OK Solberg: 00:00

I wanna again welcome you out of the 04:05 coffee break. Get you a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, bottle of water. Guys, let's see what's happening out there. Spring wheat, nothing to write home about. $5.65 a bushel.

OK Solberg: 00:13

Let's sit down again for this one. I've waited my entire life. A 550 pound steer cap over the $4 mark. $4 and a penny for a 550 pound steer calf. I hope to shout and call the doctor.

OK Solberg: 00:31

A butcher hog in Omaha, 77 Cents a pound and a hundred pound fat lamb in Billings, 2.14. Stand pretty steady there. But, guys, there's more, much more. Okay.

OK Solberg: 00:44

One day it's baseball, the next it's words, so what about music today. Let me tell you, music is not just for enjoyment. Oh, yes, it's enjoyable, but it does such so much more than just bring joy. Music is like a key. Music is like a key that unlocks a door in your mind.

OK Solberg: 01:08

It's powerful. It's enjoyable. It's universal. Did you know that the Bible mentions music often? Listen.

OK Solberg: 01:20

Oh, oh, wait. Before I share the verse, let me set the stage with this. To understand something fully, sometimes, sometimes it helps to look at its opposite. If you don't understand love, let me let me tell you about hate. If you don't understand forgiveness, let me tell you this story about harbored unforgiveness.

OK Solberg: 01:49

Okay. Stage set. Now the bible verse about music. Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day or like vinegar poured on a wound is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. Proverbs twenty five twenty.

OK Solberg: 02:09

Now this verse implies the psychological impact of music depends on context. It can be harmful if it doesn't match the emotional state of the listener. So true. So true. Music at the right time is a key.

OK Solberg: 02:30

Now I was gonna talk about the traveling Wilberies, but like I often do, I got sidetracked. I started writing this episode and I was gonna thank John Demery, mayor of Malta, for introducing me to the traveling Wilberies because they are so good. But as I sat down at the keyboard and wrote, music is like a key, well, I thought of something else. The traveling Wilburys will wait till Monday. Ah, the greatness of another day.

OK Solberg: 03:05

So music is a key, and music is powerful. Let me retell this story for you. Mrs. Lila Raymond was my fourth grade teacher back in the nineteen sixty six-sixty seven school year right here in Malta, Montana. Several decades later, she was residing in the nursing home here in Malta.

OK Solberg: 03:28

Missus Raymond was a great teacher and, guys, she was a self taught musician. She played the piano by ear, and she would've give Elton John a run for his piano money. So back in about 2015, give or take a year, I went to visit missus Raymond at the nursing home. Now in 2015, she would have been 89 years old. Realized at this point in time her mind was slipping and her memory was failing.

OK Solberg: 04:01

I said, missus Raymond, I want a date with you. I wanna take you to my house and have you play the piano. She looked at me and said, well, they have a piano down in the cafeteria. I could I could just play there. I said, no.

OK Solberg: 04:18

I want you all to myself. And guys, I said that because there would be too many distractions in the cafeteria. So I checked her out and over to our house we went. She sat down. Guys, she sat down at our piano and she started playing this boogie woogie music.

OK Solberg: 04:39

And the stories just started flowing. This song she was playing was one of the songs her and her three sisters sang live over six ten KOJM AM radio in Havre, Montana. She told of the drive, and their chauffeur's name was Robert Ellis, the helper of Doc Hamilton in Dodson. She told about Robert. She told about her three sisters.

OK Solberg: 05:08

She told of the songs they sang. Oh, man. It was great, guys. I wish I had it recorded. But like any experience, all good things must come to an end, and I took her arm and got her back in the car and took her back to the facility.

OK Solberg: 05:29

I will always remember and never forget the words Mrs. Raymond said to me as we parked by the front door. She said, you're you're dropping me off at a nursing home? Guys, sometimes we say the wrong thing, and sometimes we are lucky and we say the right thing. The only thing that came to my mind was, well, you trust me, don't you, Mrs.

OK Solberg: 05:57

Raymond? She humphed me, humph. Of course, I trust you. It was like, that's really a stupid question. Well, I said, this is where I picked you up.

OK Solberg: 06:09

She said, a nursing home? I didn't need to say anything else, guys. I just took her arm and we walked inside through the big front doors, down the hall and turned to the left, down the hall and turned to the right. And when we got to the nurse's station, she looked down the hall and could see the door of her room. Mrs.

OK Solberg: 06:34

Raymond said, this is where I belong. That's my door right over there. It was a beautiful moment, and it was the music that made her young again. The music with its power and magic, don't don't ever forget the power of music. In fact, if you come visit me in the nursing home someday, play the Traveling Wilburies, end of the line.

OK Solberg: 07:01

Guys, I'll stop drooling. I'll sit up. I'll take notice. I'll be young again. So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.