The album thing continues! It’s a Facebook fad that’s going around. You’re supposed to post a picture of albums you especially love. And why not share it on my blog, too. This is fun! Today I’m sharing an album that few probably know, but it changed my life, for the better. Of all the women’s music performers I used to hear on KOPN radio, Meg Christian was always my favorite. I loved her tasty classical guitar playing, and her clear, expressive, but unaffected singing style.
The title track, “Turning It Over,” refers to twelve-step programs (turning it over to a higher power). More generally, however, it is about being grounded, true to oneself, focused. It spoke to me when I was in ninth grade, and it speaks to me now. (No, I don’t know why the video shows a covered bridge.)
Meg Christian helped me learn the vocabulary of my people. And songs like “There’s a Light” helped me get in touch with my true feelings, which was indeed difficult for me.
And then there’s “Southern Home,” also from the album, about reconciling love of one’s homeland with hatred of old-school bigotry. This is an album about softening oneself and learning to let go of what one cannot change. This album came out well before the Indigo Girls, k.d. Lang, REM, etc. made it okay to be a liberal southerner or small-town/rural inhabitant. I’m not a southerner, but as a midwesterner, I can relate. Columbia was, and still is, an island of progressivism in a sea of cultural conservativism. It’s possible to love your homeland while still detesting its bigotry and small-mindedness.
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