Angel On The Road
Friday night we were wrapping up our sound check.
I said to Terry, let’s do just a little bit of “Unconditional Love” and I think we will be good to go.
About 20 feet from where we were parked, legendary artists were doing their own sound check in the barn. These were major artists who had performed together for decades. Janis Siegel sang for 50 YEARS with Manhattan Transfer and Lauren Kinhan is on a farewell tour with New York Voices having performed with them for decades. They both have numerous award-winning albums.
Terry and I have performed together six times, and this was our second “Live from the Van” event. We have released three songs on our new album. I am a newbie songwriter performing in a genre that is still relatively new to me after decades of singing classical music.
Are you getting the picture?!?!?
Anyone in my position might find their inner-critic raising its voice screaming very loudly:
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!??!?
Just about the moment my inner-critic started to yell those words at me…
Suddenly, an angel appeared right in the middle of the road! There was a small access road between the van and where the audience would be seated in about an hour.
Terry started playing the introduction to “Unconditional Love.”
She yelled out to me:
Angel - I love you! You are so beautiful!
Me - Wow, well thank you. You are beautiful too!
She stood in the middle of the road, all by herself,
dancing and swaying to the music.
When I began singing, she immediately grabbed her heart
and began wiping tears from her eyes.
I turned to Terry, she gets it!!! 😀
She really gets our song! I was thrilled and performed the whole song just for her! ♥️
A beautiful divine moment of love and connection was shared.
And then she was gone. She wasn’t there for our concert or for the legendary artists.
She was simply an angel in the middle of the road reminding me to just be my authentic self and share from my heart. I never saw her again.
Trevor, my former voice student, who is now a sound engineer, was recording our concert that evening. He said, “ Toni, that was soooooo cool!”
I was recording the whole thing! He quickly played back a moment of our interaction.
I hopped in the van, and the inner critic had no time to taunt me because of the love of a stranger!
Of course, I have so much more to share, but I do TRY to keep my posts short.
I am off to another adventure, and I will share much more soon.
We both enjoyed performing and attending the Lake Anna Jazz Festival
AND we booked some more gigs! 😀
Cheers to silencing your own inner critic.
I know each of you have things to share that are uniquely your own.
I hope my story inspires you to be your authentic self and share from your heart.
Love and hugs,
toni
P.S. - A huge shout out of thanks to Terry Laird for joining me on this journey.
It was a long haul from Branson, MO to Mineràl, VA and he did all the driving.
I took him to the Richmond airport for a very early flight back to Branson.
He will be playing tonight for the Carpenters Once More!
Now that’s a pal for you! Thanks Terry.
We will perform together again on October 18th at Unity of Fayetteville.
