The importance of music to me - two examples

Like many people who are quiet and perhaps even shy, I find music to be a wonderful and needed form of expression. I sing and play the guitar OK and have no aspirations to do other than share who/what I feel with others through the medium. The other side of this reality is the receiving of others' gifts through their music. I write a few original songs, doctor and add to some but mainly enjoy singing and hearing songs whose words and tunes express what I know and feel. On most Wednesday evenings I join many others at FAT ALBERT'S, the oldest ongoing folk club (I believe) in Canada. Like most of the folks who attend, I sign up and sing my two numbers each time I go and once a year, again like most of the others, I get to do an extended set of about a half an hour. Christmas is only two weeks away now and so I've been thinking about what I would do tonight.

My first number will be a spiritual from the slaves of the old American South, a song that has long been a favorite and that I try to sing every year, one place or another. It goes like this:
Mary had a baby. Oh Lord. Mary had a baby. Oh yes, Lord. Mary had a baby. Oh Lord,
An de people keep a comin and de train don gone.
2) What did she call him?-------
3) She called him baby Jesus-----
4) Where was he born?-----
5) He was born in a manger.-------
6) Why did he come here?-----
7) He came to show the way.-----

The refrain," An de people keep a comin' and de train done gone" would have been a code message referring to the underground railroad with brought slaves up to Ontario to freedom. How ironic and aprapo that the words are just as meaningful today but in a new context. We are enslaved today to our blindness and materialism and we just keep a comin', needing to be set free. But it certainly does seem that the train is gone and we're left behind. Is there anyone/group to lead us to new life?

The first song was chosen but what should follow? What came to mind was not a song of the season as such but one that gives guidance as to what the last verse in the previous song was about. It is about "The Way" that to which Jesus and the "birth narratives" point and a song that I can well imagine being a favourite of Jesus had he lived in this setting. It is a song therefore of idealism and love, from the 1960's of course, song by The Holleys. The words "in God I'm" in the third line are my own insertion.
I invite you to hear the words as those of the angels or to be a star toward which you are called to follow. Think about it and even pray. Enough said.

The road is long with many a winding turn that leads us to who knows where, who knows when?

In God I'm strong, strong enough to carry him. He ain't heavy; he's my brother.
So on we go. His welfare is my concern. No burden is he to bare; we'll get there.
For I know he will not encumber me. He ain't heavy; he's my brother.
If I'm laden at all, I'm laden with sadness that everyone's heart isn't filled with the gladness of love for one another.

So on we'll go where ever the road will turn. While we're on our way to there, why not share?
And the load doesn't weigh me down at all. He's ain't heavy; he's my brother.