"If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work" 

 -Levon Helm

People die all the time. Death is a profound mystery, as much a part of our journey as life on this planet. But there's always something especially profound to me about the death of someone whose life was that of a musician and a songwriter and a singer. Like many others out there including myself, Levon Helm was all three. The very fact that someone can be so full of music and musical expression on a level that captivates an audience and transcends the listener to another place and time...the fact that we all go to our grave as songwriters, musicians and singers with so much music still left in us, and then we're silenced, is itself a profound mystery. But death is the grand finale of life. Music, for us, is our legacy. So what will my legacy be? What will your music legacy be?

 As I was reading through various articles and clips of Levon Helm and The Band at the time of his death, I came across something Levon was quoted saying "If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work." The more I read and re-read that line, the deeper I connected to it. And, the more I began to understand what my own musical journey has been about and continues to be about.

I grew up as most musicians do, first, discovering I had talent, or as I refer to, a gift. And then, as most musicians do, I embarked on what has been a lifelong experience of performing and growing as a songwriter, singer, and musician. Looking back over all the years on stage, in rehearsals, in the recording studio, and alone at the keyboard writing songs, I know for a fact that what Levon Helm said is true,"If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work."

Whether it's country music, jazz, soul, folk, rock, blues, or the countless different styles of music out there globally, it's that place...inside of you...that determines the power and beauty of the song.

With that in mind, as musicians, writers and singers we perform or communicate our music in one of these three ways (speaking live performance-wise):

1. There is music that is simply the equivalent to background music for a cocktail party or a wedding reception, where no one is really listening to what the music is.

2. There is music that we perform, say a list of cover songs, or even original songs, for a more attentive audience. And if performed well, or even impressively, most likely the audience will be appreciative, or at least give a smattering of applause. I would say most performers strive for this.

3. But the "third" type of music is what Levon was talking about. It doesn't matter if it's a cover song or an original. It doesn't matter if it's heard by only one person, or a concert hall. It's music 'from the heart.' The late, great Grover Washington Jr. is one of my favorite sax players of all time. What made his tone and his thoughtful choice of melody so beautiful and moving to me, was that he played it from the heart. From his heart.

When I was in my 20's, I became friends with Paul Davis. We actually met by way of a song I had written, "Love's Got a Hold On Me." A singer I was working with came to me one day and said "Paul Davis really loves your song "Love's Got a Hold On Me" and he was wondering if you would mind if he wrote a bridge to your song?"  Of course I said "of course I don't mind!"... Paul had written a long list of hit songs by then, (I Go Crazy, Do Right, Ride 'em Cowboy, Sweet Life, etc).

I later went on tour with Paul Davis as his keyboard player and backup singer when he released the hit songs "Cool Night" and "65 Love Affair." Paul was a great songwriter. His lyrics were about real life, love, heartache, experiences of life, the good and not so good. And he wrote and sang from the heart. When we appeared on American Bandstand with Dick Clark, after finishing our performance of '65 Love Affair, Dick Clark approached the band and told Paul how much he loved his music, how Paul's music made him feel good when he listened to it. And then Dick Clark asked Paul, "what's your secret for writing songs?" Paul said "I just decided to quit trying to write hit songs and decided to just write from the heart."

"If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work."

Life as a musician and a singer and songwriter is not easy. There are moments, if we're lucky, when we are on stage and make the most profound connection with the audience, and the power of that connection is so strong it's euphoric. It's when your music is coming from the heart. Those times when I've lowered the bar and did not sing and play from the heart but instead simply went through the motions of performing a song, even if the audience seemed to enjoy it, have always been my least fulfilling experiences. I even decided NOT to perform live for years, because I refused to perform cover songs. But something happened during that hiatus. I continued writing and recording and discovering my potential as a singer and how to relax and allow the music to be a part of me, a part of my body, my spirit, an outward expression of emotion, and my connection with the songs became deeper and deeper.

The reason I had stopped performing was because it no longer came from my heart, and because of that, it didn't work. Granted, I could have continued performing nonstop all these years. Many have and many do. And I understand we do what we do to survive. But music is valuable to me. And in order for it to come out of me, I can't just go through the motions. There's nothing distinctive about that. There's nothing personal about it when you just perform the song because it's on the set list.

When it comes from the heart, music can be breathtaking...that spiritual connection, that sensual connection...it removes the wall between you and the listener. They are no longer listening to you. They are experiencing your music, on a very personal, emotional and sensual level.

I cannot write a song unless it comes from the heart. I've walked away from more songs I didn't finish because they did not come from the heart than you can imagine.

 I recently began performing solo in the NYC area. I'm very selective about what songs I cover. And when I perform a cover song, before I sing that song in front of an audience, I sit at the piano at home and go over the song, over and over, until I feel a personal connection to it, until I've finally made that song "my" song...as though I myself had written it. Because if I don't sing it from the heart, no matter what the song is, it "doesn't work"....

Write from your heart. Practice your song until you play it from the heart. Forget about the notes, forget about the range, SING from your heart. And then when you get on stage, look at the audience, tell yourself "I am going to sing to you"...and then sing and play from the heart. That, my friends, are what great memories are made of.

"If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work."