Walking with Music.

This is without a doubt the strangest … and most depressing … time in my 76 years of life.  A new virus is sweeping the world and our country lacks the leadership to deal with it.   A racial divide which I mistakenly thought was far behind us has erupted in the face of police killings of black men.  Our government and citizenry are largely divided into extremes uninterested in compromise, led by a man who exploits division for his own gain.  And both my wife and daughter are dealing with breast cancer.

You don’t have to dig very deep on the internet to find articles on the effects of these crazy times on mental illness and as a man with a natural predilection to moderate depression (controlled in more normal times by Prozac), I need to use every tool at my disposal to keep from slipping into the black hole.   If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve seen my frequent post of photos from my daily walks.   Our new home in the community of Daybreak is laced with miles of walking paths and surrounded by the beauty of the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountians which is a salve to the troubled soul.   As is the exercise provided by the 3-4 miles of walking I try to get in every day.   But what makes my walks most beneficial (the secret sauce as Mickey Dee would say) is Walking with Music.  It may be music on my phone with a pair of Enacfire bluetooth earbuds or (when super high fidelity is prescribed) my AGPTEK H3 HIFI Bluetooth MP3 Player APTX High Resolution Lossless Digital Audio Player and 1MORE Triple Driver In Ear Headphones.  Sometimes the music is joyful and sometimes it’s sad or profound but it is always concert-hall loud.  Sometimes if no one is nearby, I sing along or play a little air-guitar or drums.  Frequently, the music touches an old memory and I find myself tearing up, sometimes in joy and sometimes in sorrow.  But always, it touches my soul and the grey-ghost of depression can’t stand that.

For years I walked to playlists … Bud’s Rock Tracks, Bud’s Uplifting Tracks, Heartbreakers … built from my nearly endless list of favorites.   But since the onset of COVID-19, I’ve dedicated each walk to visiting a particular artist from among the hundreds living in my device.  I hear tunes I haven’t heard in a long time.  I discover favorites that I forgot were favorites and artists that I’ve been away from for too long (some you’ve likely heard of … Fleetwood Mac and Carly Simon … and some you probably haven’t (Trijntje Oosterhuis or Return to Forever).  So, since writing here on Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog also contributes mightily to dispelling the grey-ghost, I am going to post occasional about the Walking with Music Artist of the Day and include one song that particularly touched me.  Maybe it can dispel a few grey-ghosts in some music lovers out there or just give them something to listen to.   Or not.   But if you stop by, leave me a like or a comment.  The grey-ghost hates those too.

Since I’ve gone on and on, I’ll close with a well-known artist that doesn’t need a huge introduction (at least for us older folks), Jackson Browne.  Browne has been writing and performing literate, passionate music since the seventies, often melancholy reflections on life and love or angry commentaries on injustices in this world.  In 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.   His Sky Blue and Black is on my perpetual list of favorite songs but as I walked listening to his Solo Acoustic album this week, another tune, These Days, seemed especially appropriate to our times.  Live, of course … he’s a remarkable live performer.   Enjoy.

 

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