Music

I have been told throughout my life to "follow my bliss", to "do what I love" and the like. It has taken me a while, but I have come to discover that my passion lies with music. More specifically, live music, but music in general. I love music. Music of all types. People ask me what I listen to, and it's basically everything. I can recall my earliest exposure to live music being on Sesame Street. I recall watching Stevie Wonder kill Superstition.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE

It was groovy and made me move. My dad was a big influence on my early appreciation of music whether he knew it or not. We would listen to AM radio in the car. I remember lots of Motown. Jackie Wilson, the Four Tops, Stevie. I also remember finding a box of vinyl in the basement laundry room closet. Albums such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Are You Experienced" and a double cassette of Woodstock. It had to be an original release. I was maybe 12 or 13. Sadly, he didn't foster my interest, but I took it upon myself to dig through and listen to it all. I also remember the next door neighbor who was about 5-10 years older who turned me on to Queen and Kiss. I would queue up the dusty turntable and listen over and over and over again.

As I grew older, kids at school got me into the Doors and Led Zeppelin and eventually the Dead and a host of other good quality music. I remember going to CYO dances and just dancing till I was a sweaty mess. Songs like Rock n Roll by Led Zep, Jump -Van Halen. Into high school the Prep had the best mixers, and obviously wanting to meet girls, the best way to mingle was to dance. More sweaty Kevin on the dance floor.

Where things really took off was in the Fall of 1992. Actually after Christmas break. A fraternity brother came back with a new CD by a band called Phish. It was Picture of Nectar (http://www.phish.com/releases/detail.php?ID=51).

My buddy Chuck, Bob (who brought the CD) and I immersed ourselves into this new odd band. In February of 1993 we saw that they were playing not too far away in Bloomsburg, PA at the University. That's a whole other story, but after that show I recall my jaw being on the ground and asking, "Who the HELL are these guys? and when can I see them again?" This started a love affair that continues today, but more importantly taught me the value and magic that is LIVE music. As I mentioned , I spent a ton of time wearing out cassettes of studio albums, but never before did this improvisation and whimsy show its face to me. Phish also was and is still known for never playing the same songs in the same order from show to show. In addition, they wouldn't draw up a set list and ALLOWED tapers. So in the early days, cassette tape trading was how I got my fix. Yes, the ol' B+P's (blanks and postage) route. Find someone who had bootlegs, and mail them blank cassette tapes and money for postage to mail them back after they were dubbed. Now I could obsess over live music and see how these concerts were stitched together, one so different from the other.

I have since seen Phish upwards of 55 times, another band that I encountered in Colorado was String Cheese Incident (also about 50+ times). They too had the same improvisational, poly genre, taper friendly scene. The best part about Cheese was that they were small and even more unknown. So getting within feet of the stage was relatively easy. Being that close, I then was able to be face to face with these guys creating the music. Not just listening, but experiencing them bring it to life. It was and still is a thrill to see how they will communicate with each other during a song to take the tune one way or another, or to "pass" the lead. Not only that but to FEEL the music.

Music at the root is nothing but vibrations. Whether it's strings, or the beating of a drum, it's all vibrations. So to be at a show and stand close to the speakers, you can not only hear the music, but feel it. Heavy bass lines rumbled my chest cavity. This really touched me. Trey Anastasio, the lead singer and guitarist extraordinaire of Phish put it this way.

ANASTASIO: Well, purity of intent and playing in a way that is beyond the ego. I never even feel like I'm performing. I feel like I'm there to be an intermediary between music that's in the universe and the audience. It sounds silly, but I believe it more than I believe anything in my life. When I'm onstage I feel this incredible togetherness and intense energy that is like fuel for goodness. It's something that I've felt so strongly that in the last few years I started researching it, reading interviews with musicians to see if others have felt this way-and they have. I've read interviews with Brahms, Bach, Jimi Hendrix, Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, [jazz trumpeter] Art Farmer and many others and found similar themes running through them. All of them essentially say, "There are vibrations there, a natural order to the universe, and I'm not really making music. I'm just hearing it and channeling it so that other people can hear it." Everyone calls it something different-Brahms said it was coming from God and Sun Ra said it was coming from Saturn-but it's always a very similar experience.

It was when I moved to Colorado and got to know others who "got it" the way I did, did I feel comfortable knowing I wasn't alone...that I wasn't "weird" for being so into music.

Going to shows became my "church". It was and still is the 2-3 hours where I escape from the world and get lifted. I call it my soul scrubbing. Feeling the searing guitar licks in my toes and fingertips. Letting my legs and arms move on their own without thinking...a zen like state where I am feeling the collective energy of the room and the band all swirling around.

This is something that over time, has become and is an integral part of who Kevin Emery is.

Music has become the soundtrack to my life, and to steal from a good friend, "It is the route to my soul". Maybe it's my love of movies, but I feel like per my mood, there should be the proper music in the background. So many good memories have a song attached to them. As with the sense of smell triggering memories, so do certain songs.

For example. On a Halloween trip to Las Vegas to see Phish, at around 3am crossing the footbridge to the MGM Grand, dressed in an utterly repulsive 70's polyester outfit, what comes on the speakers, but "Stayin Alive" -Bee Gees. So apropos. Camping in the Rockies was made better with Tim O'Brien's "Lands End" as played by String Cheese during the first morning's cup of coffee by the fireside. Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" - the memory of my best friend Dave Laub.

All of these things and many more linked to a song. I sometimes stop and ponder what it's like for those who don't or have not yet embraced music in their lives. There are people that just don't listen to music at all or on a regular basis. I was married to one. To not have that color in their lives, almost is sad to me. If made to choose between losing my sight or hearing, I would choose my sight. To live in a quiet world without music would be an awful and hollow place.

I took up the acoustic guitar at one point. I wasn't terribly successful, as I am a more linear thinker. But in the time I spent, I did learn to play Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". I remember almost being in tears at the fact that I created my own music. ME! And so my appreciation for those with natural talent grew.

So to know me, is to know that I have a passion for music. A drive to see these blessed individuals come together to make this sound that penetrates deep into the soul and psyche to bring me and others to a place where happiness abounds. If you get annoyed at how much I talk about my favorite bands, or wonder why I spend my hard earned money traveling places just for "a concert", maybe you should give it a try. Or better yet, ask to come with me. I have turned a few people on to various bands in the years past. It's something that I love to do. The particular band may not be your cuppa tea, but at least you gave it a shot and opened your mind and heart to something different. To art, to the vibration. if it isn't that band or artist, maybe it's another. At some point, I think you will find it and feel how it plucks those strings deep inside you and connects you to others and the universe as a whole.