From the August 27, 2021 Blog: The Story Behind the Song, "Live With A Song"

It's getting more and more difficult to watch or listen to the news, right? Fires in the west, flooding in Tennessee, turmoil in Afghanistan and climbing numbers of people dying from COVID. Minor local bummers are favorite restaurants and locals businesses closing, some because they can't get enough people to work there. If we dwell on all this bad news, we'll sink down into sadness, and that's not helpful to our psyche or to our general health. Having a positive outlook helps us function better and think more clearly, but it's hard to maintain.

Music can save our sanity. Are you feeling blue and listless and trapped? Is fear
robbing you of peace, or motivation to be productive? My advice is to make yourself put on your FAVORITE music and dance to it. Really. In your living room or bedroom where no one is watching. You might feel silly, but it works.

To take a break from dancing to rock songs, next put on Paige's waltz, "Live With A Song" (click on the title) or to hear it using Spotify, click here. It was originally titled "Celebration" and over the years I edited it, keeping the theme of "black and white words" with music giving them "color". The second verse was inspired by the 1994 movie, "The Shawshank Redemption" a truly classic film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Here are the lyrics: "If I were a prisoner, locked up and alone, I'd still be singing songs and music I have known, and bring it along". In the film, Tim Robbins plays a prisoner who is locked in solitary for several days. When he emerges, his fellow prisoners are pleasantly surprised that he seems to be okay and asks him how he stayed sane. He points to his head and says he had "Mr. Mozart" with him. Music saved his sanity.

If "Live With A Song" doesn't become a favorite of yours, that's okay as long as YOU are okay. Many times, music has lifted me out of depression, but I had to make myself play it, listen to it and then dance to it. After the 3rd song, you should feel better, just as I have.

As for me, I'm grateful that a local writer, Amanda Socci interviewed me and gave her readers a review of many of my original songs. Her monthly newsletter is available by subscription — click here for the link.