a sweet concert ...

...that I enjoyed over the weekend, though I was volunteering/working as an usher (in order to attend without having to purchase a ticket.) Allen Levi, a local, well known song-writer and singer was doing a benefit, with proceeds going to a local non-profit. Levi was educated as an attorney, practiced for a number of years, while writing songs on the side. He felt the pull of music so strongly, he quit lawyer-ing for some time, to travel, sing, perform in concerts.

Eventually returning to his home and roots, where he now serves as a county probate judge. There was a similar concert a couple of years ago, during the year-end holiday season. Locals love him and his family, so there was a very good turnout for the event.  He told 'back-stories', sharing amusing tales of the inspiration for particular songs, how he came to write many of the stories he told in musical form.

I would consider him to be a troubadour, in the sense of those folk-singers from the previous century, who traveled the country, with guitar or banjo, sharing their talents with any who cared to listen. He is a consummate story-teller, obviously comfortable with sharing amusing memories as well as happily repeating embarrassing humbling encounters. I had heard him perform live once before in another venue, a local theater, and knew this event would be a treat. Added bonus was his keyboard player is who happens to be part of the praise team at my church.

If Levi had been from a different era, he is the sort of guy you would have found hiking from village to village, with his possessions on  his back, stopping at intervals to sing and tell of his travels. So similar to those people you read of in the history books: wandering minstrels, performing for room and board, then moving on down the road. Allen Levi has stories to tell, and songs to sing, as delightful twenty-first century balladeer.

At the end, he talked about what Christmas is really about - how it is not so much that helpless newborn baby, but a willing full- grown adult, horribly mangled and abused, yet so full of love and compassion He continues to have a powerful impact on the world today.