As I entered the room, I heard laughter from the TV.

“Saturday Night Live,” Andrea informed me.

“Is that Jennifer Lawrence?” I asked.

“Mm hmm,” she confirmed. “The Lumineers are going to be on.”

And in a little while, there they were: Wesley Keith Schultz, Jeremiah Caleb Fraites & Neyla Pekarek singing and playing their hit song “Ho Hey.”

Turns out we had been watching an encore broadcast of the January 19, 2013 episode of Saturday Night Live.

I first heard of The Lumineers in August, 2012 in an email.

The email was from a student of mine, a gifted young guitarist and singer who I’d worked with over the course of the previous two school years.

He wrote: “Hey Mr. S! How’s your summer been going? Mine has been a bunch of ups and downs. Been playing a lot of music and making a lot of art for the most part… This band, The Lumineers, has been the main thing I’ve been listening to. My two favorite songs by them: “Stubborn Love” and “Slow It Down.” Keep a spot for me on your roster… See you soon!”

Come September, in his first guitar lesson of the school year, I helped my student figure out the guitar part to “Stubborn Love.” The following week, his lesson ended with both of us singing and playing “Slow It Down.”

Though I had no idea at the time, that would be the last time I’d work with him.

“Slow It Down” and The Lumineers, however, stayed with me.

I bought The Lumineers, their debut CD, at a Starbucks in Plymouth, MA, near the hotel Andrea and I stayed at during the late-September weekend of our daughter’s wedding.

I soon shared my student’s opinion from his August email that “The whole album is fantastic really.”

By year’s end, “Slow It Down” still stood out above the rest – haunted me, actually -and easily made it onto my personal list of The Best of 2012.

Here it is. I hope you’ll take a few minutes and listen. 

 
To my student: I thank you for sharing this song (and the many others!) with me. I wish you all the best and I hope that you are still – and will long continue to be – making a lot of music.