Secondhand

Happy Friday, folks!

This afternoon, I went to Costco to do a big shop for my sweety and me and for a friend, and, while driving, Apple CarPlay was on a totally random play, picking from my entire music library. It was pretty cool… heard some things I hadn’t played in a long time!

Sweety had been trying to reach me around that time, but my phone was on silent for some reason, so I missed it. Standing in line to get into the store, I pulled out my phone. I saw that she had called and texted to tell me the government had just dropped the age for the miracle of COVID-19 vaccination, and I was suddenly eligible! Hands shaking, I urgently and awkwardly signed on to the vaccination site (and was so glad that I had created an account on it in advance!) and booked my appointment! I was flooded with a sense of emotion, gratitude, relief and hope, and it took me some time before I could get back into the present moment and actually do any shopping.

Interestingly, The Small Glories song “Secondhand” played in the car, in the lead-up to of all this.

In February 2020, an eternity ago, almost a month before the first lockdown was even dreamed of, I ordered tickets for us to see The Small Glories at Winnipeg’s West End Cultural Centre. We bought extra seats for some dear friends as thanks for their kindness to us, and we were all super excited about the show, all having heard the duo before.

But on March 30, the WECC emailed ticket holders to say they had postponed the event due to the developing health situation. The venue hoped to put the show on later, when safe to do so and updated me from time to time. But, finally, this March, they refunded the ticket purchase due to continued uncertainty about when they could hold such an event.

Who knows when big shows will resume. Today, I’m just so hopeful that we’re getting closer and closer to being protected, though I wish more of our frontline workers, including family and friends, would receive priority access for the vaccines. Really, they deserve it more than me. Hopefully, we will all have access before too long.

The Small Glories are Cara Luft and JD Edwards, a duo that accidentally came together for a show at, yes, the West End Cultural Centre. I knew of Edwards before, in his role as leader of the JD Edwards Band, but not Luft. They are an incredible pair who make magical music together. (Please see my earlier post on their song, ”Oh My Love.”)

Now you know a little about why this is my Song of the Day for Today. Thanks for joining me here, and please enjoy.

“Secondhand” comes from The Small Glories’ 2019 album, Assiniboine & The Red. It tells of times to savour.

Here’s a video of the song, performed for the Folk Alley Sessions in Saranac Lake, New York, USA in July 2019 from the FolkAlleydotCom YouTube channel: