Itâs morning in Australiaâs Dja Dja Wurrung country, and even over an international phone line, the songbirdsâ celebrations lilt in and out of tune with singer-songwriter Harmony Byrneâs laugh. âThose little songbirds, I tell you, healed me so much!â Byrne says. Sheâs been living alongside them in the bush of Victoria â sans studio, company, or car â since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. There, Byrne and the birds in the background recorded âThe Songs I Sing When No One Is Listening,â an EP sent forth from the wilderness on Jan. 22 by a self-described âcustodian of love.â
Garth Brooks performing at the inauguration.
From Lady Gagaâs defiant national anthem rendition to John Legendâs stirring cover of Nina Simoneâs âFeeling Goodâ to Jennifer Lopezâs mid-song Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, President Joe Bidenâs inauguration day was packed with powerhouse musical moments. The first two verses of Garth Brooksâs âAmazing Graceâ were not one of them, but it doesnât matter.
It doesnât matter that Brooks offered musical phrases shorter than the life expectancy of a Trump appointee. It doesnât matter that he forgot to hold a pitch altogether on the crucial lyric âGodâs praise,â perhaps because he was distracted by hat-based choreography. It doesnât matter that his (shall we say bold) choice to perform a cappella turned the microphone into a microscope, enlarging each of these mistakes by several orders of magnitude.