From the Desk of The DBeazy One-Man-Think-Tank

Lately, music has been the primary motivation for the lines that I compose and share. Today I am not veering from the path in that respect. I mean, I’m from Mississippi, the birthplace of some of the most significant music and performers to have ever pressed lips to a microphone, set pencil to paper in the composition of lyrics, or interacted with a musical instrument. I mean some of the biggest known performers ever, from Robert Johnson, who purportedly met Satan at the intersection of Highways 49 and 61 and sold his soul in exchange for his musical talent, to Elvis Presley who requires no further introduction.  In between, the state of Mississippi has produced such acts as Jimmy Buffet, Ace Canon, Faith Hill, Mickey Gilley, B.B. King, Chris Ledoux, Charley Pride, LeAnn Rimes, Jimmy Rodgers, Marty Stuart, Britney Spears, Conway Twitty, Mary Wilson, and Tammy Wynette, and many others. So the appreciation of music is in the soil here.

Most nights, music fills this very room. The human ear takes in the sounds and notes, the chords, the rhythms, and the words, that by some miracle, speak to the human spirit, extracting this emotion or that.  Sometimes, I’m singing along, loud and out of key, sometimes I dance with no witnesses other than my three dogs, Kanye B. West, Betty Wright Bracey, and Loretta Lynn Bracey. Other nights I attempt to play along with my guitar, still others, I pop a top or pour a glass and just absorb the music.

One morning years ago while watching an episode of Disney’s Donald Duck, I first encountered a phrase that caught my attention, well, not so much the phrase in and of itself, but as part of a memory from 32 years ago.  My eldest daughter, Brandi was about four years old at the time, and in the episode, Donald Duck was babysitting his three nephews, Huey, Dewy, and Louie. They were giving Donald a run for his money when he produced a book about modern child training and read the lines, “Music has charms to soothe the savage child.” It didn’t work out so well for Donald Duck.

The misquoted words from the Donald Duck episode come from seventeenth-century poet, William Congreve. Congreve’s poem “The Morning Bride” begins with:

“Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,

To soften Rock, or bend a knotted Oak.”

The phrase is also misquoted as “Music has charms to soothe the savage beast.”

So tonight in the year 2020, this room is filled with the sounds of musical instruments, and the voices of the likes of Jason Aldean, John Pardi, Gary Allan, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Sam Hunt, Kenny Chesney, Ashley McBride, Eric Church, and the list goes on and on and on. Though I could randomly pick any one of the above-listed artists and write volumes about the soul reaching emotions that they evoke, but like the list above that goes on and on, I felt most led to ponder the song “Songs About Rain,” by Gary Allan. If you’ve not heard it, stop reading now and give it a listen.

The song speaks of a man, music, and a broken heart. Even more, though, the soulful voice of Allan, and the crying steel guitar, paints an image that any of us who have lived more than a minute can recognize.  Heartache and heartbreak are a fact of life and if is the real deal, then it is often a pain that lives in us forever.

Riding and listening to the radio is a pastime that is barely remembered and practiced even less. I tried listening to the radio one day a few months ago and man, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. If one sought out to go out and ride and listen to the radio today, well, it would be an exercise with a lot more miles than music.

The song begins with Allan, though it could be anyone, riding around and listening to the radio on the night of the marriage of a former lover. On this particular night, we learn that it seems like the radio isn’t cooperating to lift the spirits of our broken-hearted hero. As the title of the song indicates, the radio keeps playing the songs, “Rainy Night In Georgia,” “Kentucky Rain,” Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain,” and “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again,” and he wishes that it was only the songs that were the source of his malaise and melancholy. Now that the life of his former love had taken a different course, he realizes that without her, he was left to be lonely, yet wishes happiness for her. Finally, he faces the inevitable question of the brokenhearted, “What might have been?

I recall a story told by my sister-in-law, Wendy Barnes, and a question posed by my then 10-year-old niece, Ragen. Sometime near the end of 2003, Wendy and Ragen were in a vehicle and listening to the radio. “Songs About Rain” had just ended and Ragen asked, “Wouldn’t it be good if all of those were real songs?” Of course, the question was hilarious, but also quite revealing of my niece. I remember being impressed that she was that observant of the lyrics to the song, and made the leap that real songs with those titles would have to be good. She is my niece and she is very intelligent, in part because she spent time with DBeazy in her formative years. Ragen, by-the-way is just a breath away from beginning her career as a pharmacist. I’m very proud of her and of the hard work, she has done to get there.

The heart of DBeazy has been broken many times. In fact, I’ve often said that the title of my autobiography would be, “I’m Down To My Last $8 And My Last Broken Heart.” Well, to be honest, it switches between that and “My Life; On A Quarter Of A Tank (or less).” But seriously, heartbreak is a painful experience. Heartbreak sometime comes out of the blue, with absolutely no warning. Sometimes heartbreak is expected, finally comes, and still just as painful. Then there are times when we have to choose to suffer a self-inflicted broken heart, just to allow another to move on or to see their own dreams come true. Personally, this is the heartache that hurts the worse because it most certainly breaks two hearts.

As I close, I look forward to the future and all of the songs yet to come about “babies and love that goes right,” and also, those future “songs about rain.” In fact, I’ll leave you with a bonus, there is a relatively new one by John Pardi entitled, “Rainy Night Song,” I give it a “two thumbs up.”

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