Concerto in "Malibu Maxx" Minor

While I rarely indulge in the unsafe practices of phone calls in my car…I DO enter another, sometimes equally unsafe world of my very own…the auto concert hall! I know your familiar with it…see if this doesn’t ring true.

I make the selections prior to my trips, specifically any trip over 15 minutes. My current selections, in fitting with the upward surging of our temperatures, has been the new Toby Mac, Diverse City CD, which if you haven’t picked it up…I would so strongly recommend you do so. It not only gets the blood pumping, but it really expresses the vocal chords in new and exciting ways and the lyrics are good too.

There is NOTHING like rolling down the windows and cranking that bad boy up. This also helps drown out any unedited harmonizing attempts AND allows me to share with the whole world…this riveting music. It could be worse; it could be AC/DC Back in Black, right?

As soon as I hear the seatbelt click safely in place, the engine purring and the windows hug their rubber bumper, I know it’s time. There is little on earth that gives me as much pleasure as these concertos. Even in the winter, with the windows up and unnaturally dry heat blowing into my mouth, agape in chorus, it’s this freeing world of expression I continue to seek daily. Frankly, this is most every girls’ dream and I’ve witnessed many people, women and men alike thinking they are safely confined in their auto concert hall alone, break into song and sometimes “seat-dancing” (yes, I’ve done that too. Some songs require movement, hellooooo!).

These are more of the childlike qualities that help keep me balanced from the requirements of adulthood from 7:30-4:30 each weekday. This is when my true inner-child can come out and sing her heart out, at the top of her lungs, while feeling the wind blow her hair around and picturing her audience of 40,000-50,000 adoring fans cheering her on! Sometimes I sing so loud, my throat hurts…I know, that’s bad, but it’s only occasionally when I’m really “feeling” the music.

My darling niece and nephew, in their maturing state, sometimes act like little curmudgeons when they get in “Maxx” (my car), and I tell them, buckle up and warm up their voices cause I can’t even hear them, til we all sing as loud as we can, whether we know the words or not! I sometimes let them pick the song, and sometimes we just sing whatever comes up, with or without music. It sometimes even makes us all laugh, when we get “busted” by other cars not ‘in concert’ or when our lyrics are better, and louder than the ones we should be singing.

This musical gift and yearning is developed early and sometimes by default. Here is how I started out: I remember when I was younger, much younger…and my dad would take us all (Dad, Mom, Me, 1 older Brother and 1 younger sister) on ‘vacations’. This meant an 11 hour trip from Aurora, Colorado to Augusta, Kansas…the dreaded trip to grandmas. We’d go several times a year actually.
Please note this was YEARS prior to walkmans, or any electronic device, or TV, or DVD player or any other distraction and diversion from the road and the radio selections of our DAD. This is when my sister and I grew a passion for C & W music. The original C & W music. This was WAY before country was “cool!” This was the 1970’s, before even Rhinestone Cowboy came out.

Much to our father’s chagrin, my sister and I adapted quickly to learn these songs, and we sang our little pre-teen hearts out, because that’s what our father selected as our travel music. Our brother would read his comic books and try to annoy us with the male leg spreading law (no description necessary if you have a brother). Our mother would work the crossword and hum some random musical pattern (the auto-concerto in maturity), and our dad would wince and moan and groan and crank the music louder while my sister and I thought he was doing it to allow us more vocal range and tone…we joined right in the challenge before us. Those were the days my friends, the birth of the auto-concerto princess!
It’s almost springtime in Oklahoma and I love the springtime, and it’s offering of sunshine and heat and more quality open-air concert time. I hope your warming up your voice, because I’m going to be looking for you out there…singing and ‘seat-dancing’ your way to and fro.

Remember: "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth, make a loud noise, and rejoice and sing praise." Psalm 98:4

Let's drive...