Carried by the Music

Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge performs Sunday night at the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta. Guitarist Mark Tremonti is in the background. (Photos by Wayne Smith.)

By Wayne Smith

Music, by some familiar favorites and a couple of new ones, did some heavy lifting for me throughout a difficult weekend.

It started with a new album from my favorite band, Foo Fighters. Their music has helped me through tough times over the years—songs that don’t just play, but build, rise and say something out loud when you need it most. Songs like “Walk,” “Times Like These” and “These Days.” And of course, “Everlong.”

The new album, Your Favorite Toy, was released April 24. I played it over and over, latching on to a couple of new favorites. One song in particular, "Unconditional," felt like it was speaking directly to me. The timing of its release came one day ahead of the one-year anniversary of losing Dorinda.

That feeling carried over into sunrise Saturday morning.

A new artist to me who I’ve gotten to know as a friend, Cowboy Johnson, joined me and a handful of others on the beach for a brief memorial ceremony. Cowboy, a regular performer around Gulf Shores, delivered three wonderful acoustic songs, including one of his own, “Old Friend.” It’s worth finding. It fits the moment.

Following the ceremony, I headed to Atlanta to meet my son, just trying to stay busy. We took in a baseball game Sunday afternoon—another win by the team with the best record in baseball through the season’s first month.

A concert followed nearby at the Coca-Cola Roxy, with Alter Bridge headlining.

Tremonti during one of his solos.

The band, led by Myles Kennedy, blends hard rock and alternative with touching ballads and melodies. The soaring guitar work of Mark Tremonti in songs like “Silent Divide” and “Open Your Eyes” was powerful, matched by Kennedy’s wide-ranging vocals.

It’s a band I’ve discovered over the past year, and a couple of their songs have taken on new meaning for me— "Watch Over You” and “Blackbird.” (Links worth a listen.)

Kennedy wrote “Blackbird” after the passing of a close friend, and it’s become something deeply personal for both the band and its fans. It closed the show Sunday night, with Kennedy and Tremonti trading unforgettable solos.

Kennedy and Tremonti.

And sitting beside my son, “Watch Over You” carried the full weight of the weekend:

“And who is gonna save you when I’m gone?

And who’ll watch over you

When I’m gone.”

Music has carried me a lot over these past 12 months.

The songs haven’t changed. But I have.

And they still meet me right where I am.

Songs like her favorite, "The Boys of Summer," by Don Henley or Tom Petty's "Have Love Will Travel." They’ve helped me heal—not completely, of course—but enough to keep moving, to keep breathing, to keep going.

Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

This weekend, it carried a lot of weight for me.

And it helped carry me through.

Bassist Brian Marshall with Kennedy.