Soul Music

Music is the window to the soul.

I figured out that on AOl Music Now that I can listen to all of the old and new albums in existence for $5.95 a month. This evening I have been listening to the Marshall Tucker Band, one of my favorite bands during my college years. They really take me back to the summer of 1977, when my roommates and I listened to Marshall Tucker every day. We lived in the mountains of North Carolina and sold books door to door. In the mornings the southern rock band motivated us before we knocked on our first door at 7:59 AM and left our last house at 9:30 PM, six days a week, for 13 weeks. Before we went to sleep at 11:00, we were listening to "Fire on the Mountain."

Now the soul part: the person that turned me on to Marshall Tucker, one of my roommates for the summer. Bruce Gaither died in a car wreck two years later. He fell asleep going home from college one weekend. He had the most beautiful smile of anyone I have ever know. His smile would light up a room. He was one of the most pleasant guys I ever hung around with. Ironically, one of the guys who founded Marshall Tucker died in a car wreck about the same time as Bruce.

Yes, music is a window to the soul. Bruce, thanks for the memory.