About Last Night...

Since our move back to Norman a couple of years ago, my husband has taken an interest in all the performing arts things at OU and my music major memories have been headlining in my brain a lot.  Every good music experience makes me want to write a paper about it! I've refrained generally, but last night was too good not to comment.  We are currently on a trip to DC and just happened to fly into town when Ben Rector was scheduled to play his LAST orchestra show with the National Symphony Orchestra.  It was an event that we didn't know about when we planned the trip, but it felt like a once in a lifetime deal. We were bleary eyed from a day of travel on planes, trains and automobiles, but we found our hotel, found some dinner and headed out to the DAR Constitution Hall.

 From the first swell of the orchestra and the familiar croon of a Ben Rector hit, my eyes welled up with tears.  It was just. so. good. Of course, there were good reasons it was good.  The National Symphony Orchestra was stunning.  At one point in the evening, Ben gives the audience a little music education by introducing the different instrument families.  It was gorgeous! Ben plays piano, but his other headliner, Jon McLaughlin, is a classically trained pianist and it shows.  He played a beautiful piece that he wrote, Changing and it just felt otherworldly.  We had just spent the last 8 hours traveling in some form or fashion and we were so tired.  When Jon encouraged everyone to just sit back and relax for that song, I rotated from crying to resting my eyes and back again.  Then of course Ben Rector is so relatable and personable but such a fantastic performer.  And he played a few of his new songs he's written about different states.  Not that I didn't know before, but he is just such a talented musician. 

 We haven't even discussed the gorgeous orchestrations that were added to all of the hits and especially the new state songs.  Orchestrations can often blend into the wall so that you don't even care they are there OR they can drown out the singer so much that you wish they weren't there.  The NSO was always the perfect compliment.  In the new songs he performed, like California and Florida Man, the orchestra is highlighted in such a way that just elevates the whole experience.

 So, of course it was good.  But it was more than that.  It was a beautiful display of so many things that are good and right in the world.  Everyone who spoke on stage was continually giving other people credit for the good work they were doing.  Music was celebrated for the pure joy of it, on top of such a high level of performing.  My favorite part of the evening was at the end of the song California.  Ben's vocals end but the orchestra continues on for a big finish.  That's the plan usually, but I guess we got swept up in the moment and started clapping before the orchestra's big ending. They finish anyway, but after it all Ben insists on doing the ending again since it was all being recorded.  So they did. He and Jon both said this ending is their favorite part of the whole show.  They were so good natured about it that the audience walked away glad it happened! 

 There was a time in my life where - because I was raised in musical circles - that I was only successful if I was the performer.  I know that isn't true, but the child in me sometimes would forget.  Still, last night it struck me how thankful I was for all of my musical training but not because it could land me on a stage sometimes.  I was thankful that I was sitting in the audience with a great understanding of how beautiful and gifted all of these people working together was.  Put those kids in music. Take those lessons. Learn to sing. Do it.  The beauty of music is worth it.  The art of music is such a gorgeous display of God's creativity lived out in man.  Be part of it every chance you get!