Back in the beginning of the summer, Andrew and I were contacted by two of his friends from high school who were getting married.  They asked if we would provide music for their wedding ceremony and reception.  We were pleased to be asked, but knew it would be some work.  I played music for a lot of weddings years ago.  I typically spent hours learning and practicing songs that I would play for only a few seconds.

          Andrew and I got together with the bride and groom to be.  They explained what their musical hopes were for the wedding.  They were mostly reasonable things that we could do.  The bride asked that an instrumental version of John Prine’s great song “Angel From Montgomery” be played for the processional when she walked down the aisle with her father.  She explained that this was the favorite song of her mother who had passed away a number of years ago.

          Andrew and I went to work on this.  We wrote an arrangement for two guitars, with no vocals, that emphasized the composition’s pretty melody.  We didn’t want it to be a copy of other versions of the song we had heard, but we wanted it to be close enough to the original that anyone who knew “Angel From Montgomery” would recognize it quickly.  We put some hours into crafting the arrangement and practicing it until it sounded right.  We rehearsed the other special music until we were ready for the wedding.

          The music went off without a hitch.  We played our three pieces during the ceremony and our regular blues/jazz for the cocktail hour before dinner.  We had a good time.  During the wedding reception I was approached by five or six women.  Some came in groups.  Some were alone.  They all talked about how nice the music was and they all told the same story.  They all told me what a good friend the bride’s mother was to each of them and of what a special person she was.  They spoke of how she used to bring out her acoustic guitar and sing “Angel From Montgomery” to them and of how much she loved that song.  They all said that when they heard the song playing as the bride and her father walked down the aisle, they were moved to tears.  When they recognized the song, this group of women turned their heads and searched for one another in the congregation.  They got it!  The song did what it was supposed to do.  It was for them.  For everyone else there, it was pretty wedding music.  For those close to the bride’s mother, it was a celebration of friendship.

          The whole thing was good for me, too.  This experience taught me one more lesson about the power of music to give people joy, to bring us together and to rekindle good memories.  I can grumble about the work involved in doing wedding music, but the story these women told me made it all more than worth while.  Andrew and I are lucky to be able to play the music we love for people and to help out at events like this.  The bride and groom are good people.  We wish them the all the best.  They had a fun wedding.  Now it is on to a great marriage.

          Andrew and I will not be playing any music in the area for a few weeks.  Sandy and I are going to Europe for the rest of August to spend time with friends.  Andrew will join us there around the 20^th of August.  There is a possibility we will play some music at a jazz festival in Switzerland, but I won’t give you the details for that show.  I don’t expect you will be able to make it.  Our schedule for when we return follows.  If I remember, I will send you the schedule again when I return in the beginning of September.