More than a Sign
can i tell you a story? years ago, when i was studying for exams at u.va., i came upon an album. dave matthews tim reynolds: live at luther college. when i popped the cd in, i realized then that music can really change a person’s life and it can certainly help shape a life. something about the acoustic 2 cd set moved me to play them over and over and over again for the entire exam period. if you called me at 7am or at 9:30pm, you’d hear the album in the background. i never thought two guitars and one man’s voice could keep my attention for so long. it was that album that i credit for pushing me over the edge to chase my life as a musician.
the album became an obession. tim reynolds is a phenomenal musician and i learned for the first time the gift of a twelve string guitar. and whether we like to admit it or not, dave matthews is charming - in a goofy, obsessed with feces kind of way. i dissected the album. the songs. the playing. the banter. and i soon found myself in a local charlottesville cafe. and of course, i was listening to the album on my discman.
i got bored of studying of course. so what did i do? i got up to order food - eating can entertain me to no end. when i got up to the counter and waited for my food, i heard a couple of guys come behind me. the one fellow’s voice sounded oddly familiar. and he asked his friend to bum a couple of dollars off of him for a cup of coffee. thinking it was someone from school, i turned to offer to pay for him. when i looked back, it was none other than dave matthews - standing a foot from me.
i freaked. turned back around quickly. it felt like i willed him to be there and this eerie, wow there’s something cosmic happening right now feeling rushed over me. all i could do was sit down and catch my breath. i also ran home, check my horoscope for the day (which said that my dreams would come true), and wrote a song in 15 minutes.
i knew after that day that my life had been touched by something or someone with a plan larger than mine. years later, i am in a bit of awe at the way my life has bumped along. if you had told me that day i ran into dave that i would be producing my second album now, i’d have laughed. at that time, i could barely sing and play guitar at the same time!
a few weeks ago, i got an email in my inbox. some junk mail from a new credit card i got. something about advanced tickets to a dave matthews tim reynolds benefit concert on october 30th in LA at the wiltern. the tickets were mad expensive. and the concert was monday night - the night of my dance class. but i thought…you know what, you’ve just got to go. i bought a couple of tickets.
the day of the concert was the same day i finished mastering my new EP with the four songs from my upcoming album - one of my favorites is "coconut". when i got to the show and started drinking my wine and inhaling the secondary pot smoke, i started to sink into the evening. it occurred to me that once again, someone or something touched my life…maybe to remind where i’ve come from and and maybe to give me a hint of where i’m headed.