Check out Dan Graul’s new single Let The Music Play, streaming everywhere now
https://music.northernstrangers.com/justsing-all.
Let The Music Play is a folk rock testimonial to the power of music and its ability to help us be present. Dan Graul’s first track of 2025 is fueled by sorrow but filled with cathartic joy. In a personal moment of great grief, Graul thought to himself “How do I go on from here? What helps me rise out of the sludge of depression that follows loss after loss of loved ones?” When it arrived, the answer seemed so simple – just sing. Do the thing that has always allowed you to put your mind aside and be in the now.
Graul has these thoughts to offer on the song.
“In a period of five years, I had lost my mother, followed by my grandmother. My wife lost her grandmother, who was also a pivotal, loving figure in my life. We lost three little cats that we loved furiously. Together we endured a great amount of personal strife, not to mention the uncertainty of a pandemic that also happened during that time.
This song was born in the wake of all the loss and uncertainty of that period of life. In the face of all that happened, I recognized that I still had so much that was well worth being present for; and music is something that has always brought me to the now – by singing, playing, listening, dancing, engaging and seemingly just getting lost in it. I have pursued art all my life because it has given me a vessel to express hard and great feelings that otherwise would have remained bottled up inside. I have helped others pursue art, so they could experience that same relief. In this moment, it was just what I needed to come back to – just sing.”
The connection that music can bring is the other big revelation in Let The Music Play. You can’t enjoy a song and not feel a kinship to others who also enjoy that song. You can’t dance to your favorite band in a crowd at a live show and not feel the vibe of everyone else in the room. You can’t sing or play music with other humans and not feel a deep, meaningful bond on the other side of that experience. Connection with others brings us into the present moment and helps us find relief in times of trouble or sorrow.
So sing along to the song; and do it with a friend (or a few), feel your feelings together and experience the present moment because it’s only here right now.
