No doubt we all believe home rocks, though the term is probably subject to individual interpretation.   Most of us feel home rocks due to it being the place where we spend the most time with those we love, or perhaps it’s due to the sense of peace one may find in a world that’s constantly moving far too fast just beyond our front door.

All, and more, are very true.    But for me, the term may be a little more literal.    You see, as a music lover, one of the things I enjoy most about home is shifting out of work mode, pushing that power button, and cranking up the stereo (to 11 for you Spinal Tap fans) to enjoy one of the thousands of albums, tapes, digital cassettes, mini-discs, or cds that I’ve collected over the last forty or so years since first borrowing my older brother’s copy of Bob Dylan’s “Blond on Blond.”

Others play golf, fish, or any one of other countless hobbies which allow them to turn off the switch in their head for a few hours, relax and escape from the complexity of business routines and endless commitments. But for me, it’s always been about diving into my collection and finding that melody which perfectly fits the moment and transports my home into an aural oasis where everything else is tuned out.

Regardless of generation, songs relate to specific periods in our lives.  Often we can associate the most significant events to a song or artist who we were really into at the time, and hearing just a few bars triggers a flood from our memory banks.   Why is it that we can’t remember what happened yesterday morning but can recall lyrics from a song we haven’t heard in twenty years?

Momentous events may also include relocations to the different homes one has owned during his or her life, and I have a particular song I can relate to each residence.   There’s even a song I identify with my moves between homes.  “A New Life in a New Town,” an instrumental written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977 (the year I graduated high school) and made my first move away to college, has proven the first song I play after setting up my equipment in every new home though these many years, and it signals the beginning of yet another new chapter in life.

Whether it’s turning up the stereo with friends on the lawn in summer, dancing (if one wishes to call it that) with my wife across the hardwoods, or doing some serious listening alone in my favorite chair, music has, and will always be, a major part of why my HomeRocks!