Believing in music!!

After seven months, I am back.

OK, maybe it’s not quite that dramatic, but this is my first blog post in a little over seven months. It really wasn’t planned that way, but just happened. 

I had total knee replacement surgery on Nov. 29, exactly seven months ago today. I went in thinking I would be in the hospital a night or two, would come home and be somewhat back to normal by the end of January, at worst.

Let’s just say I must have been overly optimistic.

I won’t go into all the details of my recovery, but most of the time, there is no pain in my knee and absolutely no pain radiating into my hip and back, as had been the case. That’s good. Real good.

In addition, I am about 30 pounds lighter. I am tickled with that, too.

However, I don’t have the range of motion I want, but pedaling my bike up and down the roads near my home has begun to help.

A few days after knee surgery, I asked for my guitar.

Yet, the thing that surprised me most was the mental fatigue I experienced, both at the physical therapist’s office and at home in between those sessions. I can’t describe how it felt but just know it was there. Because of that, I really don’t know how I would have made it through without music. More than anything else, my love of music kept me going.

And, being able to hear the joy of music was a welcome sound amid the noise and confusion of the world around us as seen on the 24-7 cycle of broadcast news.

I might have been trying to play anything from “Are You Washed in the Blood” to “Folsom Prison Blues” to “Take it Easy” on my guitar.

I might have been playing a CD or listening to Pandora. And, on those days when I was lying flat on my back, hooked up to a continuous passive motion machine, being able to pull up YouTube videos on my iPad was priceless. I think I memorized the entire video library of The Whites and Don Williams during that time.

And if you know me, you know I am a huge fan of The Oak Ridge Boys, back to the days when their hits were “Jesus is the Man for the Hour” or “While I’m Here.” Yep, I found videos that took me back to the days of plaid coats and pork chop sideburns that were in their heyday when I was in high school.

Triumphant imitated the Temptations during their concert.

Through the pain of recovery, music was there. Over the last few months I have been blessed by two of my favorite gospel groups, The Booth Brothers and Triumphant. I got to enjoy pianist Jeff Stice just a few weeks after my surgery. All performed at Sand Spring Baptist Church, just down the road from me.

Country singers J.D. Shelburne and Hannah Blaylock rocked my hometown of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky in May. Even though it rained right up until show time, we had a blast.

And in June, I was blessed to hear The Martin Family Circus – they are AMAZING – and just last Saturday attended at least my 33^rd Oak Ridge Boys concert. Those guys just keep going singing uplifting songs about loving people, loving the country and loving the Lord. After all, that is what it’s all about.

And that brings me full circle.  

The Oak Ridge Boys were incredible, as usual, for my 33rd show.

iMy mother probably developed my love of music. In addition to going to all of those “singings” – some of which lasted well past midnight – she played piano at Corinth Christian Church for 57 years and still sits in her wheelchair to play when she can at her nursing home.

Yesterday, her back was turned to me when I visited her. She did not see or hear me walking up behind her, but I could hear her. She was loudly singing the gospel classic, “The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference.”

It was what is important to her.

Over the last seven months, I’ve learned just how important music can be and truly relate to what Mac Davis meant back in the 70s.

I could just sit around making music all day long

As long as I'm making my music ain't gonna do nobody no harm

And who knows maybe I'll come up with a song

To make people want to stop all this fussing and fighting

Long enough to sing along

Yep, I believe in the universal language. I believe in the power of music and hope you enjoy that power too.