Sing My Memory

Sing My Memory
(kathy hussey / jim savarino)

Well I went to see a healer
In her house upon the hill
But the healer wasn't healing
It was she became so ill

And as I held her in the darkness
And soothed her fevered brow
She said take these robes of healing
Cause you're the healer now :||

As I walk the foggy highland
There's nothing on my mind
Just half formed shreds of memory
From some forgotten time

My family and my loved ones
They don't know who I am
I'm just a ghost they cannot see
A shadow on the land :||

Love may come and love may go
Life may ebb and life may flow
Remember me when I am gone
Sing my memory...in a song

I know that I'll be with you
Whatever road you take
I'll be in the air you breath
And every song you make

Though years may bring the curtain
to mark the final hour
Nothing will replace the time
Of love's bright burning flower :||

Love may come and love may go
Life may ebb and life may flow
Remember me when I am gone
Sing my memory...in a song

<---previous song next song --->

The Story:

June 13 2002

If you tend to be cynical about unexplained spiritual experiences, talk of past lives
and things like that, you should move on...this is a very strange and mystical story,
and to me, perfectly plausible.

Several years ago, while teaching a songwriting workshop in Colorado, I met a
woman who had the gift of being able to "read" people. She didn't fully understand
it, herself, but basically she would sit with a person and focus her attention and
energy on them, and she would be flooded with images that she would then relate
as they came to her. She and I sat in the middle of the Yampa River one afternoon
and she read me. To her surprise, the images that she got for me were more specific
than usual, and in the form of a story - she was absolutely certain that what she was
seeing was a past-life scenario, something that she hadn't ever experienced before.

The story: I was on the run, in fear for my life, in possession of an ornate dagger
that I had to hide before it was discovered by the "enemy". I was the last in a long
line of women Healers, and the most powerful yet - sort of a "chosen one". The
impression that she had was that it was probably Scotland and that the persecutors
were Christians who viewed us as witches. There is much more to all that, but one
of the things that she was sure of, was that I have had one person with me over the
course of MANY lives and that I hadn't met that person yet in this one...

Several years later (I had stopped actively looking for this person by this time), I met
Jim Savarino at the Kerrville Folk Festival and we hit it off like a brother and sister, or
like cousins - that feeling that you have known someone all your life - you know all their
quirks and share private jokes, etc. We had a blast and hung around each other the
whole time he was there...about a week after we each had returned home, he emailed
me some lyrics with a note saying that he wasn't sure what it was about, but that he
was thinking about me the whole time he was writing it.

I was absolutely stunned when I read these lyrics, because it was the first time that I
realized that he was probably this kindred spirit that I had now found - his lyrics included
the "healer" element, the "Scotland" reference, and the notion of continuing to be in
someone's life even after your physical death. It was startling and truly amazing. I picked
up my guitar and just played the lyrics, with no concious effort to "write" the music or the
melody, as though I already knew it. (As it turns out, Jim had already written music to it,
but I didn't know that at the time - the version on this CD is my music)

This song has taken on a sort-of life of it's own...the very first time I played it, it was in a
listening-room-type situation. I told the story, played the song, and when it was over
there was dead silence, and the entire room was just staring at me. It's not that they
weren't paying attention, it was as though they were rendered immoble. WEIRD.

Also- before the CD was even released, our recording engineer, Bil Vorndick, got the
song cut by Carmel Scheerin and the Bluegrass Ravens, an Irish Bluegrass band.
There was some concern about a good Catholic girl releasing a song with such pagan
content (the healer thing) ...which is ironic, considering my past-life episode...luckily, they
decided to do it anyway.

One further odd twist - without even knowing my story about rendering my audience immoble,
Bil came home from Ireland and described the very first gig that the Ravens played this song.
Apparently, their crowd, which included a bunch of music biz and press folks, in spite of being
loud and appreciative for the rest of the evening, were dumb-struck and silent at the end of
"Sing My Memory". WEIRD.