversary of Phil’s death at the age of 31; I was 12. I couldn’t listen to that album for a year. Too painful. Then one day…I played it. I let that music cover me and fill me and transport me to a place where joy resides. That was the gift my big brother left to me.

Sorry, Tori…not trying to take over your blog. LOL Just waxing nostalgic. And – it just occurred to me that Russ could cover Soolaimon and totally pull it off!

My story –

I was in the elevator once with Guy Penrod’s oldest son at Praise Gathering in Indianapolis when he was sent down to fetch coffee at the Starbucks in the lobby of the hotel!

And – Janet Paschal was in line for a cab a head of me. She didn’t even invite me to her wedding.

That’s pretty much it…except I get to chat with YOU FABULOUS PEOPLE every once in a while! I do need to get out more…

But now I feel led to mention the 2002 cruise I went on with my son and his precious wife. On the first day, seeing Donna carrying her camera I announced to both of them that I was not the kind of fan who wants either autographs or pictures taken with an artists. I just didn’t do those things. Not five minutes later, an elevator door opened and I gasped “Russ Taff” and with that I jumped nto that elevator pushing my way back beside a very open-eyed Russ holding a coffee cup to ward me off, I suspect. Poor Donna…someone managed to catch the elevator door so that she got on with me but Mark was left behind smewhere. I assured Russ all that I wanted was a picture of him….er, with me. He said as kindly as he could managed that it might be a good idea we wait until we get off the elevator, knowing full well I would be getting off on whatever floor he was getting off on. So much for blowing my sophisticated meetings with artists. I had managed to turn that upside down in one second of spying my Russ. Well, after all, he had been my very favorite for umpteen years and I had been telling everyone by e-mail to go by his table, get a hug for me (of course) and get a sniff….because he always smelled heavenly. Besides even with showers you didn’t have to put on anymore colonge for a day or two.And, I’m still his No. One Fan. Paul can’t touch my Russ with a ten foot pole. And his wife has written some pretty terrific lyrics. It’s not surprising that she admires all these other folks….but the Taffs have my vote everytime.

I am smitten with my own local singer-songwriter just now, so I so get your “tortured poet” line! Like you, I’ve spent many hours on Youtube checking out his tunes and various hair styles.

I would love to take you to dinner to hear your James Taylor story, but sadly am 800 miles from Nashville! However, I did visit your fair city 8 times between 1993-2004, mostly to attend Fan Fair. Speaking of which, as I type, I am thinking that I remember your husband having a booth there! Didn’t he try to cross over to the country side? Wasn’t his booth like right next to Marcia Brady’s??? (Maureen McCormick, who was also trying to cross over, though many years after the Brady Bunch!) Ahh, Fan Fair memories! The best!

You and I would probably have fun dinner conversation! We could play 6 degrees of seperation. I know people that know you, and I know people that know people that know you

I do believe I may have first heard “Graceland” at high volume at Mama June’s when you guys brought it along to share. We’ve done the good parenting thing by passing the love on to our offspring, (the bass solo in, “You can call me Al,” was wiggle-time when she was tiny – everyone in the vicinity had to stop what they were doing and wiggle.)

The Hubster and I went to see JT in concert several years back and towards the end of the night I remember asking the question, “can it be called a ‘mosh-pit’ when the median age of the moshers is 50-something?” And yes, I’m sure the technical term is “moshers.”

I don’t get “God chronicler by accident” either. (Don’t hate me or make fun of me! I have feelings.)

Is it just me or does Paul Simon and Bill Gaither have the same hair?

I love Ladysmith Black Mambazo! I have several DVD’S of theirs, including their concert at Albert Hall in London. Now, I don’t understand all their lyrics either—-they’re in Swahili or something, but their primitive harmonies give me goosebumps. I don’t know why.

I like your lyrics, Tori. I understand them. I can relate. But….I do have one burning question……and I guess now is as good a time as ever to ask……I’ve always wondered if I could have lots of love and still remain seated? Arthritis, ya know.

I really do agree with you on the celebrity converts—–are they genuine or not? I don’t like it when Christians all start speculating about stuff like that…..clamoring for them to join this group or that fellowship! Like you said, only God knows…..just like only God which ones of us are His. And secondly, it suggests that they are more important and have more influence than anyone else, when God says in His Kingdom the first shall be last and the last first, and He uses the foolish and common things of this world to do His work! A celebrity is just one more sinner saved by grace. Nothing less, nothing more. We should just love them………like a rock….like the rock of ages. I guess.

Did I ever tell you that JT’s brother Livingston was one of Megan’s teachers at Berklee? (I know I did.) And he arranged for JT to come and do a 2 hour seminar for his students and Meg was texting me cool stuff the whole time about the whole brotherly vibe and the music and all the talk about Carole King? And then when Meg graduated we got to see Leon Huff and Kenneth Gamble (of the Philadelphia sound)? AND I saw Barbra Streisand and James Brolin at graduation?

See? All.Over.The.Place.

But seriously,Jessie was the bomb and a lot of people didn’t realize what a musical history he had and if you weren’t (ahem) of a certain age you might not be aware of how many great musicians he worked with.

So,I’ve been away for a while.I didn’t realize how long till I started scrolling through 3 months of posts. Looks like I took the summer off. I’m baa-ack!