Appendix E-J

Our longtime friend Aaron Strumpel is headlining our annual 90/10 Benefit this coming Saturday. Were you aware of that or have you not been listening to the good things your uncle has been trying to teach you? If you are not aware and want to be, read about the benefit here and then listen to Aaron’s critically-acclaimed Elephants, which he will be performing it’s entirety as part of his set.

The companion album to Elephants – Birds – is getting the finishing touches put on it in Aaron’s mountain laboratory. Out of those finishing touches has come and alternate version of a new song titled “Grandma.” Aaron’s words shall take it from here:

Friends!

Well, just a note. I’m hard at work at the new album, almost. Since you’re in the inside loop, thought i’d jot downn a bit more about this song then what i’ve written elsewhere…

I wrote it a few years back after visiting my grandmother. She always loved to give me gifts when I came, and this time she had a chocolate bar or some snack for me…she lives in a nursing home! Anyway, she said she wished she could give me more and was really actually sad about it. I told her I didn’t want anything more than to see her smile and be with her. It’s a crazy thing this life is…we’re born and everything is brand new for 25 years or so, then things get normal and I feel like a lot of us experience a dead zone of plateau if we’re not careful…then we get older and can’t quite do the things we do…but all through it, love from and to family can just immerse and give meaning and beauty to our times and seasons. Anyway, i wrote the song as an inner conversation with myself about being ok with the passing of time and life here.

I’ve never shared it with grandma and now she’s getting a bit older…gonna turn 98 in a couple of weeks! She doesn’t remember me when I visit, but loves it that I come and seems to know what it means when I tell her I’m her grandson. She wears a rosary i gave her a few years ago everyday and I tell her I gave it to here every time I see her. This last time, my dad visited her the night before, saying she was going to have a special visitor the next day and asked her if she knew who it was gonna be…she answered in her 98 yr old voice, ‘is it our dear Lord?’ She was excited to see me and my folks and said, ‘Will you come everyday, can it always be like this?’ and gave me a bag of chips to have on my drive home. She’s so lovely and I hope I get to see her again.

I hope you enjoy this song. It’s a different version from what will be released.

love,
aaron

Oh that Aaron Strumpel. When he opens his heart it can move one two sizes two small. He is a good man.

Listen to “Grandma (Crazy Version)” below and download the track here to hold with you until the Birds can fly home to you and nest next to the Elephant tracks on your heart.

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FURTHER:

• Buy tickets to the 90/10 Benefit
• Buy Elephants

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