Wedding Rings on Strings
I hope you don't mind
This past weekend my wife and I celebrated 23 years of marriage. Twenty three years is a long time for anything and we’re pretty much at the point in life where we get each other the same gifts. She had mentioned the other day that that we had danced to Elton John’s “Your Song” at our wedding reception and wanted me to cover the song for her at a performance this past weekend.
I worked with it for a little while last week and realized how good of a song it is—from the lyrics to the chord movements—it’s a really solid song. Since I don’t currently play with a cheat sheet (aka iPad) I was unable to pull off a cover in less than a week. Too many chords and lyrics to memorize.
During my set Saturday night my daughter came up and asked me if I was going to dedicate a song to Charla for our anniversary. “Dedicate a song? I WROTE her a song.” It’s called “Sweetest Kind” and I dedicated it to her a couple songs later. It may be one of the catchiest songs I’ve written and I’ll share a demo of that song next week.
The thing about entwining your life with someone is that it often shows up in the weirdest ways. I was listening back to an early demo version of my song “Devices” and realized near the end of the song there is this brief buzzing sound on the guitar strings. It adds this human quality to the whole thing. That brief buzzing sound near the end is in fact my wedding ring making contact with the strings. It shows up briefly as if to remind me that even when you think you are doing something alone, the presence of those you love still shows up.
Sometimes audibly!
“Devices” demo (listen below)
This early demo of “Devices” would become a new start for me musically. If you listen closely when you get to about 4:09, you’ll hear the nice little buzz created by my wedding ring.
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Since I was unable to play “Your Song,” I thought I’d get my wife the anniversary gift of a vinyl record that contains the song. Turns out she thought the same thing and we each gifted one another with the same Elton John record on August 10.
Here’s to 23 more!