February 23rd marked 9th time I’ve seen Josh Ritter perform in concert. If I were to count the time I saw him play at a peace rally in Friendship Square, it would be the 10th. I basked in the feel-good glow for a week after the concert. I love the aftershocks of amazing evenings.
I fell in love with music the first time I saw Josh Ritter live. A heady all-encompassing love. I’d always liked music, and certainly had plenty of it but had never listened to music that moved me. I never felt the charge of live music. Had never felt like a song was written just for me, or have a song connect with in every fiber of my being. I was 21 years old and sitting in an uncomfortable seat in the Kenworthy theatre, flanked by my parents, and when Josh sang his songs with his eyes closed and his puppy dog smile…. That was it.
It’s been seven years since that first concert and he still sings with his eyes closed and a puppy-dog smile on his face. I still hear the music speak to every fiber of my being. The difference is the memories that are attached to every song. The roller-coaster of emotions that make-up the concert. Giddy happiness from being at the concert, the loneliness of the songs I used to listen to when I lived so isolated in Lewiston, and then there was the aching sadness of “Lantern.”
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It’s been quite a year, Internet, since I last wrote. Well. I guess every year is “quite a year,” but I still feel like I have a hangover from the end of 2010. All is looking up though. I’ve moved in to a new apartment that’s all my own. I have exciting adventures lined up, and I see signs of spring everywhere.
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