The Swell Season

In reading this blog, you may have noticed that I love *magic* :: magic and inspiration and twinkly lights and introspection and really good music...I love it all. So you can perhaps imagine the sheer delight I experienced last night as I sat in the orchestra section of Radio City Music Hall listening to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (aka: The Swell Season) pour out their hearts under the soft glow of the stage lights. Grand piano, strings, transcendental harmonies, raw emotion. Yup, it was pretty much one of the best nights of my life. Or at least the best concert of my life.

There is something about their music. Perhaps it is the fact that they are in love. Their harmonies mingle and fuse together so powerfully and with such ease, it sounds like one angelic, other-worldly voice. It is not JUST the voices though -- it is everything. The emotionally raw and vulnerable lyrics, the strings, Glen's extraordinary acoustic guitar abilities mixed with Marketa's classical piano melodies...but I think part of the magic simply lies within them and their hearts. They exuded such humbleness and a child-like awe last night as they stood on that vast stage, large in their talent yet so small in their egos. Looking out over the sea of faces in this sold-out, world-famous concert hall, they exclaimed that this was "one of the greatest moments of their lives." And they SO meant it! You could feel the swell of emotion in the crowd -- we were all so proud of them! Proud of their accomplishments and so happy that their talent has reached us -- "the masses"...!

It was an absolutely beautiful night...a chance to get swept away in magic and thoughts about life and faith and art and music -- and I definitely did -- some ideas for new songs and projects are brewing inside of me now, and I *hope* to get the chance to grab that inspiration (which tends to be quite fleeting at times) and put it to use.

But for now, I must return to the half-packed suitcase lying in the middle of my room and continue my frenzy of folding and rolling and cramming. Tomorrow evening I will board a train that will take me to D.C. (and to my beau -- yay!) so that on Thursday morning we can BOTH board a plane that will take us to MEXICO (YAY!!!). There is a wedding to attend and dear friends and family to see, so I will be MIA for a bit, soaking up the sun and drinking yummy 'ritas by the pool :) I'll be back next week though, with more freckles for sure, and probably plenty of pictures and stories...

Until then...adiós!