Raul Malo Is The Man!

With the rush of excitement over Cameron's pending arrival, the fact that Cyn and I are getting married is pretty easy to sweep under the rug. For those of you who know me, you know that getting married is not something I take lightly, nor is getting engaged. When we found out that we were pregnant, I rushed out and got a small ring that I hid in an Easter Egg and placed it on her pillow. I wanted her to know that the pregnancy only changed the timing of things not the direction. And she loved it.

But I had bigger plans for the "real" proposal.

"Feels Like Home" is a song that Cyn introduced me to shortly into our relationship. Its a beautiful song written by Randy Newman that talks about finding the person and the relationship that makes you feel like you have finally found your home. She had heard the song on Chantel Kresviusak's album and it quickly became one of our favorites.

Last summer, we were going through some rough times, and because we already had the tickets we went to Raul Malo's show at the Birchmere. If you don't know Raul Malo, google him now and get to know the best voice to grace recorded music. His show was a tour de force as it was just him and his acoustic guitar. Listening to him was like being a feather in a gale storm, he blew us away. Especially when he sang, "Feels Like Home." Listening to him sing our song, I knew things would work out for Cyn and I.

Last night we went to see Raul again at the Birchmere. This time he was accompanied by his band and again delivered a lush river of aural perfection. It was as if we were floating in his music, unbounded by space and time. Unbeknown to Cynthia I had put a post on the Raul Malo website asking if he could dedicate the song to us at the show. I never heard back, although all the other posters thought for sure if he saw it he would. I also wasn't sure if we were going to be able to afford going to the show, given the upcoming wedding and baby costs.

Thank God we did. The piano started playing the intro to the song. Then Raul started saying how he received a beautiful email telling him how special that song was to two people. He then told the crowd how we were expecting our baby in November and planning on getting married too. He joked about how I have no idea what I'm getting into and wished me luck. Then he sincerely dedicated the song to us and melted the room with his voice. As soon as Cyn heard him say something about an email, she turned to me and just started crying. We held each other tight as he sang to us and I slipped the ring on her finger.

After the show we met him in the bandstand. We each gave him a thank you hug and he told us it was his pleasure. He was as gracious as you could imagine and definitely the kind of guy you could have over for poker sometime. He signed our ticketstubs and CD cover, so that we can someday show baby cameron mementos from his first concert.

It was an amazing night. Thank you Raul for giving us a treasured memory. You know....Raul is a pretty cool name too ........... ;-)