Song Seeds

A few years ago, I wrote a song, submitted it to a contest, and sang it in front of a live audience. My father planted the seeds of that song. A trumpet player since the age of eight, he inspired me to write songs and to have the confidence to project my voice out into the world.

As a child, my father played his trumpet on street corners. As a soldier during World War II, he led a band that entertained the troops. And as a husband and father, he played in dance bands on the weekends. He practiced diligently, and every night I got to hear him playing standards from the American Songbook. It was the soundtrack of my childhood.

I absorbed those songs like the proverbial sponge. I’m told that I used to sing to strangers in the grocery store when I was about three. “Adorable!” and “So talented!” they’d say, stopping in the aisle to admire my tiny voice. So, when the Ted Mack Amateur Hour came to town, my father put four-year-old me in the front seat of his Ford sedan and took me to an audition….

Lori Bonati is a school psychologist who lives in Tucson, Arizona. She enjoys all forms of writing, has been published by Learning Yogi (an educational website), and has self-published two photo journals. She enjoys songwriting, playing the guitar, traveling, and connecting with family and friends.

To engage more of Lori’s work, go here. Find Lori’s cd, Twisted, including “My Name is Romeo” and other tracks here.

images: used with permission of the artists via Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.