My husband Michael died suddenly at age 36 in a diving accident on December 6th 2003. Music had always been a huge part of my life and our relationship. Before moving to Maine in 2000, we lived for a time in London and New York City and went to hear live music and collected many albums. After he died I found it too painful to listen to "our music." I needed a new soundtrack in my life. I’m a location scout for photo shoots and TV commercials - so I spend a lot of time in my car looking for locations in Maine and New England and music is an essential companion. The summer after Michael died, I was working on a job for Eddie Bauer and was hired to drive a photographer around Maine - showing him locations that we could potentially use for the shoot. Over two days we talked about music as we traveled from Portland to Cape Neddick, over to Gray, up through New Gloucester, out to the Harpswells and back to Portland. When he returned to Seattle we kept in touch and sent each other music. The first CD he sent me was Pearl Jam - Live at Benaroya Hall - a recording of theirs I had never heard before. It was now fall and I was hitting the road for a few days to scout locations in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and new music was exactly what I needed to accompany me over the Kancamangus Highway. I loved The whole album but there was one song titled "Man of the Hour," a single that Eddie Vedder had written for the Tim Burton Film "Big Fish." It reminded me of Michael and made me cry but I loved it - and the whole recording of that live show, I listened to it many times over A year and 1/2 later I took a trip out to Seattle to visit a friend and went out on a date with the photographer who had sent me that Pearl Jam Album and we have been together ever since. I have told him how much that music meant to me, it was the first album on my new soundtrack of life. I will forever be grateful for that music and the man who sent it to me. I will also always be thankful for the life and music I shared with Michael and over time, I have been able revisit those songs and they make me smile again too. My name is Diana Norwood, I live in Brunswick, Maine, and this is the music that moves me.
Have a musical memory that you’d like to share? Throughout the month we will post listener submitted recollections here and share a few on MPBN’s Facebook page. Send your memory to us at music@mpbn.net.CLICK HERE to hear a musical memory aired on Maine Public Radio and Maine Public ClassicalCLICK HERE to learn more about MPBN’s instrument donation projectOur listeners’ favorite music recollections: