djzyonsevenHappy Mother’s Day!
Some songs find you.
They don’t just come through the speakers.
They come through the room.
They come through your chest.
They sit beside you when nobody else knows what you are carrying.
That is what A Place In My Heart by Sounds of Blackness did to me.
This song is very personal to me.
I believe it came out the year after one of my Moms passed away.
The first time I heard it, I swear it felt like she had sent it to me personally from heaven.
I don’t remember everything I was going through at that exact moment.
I don’t remember the day, the weather, or what I was wearing.
I don’t even remember what kind of mood I was in before the song started.
But I remember how it made me feel.
I remember stopping.
I remember listening.
I remember feeling like those words were meant for me.
It was the lyrics.
It was Ann Nesby’s voice.
It was the way she sang it, like a mother reaching across time, space, pain, and distance just to remind her child that love does not disappear when the body leaves.
That kind of love finds another way to speak.
And when Ann sang it, I could hear my Mom, JJH, singing those words to me.
Not metaphorically.
I mean, I could feel her presence in that song.
That is how deeply it hit me.
I played it again.
Then I played it again.
Then I played it again.
By the end of that day, I had learned the song just from listening to it over and over.
That is not casual listening.
That is grief grabbing onto melody because the heart needs somewhere to put what it cannot say.
And to this day, this song still does something to me.
It still feels like she is reaching out to me through Ann’s vocals.
It still feels like a message.
It still feels like one of those rare moments where music becomes more than music.
It becomes a doorway.
That is what music has always done for me.
It carries memory.
It carries love.
It carries people back to us, even if only for a few minutes.
A Place In My Heart is from Sounds of Blackness’ 1994 album Africa To America: The Journey Of The Drum.
Russel Knight formed the group that would prove to be the origins of Sounds of Blackness in 1969 at St. Paul, Minnesota’s Macalester College.
I did not know they went back that far until I started researching them.
It wasn’t until 1971, when Gary Hines was hired as their musical director, that the group developed its own identity. Hines opened the group up to the entire community and expanded their musical scope to concentrate on all aspects of Black music. He designed the group as a way to embrace all manners of African-American music and create rich, diverse music to celebrate God and the human spirit.
Gospel. Blues. Jazz. R&B. Soul. Spirituals. African rhythms.
With their new direction in mind, the group renamed themselves Sounds of Blackness.
The sound of struggle.
The sound of survival.
The sound of celebration.
That name really means something.
Not one sound.
Sounds.
Because we are not one thing.
We have never been one thing.
Never!
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis also played a major role in bringing Sounds of Blackness to a larger audience through Perspective Records.
Now this part I knew!
Sounds of Blackness remained a regional attraction until 1989, when Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis brought Janet Jackson to one of their concerts. Janet’s enthusiastic response inspired Jam & Lewis, who were already in negotiations with Sounds of Blackness, to sign the group to Perspective/A&M immediately.
And if there is one thing I will always give Jimmy and Terry credit for, it is that they have always had an ear for real talent.
Not just polished talent.
Real talent.
Soulful talent.
Talent with roots in it.
Now back to my song!
Ann Nesby.
Wow.
Baby, Ann sang this song like she had lived inside every word.
There are singers who perform a lyric, and then there are singers who testify through it.
Ann testified.
Her voice gave the song warmth, authority, tenderness, and that motherly kind of reassurance that does not beg for attention.
It just wraps around you.
The song was written in part by Ann, and I’ve read that she wrote it with her daughter in mind while she was away from home on tour.
That makes perfect sense to me.
You can hear that in the song.
You can hear that ache of distance.
You can hear that promise of unconditional love.
You can hear a mother saying, no matter where life takes you, no matter how far you go, there is still a place for you in my heart.
That is probably why I connected to it so deeply.
Because after losing someone you love, especially a mother, your spirit starts listening for signs.
You listen differently.
A lyric can feel like a whisper.
A note can feel like a hand on your shoulder.
A song can become a visit.
That is what this song became for me.
A visit.
A reminder.
A piece of love that did not die.
I dedicate this song to both of my Moms, JJH and LML, who have passed on.
I also dedicate it to my sisters, my aunties, my cousins, my nieces, and my friends who are mothers.
The women who carried us, raised us, checked us, loved us, prayed over us, worried about us, fussed at us…
and still kept a place in their hearts for us, even when we were hardheaded.
And yes, some of us were very hardheaded.😍
I’d also like to dedicate this song to those like me who have lost their mother. ❤️
This song means the world to me.
Sharing it here feels like an honor because I am not just sharing a track.
I am sharing a piece of my heart.
I am sharing a memory.
I am sharing that part of grief that still has love breathing inside it.
At the bottom of this post, I also included a live version of Ann Nesby singing A Place In My Heart.
Please listen to it.
Really listen.
Not in the background while you are doing ten other things.
Sit with it.
Let it breathe.
Let it find whatever place in your own heart it needs to touch.
Because every now and then, a song comes along that reminds you that love does not always leave when people do.
Sometimes it stays.
Sometimes it sings.
And sometimes, if you are lucky, it finds you right when you need it most.
djz7
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