in the service of the muse

Last week Z and I flew to Georgia for Thanksgiving, since T was deer hunting in Indiana. I had expected crowded airports and long waits, but the trip was actually the same as usual. No problems at all. Instead of the faithful Holiday Inn in Athens, we had to stay at the new Hilton Garden Inn. It's a great location, smack-dab downtown. Our room had a fridge and microwave, so we made our own breakfast every morning.

I could go on about the entire trip, but I feel like writing about the highlight. RY had taken some of Jessica's lyrics and composed melodies for them. Thursday night we went to her apartment and she played one for us. Nighttime Sunglasses. These were the lyrics that I could most easily imagine actually being a song, and R did a brilliant job of matching them to a melody. I can't wait for her to do the others and actually make a recording.

We sat in her apartment and she played guitar to accompany herself as she sang Jessica's words. I looked over and saw tears glistening in LG's eyes. Z's eyes were filling up as well. Me? I was just so pleased that one of Jessica's dreams was actually coming true.

R had prepared another song, but the lyrics were sad so I didn't want Z to have to listen, since it was apparent that the experience was very emotional for her.

Then yesterday I started thinking, wondering what Jessica would have thought of R's treatment of her song. Would she have been pleased? Would she have thought it wasn't "rock" enough? I simply cannot know; she was very unpredictable about such things. I think she would have wanted to work with R to get the song just the way she wanted it. But we'll never know. And that's okay.