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Text version of the episode:
Episode 20: My Mom Can Sing
Growing up in church, I got the opportunity to hear my Mom sing so many times. She was the praise and worship leader at our small community church, and together with a guitar player, a drummer (sometimes a drum machine), a bass player and a handful of other singers, my Mom made every single Sunday our own private concert. I remember being a kid and just trying so hard to sound like her while the congregation all sang together, trying to emulate her tone and the way she twisted the syllables of the words around the rhythms of the notes. It always seemed to me like she was talking, speaking through every sentence, and sometimes when she would sing on stage she would look down at me, and smile. Sometimes she would cry, too, and it always makes me cry to even think about my Mom crying, even still.
I’ve always loved to listen to my Mom sing. She really has one of the best voices I have ever heard in my life, and even her speaking voice is soft and so full of melody. To this day I’ll hear a few songs and swear I can hear a moment in them where it's her voice – when I was a kid I used to tell myself she had gotten into those studios and sang in the background.
When I was pretty young my mom took me with her to a gathering of singers who formed a choir, maybe it was a singing club? Or maybe, they were recording an album? I can’t remember really, and I don’t think I would have understood then even if she told me, but I remember we drove down past Santa Barbara, about an hour from where we lived in Lompoc, and went to this college campus that seemed like it was hidden in the forest. For years after that I used to dream about going back there, its just one of those places your mind holds onto and brings back up when you sleep. She sang and sang and I got to listen to her sing along with some of the most talented singers I’d ever seen.
My Mom, can sing.