Everyone deserves music...

I think the first big crowd singalong I ever took part in was at a Crowded House gig. I might be romanticising this but I'm pretty sure it was 'Weather With You'...

"Walking round the room singing stormy weather,

At 57 mount pleasant street..."

And for that beautiful moment the crowd was in perfect voice. Having no confidence in my own singing I still joined in and it was like I was in a choir.

Crowd singing had auto-tuned our voices.

Music is the language of us all...

Now I've been in many a crowd singalong this weekend at Bluesfest. One of my favourites has to have been The Cat Empire. These guys always make me dance, make me laugh and of course make sing. I sing so loud I get hoarse and yet the crowd always sounds in perfect voice. When Harry Angus hits the high notes I drop out but others in the crowd take over, when Felix is singing smooth I kick in a little. We become the best of ourselves.

You see the auto-tune effect everywhere you go at Bluesfest.

Sit down on the grass and listen to music in the afternoon sun. If you're there long enough someone will sit next to you and start chatting. Go for a wander through the markets and while you're checking out some shorts end up chatting with the sales assistant about the difference between Aussie and European men.

Sitting in the festival cafe listening to Trombone Shorty we were joined at the table by Eirin. We chatted music, politics, travel and almost forgot to listen to the music! We made a new friend and when his band 'Gait' comes to Sydney in a few months time, we'll go check them out. Later on that night I got asked for a lighter. I don't smoke but we still ended up talking politics and fashion.

All over the festival this was happening: food halls and bus lines, in the dry or torrential rain. It seemed like nothing was too much trouble and everyone was stoked to be sharing moments with the people around them. Wouldn't it be great if everyday was like this?

The sun also rises...

As the sun sets on another Bluesfest and I'm still wistfully humming along to the music in my head, I'm wondering how to spread this feeling through the year. If only it were as simple as taking everyone in my life to a festival!

Instead I'm going to focus on the diversity, the openness and the tolerance that the festival brings to me. Most of the shit that brings us down in life begins with a simple failure to stop and look at things from another point of view. Music lubricates the gears in that respect; as we dance along the ideas infect us and we see the world a little differently.

So how can I auto-tune the world; do we all just need good music?

That's probably too simple an answer. I mean it's not like we can pitch-correct people's opinions, nor should we. But what if we do consciously what the music does to our unconscious, helping us listen to different ideas? What if we stop ourselves from saying no straight away and ask ourselves what if? We'll never agree with everyone but we'll have a lot less arguments and when we do they'll be more constructive.

"Everyone deserves music". So says another of my Bluesfest favourites, Michael Franti. We deserve it because of all the good things that it brings and we deserve it because we help spread those good things around.