It was 17th of March,  and life-as-we-know-it was grinding to a halt and the fearsome specter of COVID-19 was looming over all of us.   It felt like this new threat was lurking everywhere,  and it was really only within the four walls of one’s own home that you truly felt safe – or at least mostly safe.   We were all still digesting this strange new term “social distancing” and trying to figure out just what that meant and how any of us were going to survive this, emotionally and mentally – while also trying to figure out how we could safely shop in a grocery store or whether or not something as simple as getting take out from a restaurant was a risk worth taking.  So many things were just plain scary because so many things were taking us into strange, alien vistas.  And it was so hard to know whether we were foolish to be scared or we were foolish not to be.  When I think back to the early days of this crisis, a knot re-forms in my stomach.

In the middle of all that,  it was my wife Kathy who came up with an idea that I am sure I would not have thought of on my own:  that I should sing some sort of  Song For The Day over Facebook Live, as a way to reach out to family and friends and perhaps offer some comfort and encouragement.  Both of us had seen all kinds of people flooding social media with musical offerings – including any number of gifted Carthage students.  It was touching and inspiring, and Kathy wanted us to be a part of it.   And she even knew what the first song should be:  “Mercy and Love,” a song I composed from the Biblical story of Jesus healing ten lepers and how only one of them remembered to come back to Jesus to thank Him.  For some reason,  I hesitated to make that the first song – but my wife was smarter than I was and had a sense that a song about gratitude made perfect sense in a moment when so much had been abruptly taken away from all of us.   So that’s what I sang that first night:  “Thank you for all of my blessings … bestowed so richly …. far beyond my deserving.”

(above: a still from that very first Song from Hillside.  Kathy did ask me to clean off the lid of the piano after that,  which I was willing to do.)

And that’s where it began – with this song to remind all of us that “we have been blessed in a thousand ways, but forgotten at least a thousand times to say: Thank you for all of my blessings…. ”  What proceeded from there was what ended up being 100 nights and 100 songs – and as I write those words, I’m reminded of the amazing legend of Scheherazade, who was the latest in a long succession of many wives of an infamous sultan who would marry a woman and then almost immediately discard her (killing her) in order to marry a new woman.  But Scheherazade told incredible stories to the sultan – stories so captivating that he could do nothing except postpone her murder so he could hear yet another story.  And on this went for 1001 nights until he finally decided he had to remain married to her forever.  There was no murderous sultan here at Hillside Drive,  but maybe these 100 songs were a way to keep the evil threat of COVID-19 at bay for a few minutes each night.

Actually,  a friend of mine shared with me that one of the things she liked most about Songs from Hillside was those moments when I might stop to talk about something we had done or Mabel’s latest escapades at dog day care.   It injected an element of normalcy into the proceedings that I was not consciously trying to do-but I’m glad it ended up working out that way.  And I know that lots of people enjoyed seeing Mabel getting in on the action, whether lying quietly, sitting right beside me as I played, or playing an occasional game of Chasing-My-Tail.  Both Kathy and I have said more than once that one of the best things about having a dog during such unsettling times is that the dog has no idea what COVID-19 is or why there are demonstrations in cities across the country or what the latest unemployment numbers are.   And sometimes our pets let us ride the coattails of their blissful ignorance.

Right off the bat, I think my intention was to sing songs that would carry some sort of uplifting message- but I think I would have grown weary of “Greg Berg’s Nightly Song Of Encouragement” at least as quickly as anybody watching.   What really shook me from that opening pattern was on March 30th, when I learned rather by accident that it was the anniversary of the Broadway premiere of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King & I, one of my favorite musicals.    I had celebrated Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday a few nights earlier – 3 nights after the fact – but the song I chose,  “Not while I’m around,” definitely fell within the uplifting/encouraging/comforting column.  But for The King & I, I chose my favorite song from the show,   “I have Dreamed,” just because I wanted to …. and from that point on, I worried less about being specifically uplifting and worried more about just singing great songs and singing them well.    And that’s what allowed me to keep going with it for 100 consecutive nights.

The closest we came to breaking the chain came on the night of March 27th,  when we discovered a deep and ugly-looking gash on Mabel’s abdomen and felt compelled to take her to our nearby animal hospital.  Thanks to COVID restrictions,  we could not bring her into the hospital ourselves; they had to come and fetch her from our vehicle, which we never left the entire time we were there.  Eventually, Mabel came back – sporting the famous “Cone of Shame” and with her wound stapled shut, but already on the road to recovery ….  and that night’s Song from Hillside from actually “All God’s Creatures” sung  right from our car, with Mabel hovering in the background.   The Show Must Go On!

