Sober - A Place in the Choir

from SpinTunes 20 Round 4 by Spintunes

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about

I spent a lot of time thinking about that damned library. How in some places, libraries are still vital places for community gatherings, of connection with your neighbors. That place of community for me is the local sailing museum, and the weekly music jam they have there. My partner and I moved from Texas to rural Maine 11 months ago, and I look forward to that jam every Sunday. The average age of musician and audience member is maybe 70. For many of them, it's the only time they get out each week. That museum jam is their library. It's their place for connecting. And on the Sunday jam the day this Spintunes entry was due, I brought a Zoom H4n recorder and had them sing the last two choruses.

These people, and everyone in Maine really, have been incredibly welcoming and kind to us. Our first winter here saw once-in-a-lifetime storms, bringing wind chills of -45 degrees. Our neighbors made sure we were prepared, and checked in on us to make sure we had everything we needed. We made it through just fine, but we would have been scared if not for the safety net of our community.

So yeah, this is a love song. For my partner, bravely taking on this crazy adventure with me - the Tolkien reference in the last line is because we just discovered that we each put the same "Not all who wander are lost" sticker on our respective first cars.

It's a love song for midcoast Maine, and the community I've quickly been made to feel a part of.

It's a love song for all the places that bring people together - museums, churches, schools, and libraries.

lyrics

We climbed the steps
Coming hot from the west
Leaving parts of ourselves with the people we left

We left our home
And journeyed long
But we followed the road on the back of a song

There’s a seat by the fire
There’s a place in the choir
Come on in, warm your hands
And sing

As we rode out the storms
We were never alone
Neighbors helping each other like we’d never known

We’ll take what comes
We’ll bear the cost
And wandering together we’ll never be lost

credits

from SpinTunes 20 Round 4, released May 2, 2023

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Spintunes Union, South Carolina

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Each album on this site contains the responses to a single challenge.