Music is the Rhythm of Life Here

The sun gives a final wink to the day, gently pulling the inky dark shade of night time over the city. The cool November air lays calm upon another average Saturday evening. The house hums with the tapping of a keyboard, the background of an iPod stereo and soft chatter of the dinner question. It is the ebb and flow of life, those moments of contentment in just being.

The intrusion of the doorbell breaks the stupor of the moment. And what begins is another one of those little things that make Nova Scotia just what it is and adds the exclamation mark of living here. The musical moment has arrived. A dear friend with a guitar and a bottle of wine. The phone cranks it's disjared melody and what flows is what flows.

Not an hour later there are two guitars thrumming on knees, the bells come out, a didgeridoo gets dusted off and the laughter and kind teasing commences. Of their own accord the teens in the house come to sit cross-legged on the kitchen floor, which in Nova Scotia might also be called a studio with an oven and sink.

The traditionals are sung, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, some silly made-up ditties. Attempts at the didgeridoo call for laughter and shakes of the head. As always though in Nova Scotia, the songs turn to the rhythm of this province; the Irish and Scottish songs, a smattering of Gaelic and those songs made so well loved by the Rankins; Tell My Ma, Fare Thee Well and on.

Music, old and new, permeates this province. Perhaps it is what carries us through the dark cold February nights? or lifts our heart in the humid heat of August. Undeniably it seeps into ones life here, the talent runs across all communities and the harmonies bring us together no matter where we've been or where we're going.

(Photo Credit: Standing in the Shadows on Flickr)