In the midst of our ongoing COVID-19 shutdown, I find myself drawing inward, and while I am still perusing social media somewhat regularly (namely, Facebook and Twitter), I find that most of what I see there falls into one of three categories: 1) the news (which is generally terrifying), 2)  inane drivel meant to occupy the mind for a few minutes before moving onto the next shiny thing, or 3) brilliant posts from kind, generous, lovely people doing things to make the world a better place in whatever way they know how to do and can. I’ll let you guess which of these three keeps me coming back for more… 😁

Anyway, more to the point—I was challenged by one of my friends in EMU Choir to participate in one of those “14 Songs in 14 Days” kind of things, where you list or discuss 14 pieces of music that have had a profound impact on your life! Seeing as to how I have an abundance of time on my hands that I’m using only semi-usefully to this point in the quarantine/ isolation, I figured why not step up my game a bit and use this challenge as the theme of a blog post series. After some brainstorming, I came up with, well, far more than 14 songs, so some may be combined into the same day based on the time period in which they were most meaningful to my life. I’m thinking it makes sense to organize this roughly chronologically, so I’m starting out with the first piece coming from my early childhood—”His Eye is on the Sparrow.”

There are only about half a million video recordings of this song to choose from out there on the Internet (at least according to a Google search!), and that’s not including audio-only versions! Clearly it’s a popular song, and if you’re reading this, chance are you’ve at least heard it before. If not (or if you need to hear it again), enjoy this recording of David Phelps (fittingly chosen, he’s a tenor of Gaither Vocal Band fame):

This song stands out as one of many that I recall hearing on a regular basis growing up in the Southern Baptist Church, as a music minister’s kid (hi Dad!) It was one that he sang at various points as a solo, though I can’t remember what the occasions would be. Eventually, it became one that my sister would sing as well. I’m not really sure why (problems with nerves in front of audiences, perhaps!), but I never did much in the way of solo singing until I was in high school. Thank goodness I got over that. Mostly… 😁

As hinted at above, there’s more to come in this blog series, so I’ll be back with you tomorrow! I guess 2020 will be the most active year of my blog in a loooooong time!