The singing brings us together

This article speaks about one of the fundamental truths that I believe about humanity: that singing brings us together. Garrison Keilor finds a common theme in his audience through patriotic songs:

For example, before the show officially started with its theme song, Keillor warmed up the Wolf Trap crowd by walking slowly and without any accompanying commentary to the very back of the house (which is outside), solemnly singing every verse of "America the Beautiful." Then it was on to the "Star Spangled Banner."Everyone of the crowd of a few thousand was on his or her feet, many singing loudly and passionately. It was as if Keillor was saying, "Before we can go through this experience together we must find something that will bond us, a common thread that everyone -- at least everyone brought up in American society -- can relate to and call his or her own." Sounds a bit sappy, right? Maybe, but not to the people who were there. Keillor and Company tap into that shared consciousness, into American mythology, not merely to preserve cultural artifacts of the past but also to allow us to figure out what it means to be American today. And they do it with choral music, old nuggets of musical Americana -- from Stephen Foster to Bob Dylan -- quaint greetings from audience members to friends and family back home, joke shows, poetry, and sketches and faux commercials that were in style when radio required listeners to conjure visual images in their own minds. This is not mere background noise. You have to truly pay attention.What emerges are patches of aural imagery that, if you listen week in and week out, make up a mosaic of the American Experience.

Full post here.