Music to My Ears

A couple of weeks after she was born, my little granddaughter Amelie went from being an angelic baby who slept a ton and rarely cried to screaming almost nonstop day and night ... and I do mean screaming. I'm not talking normal baby crying, mind you ... I'm talking blood-curdling, eardrum piercing, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking screaming. It wasn't that I didn't believe my son and daughter-in-law when they kept telling me how bad Amelie's screaming was or how many times she threw up ... it turned out that she had a bad reflux issue ... but I did wonder if perhaps they were exaggerating a bit because they were simply exhausted. It only took a few minutes after I arrived at their house to meet my newest granddaughter for me to realize that Matt and Becca were absolutely telling the truth ... I had never heard a baby scream like poor little Amelie. It also only took a few minutes for me to feel as helpless as my kiddos ... no matter what I did or how I held her, that baby screamed and screamed and screamed.

I think it was the second or third day I was there when I accidentally happened upon the one thing that seemed to help soothe my sweet little granddaughter. I was swaying her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth ... her little head on my shoulder and my hand under his little butt. I have no idea why, but I began to sing to her ... "I will pat your bumpkin, bumpkin; I will pat your bumpkin, baby girl." Don't judge now ... I never said I was a songwriter. For as terrible of a singer as I am ... for reasons completely beyond any logical rhyme or reason, that sweet baby girl found my crazy made-up songs and my lousy singing voice to be calming and soothing. Which is totally weird because my dogs howl and hide when I sing to them ... must be that Ghee/grandgirl bond I suppose.

So why am I sharing that story with you? To make a point, of course ... there's something just plain old magical about the power of music. It's so magical, in fact, that my awesome friend Jim just launched his new blog, Between The Notes. Check it out and then if you're so inclined, share it with your friends. You can trust me when I say that Jim's a great writer, he knows more about music than anyone I know and he's super cool. Oh yeah ... and he donated one of his kidneys to his brother ... how could you not want to read a blog written by a guy with one kidney?

http://betweenthenotesblog.tumblr.com/