At this moment I am listening to the new mix of the music I sang on last weekend.  All I can say is …Wow.  Jeff (Jefferson) Carpenter knows how to turn those knobs.   I sang about it.

Thanks to goes to all the players on this thing.  I am not going to mention them all individually right now.  That day will come.  Right now I am enjoying their gift of music and the way they bring the music forth.  It is truly amazing.  Did I say I was fortunate?  I just sit here and shake my head.  Maybe one day a few of you will get to hear some of this.

Tonight is a big night for the North Harrison Lady Cats.  They are playing the Charlestown Lady Pirates  for an Indiana High School Sectional Championship.  The winner gets to move on to the Regional, ironically at Charlestown next week.  The winner gets to keep playing.  The winner gets the good sweet memories.  The winner also gets a nice trophy to put in the school’s trophy case.  Last night the Lady Cats dismantled the Corydon Pantherettes 55 to 11.  With that game well in hand in the third quarter, my dear wife, Carrie and I headed to the exit.  We drove into the cold Southern Indiana night sky…dodging a few deer on the way…to the Class A Orleans Sectional.

There were a few seconds left in the 1st period as the West Washington Lady Senators, coached by my old friend Darrin Russell, took on the Medora Lady Hornets when Carrie and I got there. They just stopped collecting the 6 dollar admission.  We were not disappointed with that.  The game was not a match.  West Washington won easily.  But I can tell you that the Medora team, small and mighty, did not give up.  They did not quit.  They did a great job.  I was proud of them and my friend, Brad McCammon, their coach.

Right now I am listening to a cover tune we recorded.  It is the first of such I have ever attempted to undertake.  I recently heard a nationally famous recording ladyperson say how singing the National Anthem was difficult.  Like many I have heard talk about singing it they call it a “hard song to sing”.  I have never thought that.  I have sang that song on occasion.  It is a pleasure to sing.  The song, no matter the national horizon, is still “our song”.  I enjoy singing it and I don’t think it is difficult.  Singing the chorus of “Nights in White Satin” is much more demanding.  I just listened to myself sing it.  We pulled it off.  But…it sounded like paint was being gently ripped away (in a good way) as that chorus was going on.  It sounds good…but man is it a powerful tune.

I suppose it is what you put into it.  It’s like that for most things though, isn’t it?

The greatest compliment I ever received from singing came from my friend Pat Bahan, a former Army Ranger, when I sang the National Anthem at a high school basketball game.  Pat told me it was the best rendition of the song he had ever heard.  He said that is how it was meant to be sung.  Hearing those words was a humbling experience…but one I will treasure.  He didn’t have to say it.  He did.  He didn’t have to mean it.  He did.  That is what makes it so very special.

And so it goes.  The song of life keeps playing along.  We all have an important stanza to offer.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson