‘It is a song, and a hope, of escape from suffering.’ Photo: by Dylann Hendricks on Unsplash
Song of home: Alison Richards plays it by ear
‘I often wonder why a particular piece of music gets lodged.’
by Alison Richards
7th July 2023
I frequently find myself stuck with an ‘earworm’, a repeating fragment of music that I can’t shake from my head. I often wonder why a particular piece of music gets lodged. As I write, the chorus of the African American spiritual ‘Steal Away’ is playing on an internal loop: ‘Steal away, steal away home. I ain’t got long to stay here’.
