That Melody
“Mommy this is the same song I heard on the radio? Is Stevie Wonder here?” – Me @4 yrs. old
Yes little ol’ precocious me as I made my way with my mom to a wedding reception being held at The Ramada Inn on Emmett St. in Charlottesville, VA. As we entered the ballroom door I could not reconcile the sound that I was hearing in front of me and the sound that I had heard on the radio that I knew to be Stevie Wonder.
Unlike children of the last two generations my generation was fortunate in the sense that there were far more opportunities to be exposed to musicians plying there wares as opposed to just hearing the recorded product in a live environment. No, this was all the way live, but my little brain still did not understand the concept of what was before me – how could someone play Stevie Wonder’s song and it not be Stevie Wonder?
So I decided to combine two series today and post a few covers of a classic song that the melody still remains with me all these years later. Surely there’s something in this melody that will help me to love music again.
Ivan Orr is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and writer. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia Ivan was involved with the forming and nascent days of The Music Resource Center as its first Program Director. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music, Ivan currently resides in Richmond, VA where he maintains an active performance and production schedule while serving as the Music Editor for Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2010.
