The Power of Great Music: Stevie Wonder, Flaming Lips, and Brandi Carlile 040322

Today I reflect on musical performances that thrust me through space, time, and reality. What's on your mind today? Here we go! Day 37.

“Opening Day at JazzFest, April 2019” Photo by Nice Beer Wagon Man

1. New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has always held a very special place in my heart. I’ve been half a dozen times, with the last being right after my wedding in 2019. (Featured photo above.) But there was one year, one insane night. The rains are so torrential that the festival gets shut down on Saturday night in 2016 after lightning strikes and the power goes out. Drenched through my tutu, tank top, and flimsy trash-bag poncho, braving the winds and walking around ankle-deep in my mud-soaked flip-flops, I still want more music. That’s what the musicians of New Orleans do to people, and I love them for it.

   The evening’s last performer, Stevie Wonder, comes onto the large Acura Stage a short while after the lights and sound go out across the fairgrounds. There is no electricity so he sings a verse, a cappella, of “Purple Rain” (as Prince had recently passed away) through a megaphone. What a sight!

   The drenched crowd of nearly 50,000 goes wild. Before Stevie gets led off the stage, he shouts out something to the effect of, “God bless you New Orleans! I love you! I’ll be back next year!” This is an emotional, life-changing moment for me, here at the festival fairgrounds. How do these locals deal, so often, with such destructive weather? But the people around me don’t seem to care. Everyone wants more music, and their spirit is almost unbreakable. I take Stevie’s words to heart and vow to return to JazzFest next year… and I do.

2. The Grand Point North Festival takes place on the waterfront in Burlington, Vermont every Fall. There was one evening when The Flaming Lips were performing, and it was raining earlier in the day. My husband and I are surrounded by UVM bros having the time of their life, drinking, smoking, and jumping all around. The smiles are contagious, the happiness is palpable. One of the bros offers me a hit of their joint, and I swear to you when The Flaming Lips come on stage, the skies parted into complete sunshine, the oversized FUCK YEAH, BURLINGTON silver balloons lit up the stage, there were humans in mushroom costumes, and I saw G-d in the light. I really believe I had a chat with a higher being in the colorful bright sky during that show. Thank you to the nice UVM bros, their magical weed, and to the ever-enchanting Flaming Lips.

3. Brandi Carlile. In 2009, she visited my jewelry boutique in downtown Northampton, MA. Brandi stopped in wanting to buy my life-size LED display tree lights for her concert that night at Northampton’s historic Calvin Theatre. I don’t know why I said they weren’t for sale (well, because they weren’t), but I regret to this day not just giving them to her. I was star-struck, and she left two tickets to the Calvin show on my desk.

   Her performance that evening was life-changing for me. I took my dad as my date even though he was hesitant as his mother’s health was declining in a Boston-area hospital at the time. Brandi sang “The Story” a cappella closing her set, and she moved the whole audience with just her voice. It felt like she was singing directly to my father and me about my grandmother. My grandma passed away the next morning, and ever since I’ve made sure to see Brandi in concert wherever and whenever I can.

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This is a special edition of “Morning After Thoughts” inspired by the incredible writer, Suleika Jaouad, and her Grammy-nominated partner, Jon Batiste (who I have had the honor of seeing perform a few times, including at JazzFest!) who gifted their readers with this writing prompt today in “The Isolation Journals” newsletter. (And thank you to my Aunt Jojo, who gifted me with this subscription.)

From sex and family drama to work woes and hangovers, what's on your mind today?