“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”― Bob Marley

Last week, I rediscovered Raffi by accident. One of his simple songs created an instant replay of my children’s early years. There’s no doubt that music and life are interchangeable components regardless of who you are.  And, yes Baby Beluga streamed over and over and over again in my brain as I unintentionally overloaded on  Raffi Cavoukian.  But, what memories!

“Baby beluga in the deep blue sea
Swim so wild and you swim so free”

As ’52 Albums’  journey of ‘words and more’ starts up today, I would argue that ultimately it is music that sets each of us free.  Music in all its variations, throughout history, has profoundly impacted the human race providing armies with the inspiration to attack, awakening hidden desires in first time lovers, connecting worshipers with a Higher Power, and yes, providing sleep inducing tones for babies as well as overworked adults.  Every human being from the penthouse to the curbside has a relationship to some form of music.

Sometimes music leaves a marker in our lives.  I know where I was and who I was with when I first heard Julie Andrews sing “Let’s start at the very beginning; a very good place to start.” Oscar Hammerstein’s words weaving carefully with the melodies of Richard Rodgers transforming audiences through a Broadway musical with a very strong history lesson amidst a love story and the voyeuristic insight into  the journey of a family of pseudo fictional real people.  

It was Hammerstein who created a musical scale song that has Andrews’ Maria Von Trapp telling all of us, “Once you have these notes in your head you can sing a million different tunes by mixing them up.”  That’s music my friends … put the basic notes together with some rhythm that gives you a good beat, and perhaps add some words to sing along with. It moves you, it reaches deep inside and changes you in a way that no other artform can. And, from a simple scale limitless compositions have been written with no end to the future possibilities.

Music’s life changing power is the essence of 52 Albums per Year.  In the closing days of 2016; friends started talking about their beloved music albums recommending their favorites.  Clearly,  my collective of friends enjoys an amazingly wide array of music with some surprising links of commonality.  I have no doubt the same holds true with you and your friends.

It was like a light turned on … we all needed more; I wanted more; more music and information that could lead to new memories; some place where everyone could enjoy new album options.  Perhaps discover is a better word than enjoy because not all recorded music has the capability of switching the enjoyment brain reactors on in every person’s head.  But, if you never listen to Chocolate’s great Latin rhythms you might never know that you enjoy their music as much as you are into the great music beats of Vanilla from Great Britain!   

Social media was our answer … one album a week.  Just one and then everyone would listen to it until the next Sunday rolled around to introduce another album.  The one album a week was a non-starter because there were so many choices.   January 1, 2017 provided social media readers with five albums to dig into and we were off and running! 

But FACEBOOK was not enough … and here we are.  Through our blog and website we are ready to offer a simple place of music discovery. Every week we will recommend several albums classic and new that we feel are worth an investment of your time.  We’ll provide insight into recorded music and the creative musicians writing and playing it.  We will share news from the world of music and truthfully the direction is wide open.

Jazz, Rock, Rap, Classic, the Blues, Country, Folk, well every possible global genre will be talked about and suggested for your ears to experience.  The realities the time we live in rewards those of us who want to experience new music.  For just a few pennies … ok for only a few dollars each month you can listen to any song, any album, or any type of music that you are interested in hearing right on your phone. 

So beginning today … focused on that C note in the middle of 88 keys that starts the song “Doe, a deer a female deer” but open to music that some might not call music 52 Albums Per Year is up and running.

Bob Marley’s quote is right on … when music hits you there isn’t any pain and it is our goal to provide new music that hits you hard and gets you listening more so that you can find refuge from the world’s chatter than pulls us all down.  52 Albums goal is to increase the numbers of individuals investing their time in recorded music both new and old.

Get ready to experience … as Marvin sang “Let’s Get It On!”

*Lyrics Baby Beluga – Songwriters: RAFFI CAVOUKIAN,DEBI PIKE
© THE BICYCLE MUSIC COMPANY

*Lyrics Sound of Music – Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization