Musical Influences – Part 3 – Enya

This is part of a series of blog posts written to share songs, bands and musical experiences that have shaped me as a musician and artist.

When I was in elementary school, I was a regular at our public library, namely, that A/V Department.  It helped that my mom, for a time, worked there in the Children’s Books department and that it was across the street from our church and a block from the Jr. High School.  My sister and I still boast of the unmatched movie selection our library had.

I remember one day walking in and hearing a song playing in the A/V Department.  It was a song that was unlike anything I had heard and I quickly realized what I was hearing.  It was a song I had heard when a girl used it for a baton twirling routine in our school’s talent show  and I had been captivated by it.  Like I’ve said before, in our pre-internet life, if there was a song you heard and wanted to hear it again, you had to rely on fate to bring the two of you back together – or find out what the song was and cough up $12 for a cassette or $15 for a CD from Record Town. (really, why did CDs cost MORE when they cost less to produce!)

So I walk into the room and fate had stepped in.  I didn’t wait two seconds before asking the library worker what was playing and he pointed me to the CD case sitting on the display under the “Now Playing” sign.

The song was Orinoco Flow by Enya.

Wow.  It was such a magical song to me – unlike anything I had ever heard.  Otherworldly.  Sounds I had never heard.  After that I had to explore everything the library had of Enya.  Enya has come in and out of pop culture, most recently involved with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  You can still, time to time, catch Oronico Flow.  Here it is for your enjoyment.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfVJ11GXzXQ]