Round here buzz, and a flannel shirt.

What is it about the things that pop into our life, into a sudden moment, that make us feel immediately nostalgic, immediately comfortable.  What are these "old favorite sweatshirt" things in life ?  Those things that wrap us up in comfort and make us feel safe and sheltered. They are things that make us feel the peace of a better time in our life, where there was more control and less chaos, more certainty and less of the other.  These "things", whatever they are for us, they are the special things in life, they represent a thing or moment when life was good, safe, nurturing, amazing.  Songs often do that for many people, as they do for me in turn.  

I just downloaded this album by Eric Church, "Mr. Misunderstood". This entire album immediately gave me these feelings, but none like this song "Round here buzz".  Now, you may not like Eric Church, you may hate country music, and that is fine. Most of the modern day country music is noise to me as well. I am more a traditionalist, I am a George Strait, Alan Jackson time frame lover, I do not go all the way back to Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, or George Jones, but perhaps in time. But, there is a new breed that had taken to my ears, the likes of Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton, mind you, these guys are mostly considered the new wave of the old greats so perhaps my ear is not far off the mark of the good old stuff.  None the less, my point here tonight wasn't to tell you what I like to hear, it was to tell you what I like to feel. And, like you, I like the feel of that old favorite flannel shirt or sweatshirt, and I like songs that make me feel safe and comfortable, that remind me of days long gone where there was more happiness and joy rather than struggle and pain.  

We all like that familiar "Round here buzz" in our life and when they come to us, life is good in those moments.  Right after I heard this song while on my long road trip back to my home town, this song marked the moment and the journey, and of something familiar and gentle in my past. It was the perfect moment, driving back to a place where life was simpler many moons ago. I had on an old flannel shirt, a well worn in pair of Levi jeans, a pair of softly weathered leather boots with the window down in my truck, in this case with the cool of the night time air brushing across my arm while it hung outside the window of my pick up truck. There was something perfect in the air, the music, the feel, the magic,  I know you know what I mean, it has happened to you, too.  You know, the feeling of those moments, the feelings you wish could wash over your entire life, and never go away.

Isn't that what we are all searching for in life ?  That state of perpetual joy and comfort in life, where everyday is a ride to nowhere in particular, the windows down, flannel shirt rolled up to the elbows, a well worn in baseball cap, and a good old feel-good familiar tune playing on the radio. One that brings back that old "Round here buzz".  

So, do me a favor, just for 3 minutes, let me take you somewhere.  Turn off the lights, close your eyes, put yourself in a favorite shirt, a favorite pair of jeans, roll down the windows in your favorite automobile, put on a song, perhaps in this case mine (click the red play arrow), hang your arm out the window into the crisp night air, and imagine you are driving , driving to that place you long for, and maybe even belong. That place of fond memories, of good times, of old friends, of laughter and love and peace.  That place where there is that "Round here buzz". 

-Shawn