monthly musings from JD
March 2009 - A Certain Sobriety
There is a certain sobriety about what I do.
It’s serious.
The things I write about, and perform, mean a great deal to me.
They are my life.
Ours.
I feel these things in my bones.
My guts.
My soul.
I believe them.
They are my truth.
I trust them.
My spirit transmits these issues to you, and you transmit them back to me.
Of course we have joyful moments, and silly moments, and sexy and naughty moments, but, for me, the meat on the bone is in the utter sobriety of the larger issues.
You’ve always allowed me this freedom.
You’ve nurtured me and allowed me to grow into these places even when I didn’t know that’s what was happening.
With my delicious cat Maggie sleeping on my lap as I write this, you should know that I can sometimes be overwhelmed by your understanding.
Tonight I sang at Grasso’s, out in Cold Spring.
Lovely place, this Grasso’s.
Lovely people who understand.
I sang my ass off.
A whole bunch of you showed up, and, tight quarters and all, we got down to business around 7:00.
With the incredibly talented Seth David Walter commanding the keys, and me just standing there singing (my favorite approach), I opened with ‘Song Of Bernadette’, the killer Cohen/Warnes piece.
It’s a very serious ballad.
The event was so serious for Bernadette that her entire life was forever altered by her experience.
It’s risky starting out a night with such a song. It can tilt the entire evening into a direction unintended.
‘that there is sorrow to be healed,
and mercy, mercy in this world………’.
Yes.
Because I risked starting with that sober thought, and because you allowed me, I knew at once that it had been the correct choice to start this evening.
Actually no other song would have been as effective for what I wanted to accomplish in the evening.
We were all reminding each other of the larger issues, right off the bat, and within the first 12 bars, we were all locked together as if we were all one.
We, of course, are.
We got silly from there.
Got mad.
Brushed against insanity.
Flirted shamelessly with some stuff.
Kept distant from others.
Ran all over the playing field together.
Laughed.
Winked.
Chuckled.
Cried.
Remembered.
Forgot.
Questioned.
And existed up to our necks in eternity.
Serious stuff, that eternity.
‘We get it right, every once in a while’ is how we left it.
Yes.
We do, right?
Tonight, at least for me, we got it right.
‘To think that I did not forget,
that child,
that Song Of Bernadette……………..’.
Came home.
Fed the kitties.
Scooped their box.
And sat quietly thinking about it all.
Like I say, there’s a certain sobriety in what I do.
I am honored to take us there.
Thank you all so very much for allowing me to go to that hallowed place.
And for understanding.
I remain your brother in the struggle.
James C. Dawson
2:24 AM, Monday, March 9, 2009
New York
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