I have sung a few requests … celebrated a number of composer birthdays or the anniversary of the premiere of a number of different shows … celebrated Norway’s Independence Day, Mother’s Day, Flag Day, April Fool’s Day, and the day that should have been the Kenosha Pops Band’s first concert of their cancelled summer season …  and on a couple of soggy days, sang songs about rain.  And there were a number of evenings during the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd when I chose my songs with special care in the hopes of offering something meaningful.  And on plenty of occasions,  I have chosen songs for no particular reason aside from the need to keep things fresh and interesting.   Most of the time, the song choice came fairly quickly and easily- but once in a while I found myself really torn …. like on June 18th, which was the birthday of both Jeanette McDonald and Paul McCartney. (It’s hard to imagine two singers more different than those two!)   It’s in a moment like that when you realize just how deep and broad the world of music is and the limitless wonders it has given to the world over the years.  (By the way, I ended up bypassing both of those birthdays in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ordination of Carthage’s campus pastor,  Kara Baylor, instead.)

As I mentioned earlier,  the very first Song from Hillside was my own “Mercy and Love,” and two nights later I was joined by Kathy and Kate Potter Barrow in another sacred song of mine, “Come Unto Me.”  I chose those without hesitation.  At some point along the way,  however,  I started to feel a little bit self-conscious about singing sacred pieces.   Anybody who knows me knows how important my Christian faith is to me, so it was certainly not a matter of being embarrassed about it- but I have Facebook friends who are from other faith traditions- and a few friends who espouse no religious faith at all-  and I found myself thinking about those friends and what they would make of me singing something like “Beautiful Savior” or “Lord of all Hopefulness” or whatever.  Would they be Disinterested?  Offended? Amused? Bewildered? Bored?   And what of it?  What helped me shake off that temporary self-consciousness was a Facebook friend of mine named Herschel Garfein … who is Jewish.  (He is a superb composer, lyricist and librettist.  He and I have never met, but I have reviewed some of his works for the Journal of Singing.)  He and his son (who is a fine violinist)  have offered up a number of lovely performances via Facebook during COVID-19,  and most of them spring out of their own Jewish heritage …. and I have listened and enjoyed them all.  Thinking about that helped me realize that I didn’t need to tip toe around who I am – nor did I need to try to choose songs that absolutely everybody would like or understand.   I also had to reconcile myself to the reality that on any given night I had no idea who would be watching- and where they would be coming from or with what special difficulties or even tragedies they might be contending.  All I could do was offer up these songs – some serious, some silly – and hope and pray that they would spark some hope and joy out there.

(above: singing three different tunes of “Nearer my God to Thee” on the anniversary of the day that the Titanic went down.)

(above:  I showed everybody this cute snow globe that is from Disney’s “It’s a Small World” the night that I sang that song in honor of its composer’s birthday.)

(above:  this is what I wore for Syttende Mai- Norway’s Constitution Day.)

(above-  This is what Songs from Hillside looked like on April Fool’s Day.  Kathy tried to adjust the camera perspective and this was the result. Oops.)

If I am sad about anything related to the past 100 days, it’s that Kathy was so stubbornly camera-shy.  I can’t count how many times she was invited to join me- but there were only a precious few times when her resistance weakened and she said yes.   Any day I get to sing with Kathy is a great day.

As we approached Song #100,  both Kathy and I felt like it was the right time to step away from the night-after-night offering.  100 nights in a row is a lot of songs …. although it doesn’t hold a candle to what a former student of mine, Zachary Scot Johnson, has accomplished.  His Song-a-Day Project is currently at 2,854 days and counting!  (Check them out on Youtube.)  I bow to his greatness- and to his stamina.  Anyway, it’s time to step back from the nightly songs.  It’s not that life is back to normal – far from it, especially for those of us in the performing arts – but most of us don’t feel quite as frightened and uncertain as we once did …  and taking a bit of a break, a bit of a breather,  has felt good – and healthy.   (I’m reminded of what it felt like on Thursday morning, September 13th, 2001,  when I turned on the TV at 6 a.m. and saw a Burger King commercial …. the first TV commercial I saw since the tragic events of two days earlier, 9-11.  Life was not normal at that point- not by a long shot-  but something as simple as that TV commercial was a reassuring indication that we would emerge from that ordeal.)   Interestingly enough,  song #100 was one of the hardest songs to choose.   It was not until 6:38 that evening that I suddenly realized what would suit the occasion very nicely –  “Auld lang syne.”  It’s a song that calls us to look back fondly on what life has given us, including those blessings that miraculously emerge from life’s sadness and pain.

“Lord, help me always be grateful for the blessings You have given me. And Lord,  help me thank You not in just the words I say …. but in how I live and give, each and every day.”   (words from song #1, “Mercy and Love.”)

See you soon for Songs from Hillside #101 – and for all of the other Songs from Hillside that will follow thereafter!