Written in my Mind

It’s usually a melody, a clever turn of the phrase, or perhaps a passionate solo that delivers. Halfway through hearing Wilco’s “Box Full of Letters,” I was hooked when I heard the line “Can’t find the time/to write my mind/to read the way I want it to read.” Why couldn’t I have written that? The melody to “Here Comes the Sun” could make me smile on the gloomiest of days.

Then there’s this song written by a guy named Mike Ireland. Mike released one of 1998’s finest records, “Learning How to Live,” and had been relatively quiet during the ensuing two years. But last year, when Chicago’s own Bloodshot Records released “Down to the Promised Land (5 Years of Bloodshot Records),” Mike contributed a song called “I’d Like To.”

It begins with some simple yet moving guitar, followed by Mike’s emotive drawl. It’s a thing of beauty when Mike sings “I know how dark it gets/I’ve been there too.” The singer, it seems, is empathizing with a friend, a lover. He knows what it’s like, the risks and doubts, yet, he’s ready to jump back in. We all know how it feels. Vulnerable. Weak. Untrusting. Sooner or later, it’s time to say “Hell with it” and get back in the game.

The spare guitar accompaniment in the song allows Mike to develop the story with the words and his voice. The melody is secondary. It’s a bare-bones, simple, yet stunning portrait of a man who’s willing to throw doubt to the wind.

This song has stayed with me for awhile. It has a way of making things right. When Mike played Chicago a couple months back, he brought out the song at the request of the club’s owner. We had talked earlier in the night about how much we wanted to hear the song, and the owner, a friend to all, expressed his appreciation to Mike for playing the song in a 5 minute introduction that touched on exactly how much the song meant to him, and others.

Mike sat down with his acoustic, worked his way through the song, and that was that. It’s a moment forver frozen in my memory. It’s weird how some songs can do that to you. And for that I am thankful. Let love be blind.

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Lane Campbell: December, 2000

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