A Letter to Gino

Can't believe it has almost been 6 months since I last blogged.

I have just not been "feeling it". But, now, I have that old creative urge again. All of my chakras have been "blown open", thanks to the music of one man, Gino Vannelli.

Music has always been the surest way to my heart, yet my wounded cardiac region was not getting its recommended daily dosage of melody and harmony. Not for a long time. Weeks would go by between songs I'd hear. I had totally shut down.

Until last week and Gino reentered my life.

I actually wrote Gino Vannelli a fan letter of thanks. Thought you'd like to read it:

***

Gino,

I can't begin to explain what this past week has been like for me.

Exactly one week ago, my sister, Linda, posted a YouTube video of you from the 1970's singing Brother to Brother. I watched with awe (at your hirsute beauty) and listened with my heart, as well as my ears.

I discovered this music towards the end of your giant arena career, in 1979, when I was beginning several years as a small-time lounge and hotel band singer. I remembered that I listened to your music every night, while getting ready for a gig - using it as inspiration to pump myself up for my own performance. You were in my head, day-in and day-out, and traveled with me from Indianapolis to Richmond to Montreal (where I sang at the downtown Sheraton).

My dissatisfaction with the life of an itinerant singer is what made me give up the traveling life and take an office job. I became a weekday warrior and a weekend chanteuse. I still played Brother to Brother and Pauper in Paradise as I applied my makeup.

Then, my turntable became obsolete and my cassette deck broke. And, I switched my voice work from singing to broadcasting. Off and on, I have toiled in the trenches behind the mike. In time, your music faded to the background of my memory.

And then, last Sunday, everything changed with that YouTube video. I became a voracious devouerer of your music, surfing from one video to the next, listening, remembering, and yearning with a hunger I hadn't felt in years, to sing. Your music has opened up a heart that has been wept closed for years.

As a thank you, I got part of "Measure of a Man" played on 525 US radio stations last night, on the overnight radio show, Coast to Coast AM, where I am an assistant producer.

It was the least I could do.

Thank you Gino.
Anne

***

I feel ALIVE again.