Blog#98- 2/9/22
MUSIC
THE OTHER VACCINE
ByRichard Davis
We need all the help we can get in these difficult and crazy times. It’s worth reinforcing a piece of real news that tells us that music, whether performed or listened to, has the potential to provide the calm and respite from the storms of daily life.
Making music is not only fun, but it allows the performer to transcend the pettiness of daily life and move into a different world. The same is true for listeners. Of all the arts, music and painting provide a glimpse of immortality. We can listen to music and look at paintings that were created hundreds of years ago and they are as much alive now as when they were first offered to the public.
Art or music does not have to transcend to the level of wide popular acceptance, otherwise known as fame, to have the power to enrich people’s lives. I was reminded of this recently when my cousin in Maine released a CD of him singing original songs while accompanying himself on guitar.
Stan Davis is not rich or famous but his music is of high enough quality to enter that ethereal realm. In fact, there are many musicians around the world who have not pursued the route of intensive self-promotion and marketing because they want to offer their music to anyone who is willing to listen. They do not want to have their lives burdened with the weight of the high level marketplace.
We have many venues around the world for amateur and professional musicians who offer their music as a gift and as an alternative to the madness of the world. Some make a living at it and most struggle to pay the bills. It is the rare few who make it big and they pay a price for their fame and fortune. Musicians operating on that level may still be able to appreciate the transcendence of music but they have a lot more mundane distractions to deal with than the amateurs and the struggling professionals.
By way of example, I am including a review I did of my cousin’s new CD. It is what grassroots music is all about.
Once you listen to the CD “All They Know” by guitarist and singer Stan Davis of Wayne, Maine it becomes clear that not all the great musicians are rich and famous. Davis has been playing guitar and singing for almost as many years as he has been alive and since he has retired from his day job he has put his energy into becoming a more polished and more publicly active musician.
Davis plays at many local venues and he has a web site: www.standavismusic.com to share his music with people in as many ways possible. His recent CD is a compilation of original songs that he said, “…grew out of my careening journey through music and life. Some are rooted in my own history and experience; some come from an overheard sentence or a persistent memory.”
His music is familiar and original and listening to his CD allows you to step into his world for a brief time. It is a world that is easy to engage with and you can hear bits and pieces of the folk and rock world as it has existed over the decades since the middle of the last century.
For more information about this CD, visit standavis.hearnow.com. The official release date for CDs and mp3 downloads on Amazon and Apple music is March 20, but you don’t have to wait until then. You can get the CD or mp3s from him now through PayPal, or by e-mailing him, at: stanleyfdavis@gmail.com. The CD is $12 postpaid; a set of mp3s is $6. His music will provide you with a respite from the chaos we are experiencing. Much cheaper than a trip to a therapist.
