Deep thoughts while listening to the Dixie Chicks. Really.

This post first appeared in January of '09. It's still true.
 
I'm doing my daily grind on the treadmill, working through the play lists on the iPod, and I get to some Dixie Chicks - specifically "Evening with the Dixie Chicks" recorded at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. Nice venue, great crowd, really exceptional recording - especially for a live show. The Chicks (is that politically correct?) do a show of new material based on the "Home" album, and then for the encore come back and do the standards - and invite the audience to sing along.

And they do. The audience knows every word to every song they sing!

What must it feel like to hear your music echo back to you? To know that something you created and recorded has been taken to heart by so many that they can sing it as well as you can? The Kodak Theater seats just over 3,000 people, and in the video it looks like all 3,000 are singing along (and that's just a tiny fraction of the potential - even I can sing along!).

Yes, I agree that "Cowboy Take me Away" will not become an enduring classic for all ages; but I wonder if Beethoven or Brahms or any other classical composer ever had 3,000 people stand up and sing or hum their composition back to them? I'm not sure I can even name three of Beethoven's greatest hits!

It makes one think about what one's own legacy will be? What song will I sing in my lifetime that someone would even remember, let alone sing it along with me? What song will you or I plant in the hearts of people we come in contact with, and will they be able to recall it later?

I think I have some composing to do.