Singing for 68 Years

by Peter Twitchell

There’s something about singing, I’ve been singing since 1966. Before that, I was singing along with everyone in church. You can say I’ve had a song in my heart for 68 years!
I don’t have a great voice, but I’ve sung a church song, “There is sunshine in my soul today”. I’ve sung a rock song, “Only the Lonely”. I’ve sung a country-n-western song, “I fall to pieces”.
You ever stop and wonder how these guys feel deep inside their hearts, no matter how sad the song?
I can say I feel a joy, perhaps happy knowing the songwriter had a real feeing and expressed it in a poem-form song. For that person who was happy or sad, expressing something, that hurt feeling, was like letting go of that awful feeling or experience.
Girls in earlier times when I was a teenager in the 1960s wrote their feelings in their “Dear Diary” notebook. Do girls do that today?
Perhaps social media like Facebook helps guys and gals express FEELINGS. I am in no position to say these are not good avenues of self-expression. One thing I do know is this – it’s been helping me to express my feelings by singing them away!
The song no matter how sad a song it is, it has been healing and saved my soul!
In Anchorage I’ve played and sang with the Coastal Band, the Louis Demoski Band – thanks. It’s been great!
I’ve played with the Heart Attack Band, guys over 70. Again, it’s been wonderful. I’ve sung sad songs and happy ones and cried through them. Tears are good, they foster and heal our wounds.
I liked the late Marty Robbins when he was “singing the blues” away, letting them go. I’ve translated into Yupiaq “Faded Love”, “Tennessee Waltz”, and “I Fall to Pieces” and had good reception from the Anchorage community fiddling aficionados. Quyana.