soul music

http://lads.myspace.com/Embeds/SongEmbed/SongEmbed.swf

Si Beag Si Mor (pronounced Sh’Beg Sh’More) is an Irish ballad that is usually played slowly, hauntingly, sweetly, with a touch of ache to it.  I played it as my brother followed his wife’s coffin out of her funeral.  Dang, I can’t even type that sentence without crying. Back in college, three members of our orchestra were killed on the way to a gig, and we played a memorial service for them.  The brother of one of the victims was a conducting student at the university, and directed us playing Barber’s Adagio for Strings.  I can’t listen to that song anymore - I hear it and I’m transported to that moment, with the brother standing over me, conducting the massive crescendo so beautifully and perfectly while tears streamed down his face.  To this day I have to excuse myself if it’s being played, or I’ll lose it.  You can imagine - or maybe you shouldn’t - what it was trying to play while I watched my brother limp behind Megan’s casket.  I’d never have been able to play it Si Beag Si Mor again - if it wasn’t for this AMAZING version by Lissa Schneckenburger.  Instead of bringing up any painful memories, it dances.  Doesn’t it make your heart sing??  It reminds me that no matter what happens in this life, we have to find a way to keep smiling and dancing.  We have to.  So now, this is the version I play (Michael even talked me into playing a rockabilly version last summer - and as sacrilegious as it seems, it kinda worked) .  Every time play this, I feel Megan there, dancing, and I feel like I’m dancing along there with her.  Put a little dance into your day and have a listen.