John Legend all of me tour

Last week we went to the Grand West Arena to see John Legend live in concert. It has been such a long time since we have had the spare money, opportunity or the time....

It was fantastic & enlightening! I think what was most profound about the experience was that I sat there completely consciously drinking in every aspect of the show & it was the most present I have been in a long time. Besides focusing on the fact that the Arena was packed with all ages & color of people, the actual talent of this artist was refreshing. The lyrics were good, the music arrangement was brilliant, every note, high & low was well shaded, rounded & enunciated. His voice is pure velvet.... and in some ways the live performance was even better than the studio representation which we are accustomed to.

 Performance is not the right word to use because it was not that. It was NOT a show of lights & background dancers gyrating to draw your senses in all directions. It was 2 hours of acoustic brilliance that was just so honest; sensual & inspiring.

He started off by seducing the crowd with 1 or 2 of his hits & then proceeded to give us some insight into where he actually started out & how he had struggled for many years to make it. The quote he shared that stuck with me was: "Everyone has a dream.... and dreams certainly can come true; sometimes they just take a detour..." He then continued telling us about moving to New York city from Ohio & playing in tiny backstreet bar. He recorded his first demo in 1998 & it took him almost 15 years by my calculation to actually make it.....

This man is FRIGHTENINGLY talented... Every note in its place, every shadow perfectly positioned, every word well rounded & he is handsome to boot. Most artists don't even sound like themselves live on stage, never mind being better than their studio tracks.

But even more frightening for me was the realization that this man is actually just an ordinary human being with an extraordinary voice bestowed to him as a gift from God. His gift back to God as a thanks is to provide people like myself with sounds that are designed to soothe the soul; motivate, & propel listeners to another time frame where they are able to escape from their sometimes mundane existences & just be free.....

How much guts, drive, motivation & determination must it not have taken for him to move to the big apple & attempt to establish a career much like every other artist dreams of.... how many more hopefuls are there with a larger than life dream > TOO many to count I would guess.....

He worked consistently doing backing vocals for up & coming artists. Lauren Hill, Kanye West, Alicia Keys to name a few..... & then finally he signed a record deal with the same record company that had turned him down previously. Pure perseverance.
And I am sure there were times when he thought it would never happen, times where he said that everything was okay but he wasn't actually sure where the next meal ticket was coming from. But he survived & now he tells the tale of how he beat the odds & achieved what he dreamed of so many years before whilst singing to his grandmother playing the church organ.

John Legend became just that..... a legend but not without a struggle & certainly not without making a decision to keep at it when he was knocked down.

Interestingly enough, in the journey of our lives, there are many times when all of us are at a crossroads because of what has happened to us & we need to make a call about which way next. When we fall down or we struggle or we stumble, we lose faith & we then have to make a call to give up or go on trying."We just ordinary people, We don't know which way to go..."
We as ordinary people have so little faith in ourselves & our ability to rise up against the odds & beat the system. Life gives us a beating & we run in the other direction sometimes for the longest time before we come back fighting. Some of us never go back... to the original fight out of fear of failing again.

"This ain't a movie no, No fairy tale conclusion y'all, It get's more confusing everyday. Sometimes its heaven sent, Then we head back to hell again..."

Life is NOT easy, it is not simple & it certainly is not a fairy tale. Life is challenging & it takes a clear head, faith, prayer & persistence to be able to stay on top of the rise & fall. I have come to believe in miracles, I have experienced faith carry me through the toughest trials, I have felt God's presence & literally felt him move in situations that I could not have created on my own.

John Legend had faith, he grew up believing & God saw him through. Consciously & faithfully working hard towards your dream with a prayer in your heart will get you to where you need to be. John Legend is proof of that.... & so am I.