Listening to the Music Inside  (Rose City Lyricists)

When M walked into the chapel for Music Lab his first Sunday night, he was still recovering from intake trauma. During opening circle, M pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and explained that he’d written some lines at Coffee Creek to help him keep his sanity.

The group listened intently, as is our practice. After circle, with one colleague providing a melody, and another suggesting a beat, that fragment became “Tears Welling Up.” 

M sang this new song at the concluding open mic, accompanied by Music Lab House Band.

“Tears Welling Up” expresses specific sorrows, regrets, ambitions, and hopes for the future, using imagery of trucks and roads from the town where M grew up. It was greeted with whoops and applause, even by men who don’t like trucks.

Authentic, specific lyrics have universal appeal. M said it was the first song he’d ever written, and he smiled for what he said was “the first time in a long time.”

The man who cheered the loudest for M was P, a professional musician who, unlike M, kept his cards close to his chest in his first weeks with Rose City Lyricists. Years of formal music education, training, and experience had made him wary of musicians.

He had been reluctant to believe that a creative community could be as open and accepting as we appeared. When he looked and couldn’t find an ulterior motive in our group dynamic he joined whole-heartedly. Now he says, “I’ve never seen so much humility in so many talented people!”

P loves the creative energy of Rose City Lyricists. They’ve christened him “the professor,” and he gives guitar lessons in the yard; M is one of his students.

This is what happens when people are welcomed, heard, and invited to create. 

This is the work.