Welcome to Music Ghost Stories, the podcast where we discuss our encounters with music and its synchronicity in our lives. I'm Donnie Ingram, a mix engineer from Baltimore, Maryland, and your host for this podcast. Today, we debut this series with my own story. Like most of us, music was Inspired by my family. My dad was a musician who created, performed, and taught music. He was my mentor. I soon followed in his footsteps. Growing up, I would perform with him, learn to record my own music, and eventually go on to grow his home studio. He unexpectedly passed away in 2012. My dad's deep connection with music led me to start this podcast. I can't move on though without talking about my mom. She was the ultimate caretaker. She was a nurse that put others before herself. She was the support for our family's music endeavors. But, her health had unfortunately taken a turn. During her illness, she had many operations. One of which was a laryngectomy, where they removed her voice box. It was really difficult seeing someone you love so much struggle to be heard. I witnessed so many people, even medical staff, dismiss her because why have a conversation with someone that can't even speak to you? We lost my mom to cancer in 2022. With that, though, came this weird gift. It was sort of that thing where people say, your eyes can close, your mouth can close, but your ears are always open. And usually I would say something like, well, so is my nose. But I had this strange understanding of the significance of doing nothing and simply observing or listening. It's almost this meditative state. Where you're in the same setting with an entire different perspective. I've heard this one too. Your perspective is your reality. So therefore it's like for a brief moment when you're just simply sitting there, observing, or listening. You're in a totally different reality. Let me digress. I'm not claiming to have some type of superpowers or have this connection with the afterlife. I'm simply sharing the power of listening. I listen to music. A lot of it. How does music relate to us in such special ways? Would that epic moment in a movie be the same if we just muted the sound? What is the story of the resonance that music creates in our emotions? Synchronicities in music could mean a lot of things. To me, it's moments when we feel we are being soundtracked. Where music is playing in the background, But it feels like it's eerily with intent. My dad was a big Beach Boys fan. After he passed away, I took some time to grieve. I would take old recordings that he made and transfer them to digital, just to stay busy. I found an old recording of my dad dabbling with one of the best songs written of all time. And that's God Only Knows. Well, on that recording, for no reason whatsoever, the acoustic guitar track cuts out, and there was a moment of my dad singing something completely different from the song, yet it sounds kind of appropriate at the same time. And then he just says, goodbye. I love you. It was weird to hear his voice knowing that he had just passed away, but it was much weirder to feel like he was talking directly to me. Let's fast forward and take it a step further. We're in the hospital, my aunt, my sister, and I. And we're surrounded by medical staff who break the news to my mom that the chemo isn't working and the cancer is continuing. They ask my mom, how do you want to spend your time? My mom gets out the dry erase board that she had and she starts scribbling. And she writes, In her favorite room of the house, we set up her hospice care, and she laid there surrounded by loved ones, with a music station playing. And moments before she passed, there was a song playing, at random, and if you're familiar with the Beach Boys, the album, Pet Sounds, one track before, God only knows, is a song called Sloop John B. You might recall the theme, that's repeated, and that's... I want to go home, and she did. I'm sharing these stories because there's something special in music that I'm trying to unravel. I've learned it's an art with a deeper connection. It contains moments that can alter our perception for a second. And for that brief moment, We're in a different world. Thank you all for listening. In future episodes, I hope to bring out similar stories from other people's encounters with this. So, if this is something that interests you, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review of what you do like about it. Also, shout out to my sister. She's my only sibling, and she's creepy enough to mention on this podcast. going through all these ups and downs, It's been nice to have a friend along the way. Until next time everyone, though this episode's over, keep listening.