Prompt: "A song that made you cry in public"
Selected by Brianna
"Welcome Home"
My Morning Jacket
The Waterfall II, 2020
Ask anyone who knows me and they'll classify me as a crier. Sadness, anger, happiness, nostalgia, surprise, fear, any other emotion felt by a human, and it comes out in tear form when I feel it.
So, let's just say I really had a hard time narrowing down my choices for today. I ended up choosing this MMJ track because it holds a very important memory for me. Let's go back a few years.
In case you forgot, there was a global pandemic not too long ago. It did a number of things to our world and our relationships, but one thing that really hurt for me and my friends was the end of live music as we knew it. Prior to 2020, we were averaging at least one show per month together—a number we haven't even begun to get close to since (but maybe that's more age-related than anything).
One of the big events that got canceled was Bonnaroo 2020. Well, in 2021, the plan was to return to our home away from home. The world was in progress of healing, COVID protocols were in full swing, live music was supposed to be back! And, would you look at that, our favorite band was set to perform! I dreamed of the show every night leading up to that week. I imagined standing in the crowd with my best friends, buzzing with excitement. The stage going dark and the anticipation to surge. For Jim James to walk quietly on stage and begin strumming his best acoustic guitar. Welcome Home, he'd sing to us. Through pandemic hell and back, we made it to that moment and to each other.
Sadly, the world had yet again made other plans; this time in the form of a hurricane that flooded the festival grounds a mere 24 hours before opening. The festival was canceled as many of us were en route to Tennessee, and devastation would be an understatement.
For Shane and I, however, we were able to persevere and maintain our positivity. This is mostly because we had already booked our next big festival, My Morning Jacket's own One Big Holiday, to take place in March of the following year. Bonnaroo may have to wait a while yet, but we'd see our favorite musical fellas in an even better environment soon enough.
So months pass, the world continues to heal. We make our arrangements and land on the beaches of Mexico ten days short of the two-year anniversary of the world shutting down. That very same evening is night one of four performances. Piña coladas in hand, we head down to the beach to see our guys.
The crowd is buzzing. The lights go out, and Jim James walks out on stage with his best acoustic guitar. He strums the opening chords and Welcomes us Home, just like I dreamed. Those were some of the happiest tears of my life.
And yes, I did just get a little misty eyed thinking about it.
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