Yes, that’s it … open your mouth wide.  Let what’s inside come out.  Fill the room with the spirit of the song.

I did all that last night, singing “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” in the café at Minard.  For the first time in my singing life, I was more excited than scared.  Excited to share the sorrow of the person speaking … to empathize with another human being and hopefully have the forty people listening feel it too.

Before I sang, here’s about what I said:

I like singing songs about people whose lives are very different from mine.  This song is about a drug addict.  I know nothing about this life.  I’ve taken marijuana twice – that’s the sum of my drug experience.

And I don’t know depression.  I’ve often been sad, but not the lingering despair, the hopelessness, the dreams that have disappeared.

I want to feel these things and Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” helps me do that.

And so I opened my mouth and sent the words to the back of the room.  Lyrics that stab, such as “The beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert.”

I met people’s eyes.  Many of them met mine.  A young woman laid her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder.  The bartender near the back watched me.

Halfway through the song, I  forgot the next words.  And then came my favourite moment … I smiled.  It thrilled my soul to feel the lightness.  My singing was contact far more than performance.

Ten seconds later, the lyrics returned to my mind, and I returned to the emptiness of addiction.

***

As I had hoped

There was “Connection Two Ways”

With many listening

I’m glad