Welcome, thanks for stopping by. This blog is a place to honor the words chosen by songwriters, that blend with the right melodies to create powerful masterpieces that become the soundtracks to our lives.
I’ll confess—I’m an over-the-top country music lover. Each and every day, I seem to have a song stuck in my head, one that really sums up the theme for the day. I have a sincere appreciation for great songwriting, and love the way that certain melodies can mix with the right words to create a powerful force. For quite some time, I’ve thought it would be fun to write a blog about the words of a particular song—new or old, well-known or obscure, but I just needed a push to get it started…
Inspiration struck the first night of Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood’s record-breaking 11-show run in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I decided to start this blog by choosing a Garth song for each day, starting with Thursday, November 6—which was proclaimed “Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Day” by the mayor of Minneapolis—through Saturday, November 15, the last night of shows in Minnesota. Each day, I’ll post about a different Garth (or Trisha song) that has touched me in a special way.
Why Garth Brooks? Because he’s my musical hero. Garth’s music is the soundtrack to my life. Music means a lot to me, but no songs mean more to me than his. I’ve listened to his music on the happiest days and it’s been there to pick me up at times when it seemed like all hope was lost. His music helped me through one of the most trying times in my life. In October of 1997 I was a senior in high school, focused on where I was going to go to college. I was taking two classes for college credit and I was getting ready for big things. But one morning I woke up and found out that my Grandfather had an aneurysm. He was in surgery, and we didn’t know if he would make it. The three-and-a-half months that followed were filled with sadness, as I watched my biggest hero die slowly. Never wanting to be far away from him while he was hospitalized, I’d go there right after school and stay until late in the evening. So I had to do my studying in the family area at the end of the hall in the hospital…with Garth’s music to help me focus. “Fresh Horses” came out that fall and it carried me through one of the saddest and most challenging times in my life. The strength that Garth’s music gave me then is one of the big reasons I’ve traveled so much to see Garth live, it’s the reason he’s my favorite artist, it’s the reason I understand the power of music, and it’s the reason why if I could meet anyone in the world, I’d choose Garth Brooks, because I’d love to tell him “Thank You.”