Tommy Cecil
Chapter 10
Joe Lawrence loved music, all kinds too, and I admired that about him. He often had bands from our local area come to play on the weekends. My first intervention with Tommy Cecil was on a Friday Night, playing an Eagles’ song, James Dean, then he followed up with David Bowie’s Suffragette City. Damn, this blew me and the whole audience there away! Tommy had a gift that few could ever master in twenty lifetimes.
Tommy wasn't educated at Harvard or Princeton, yet you could certainly say his erudition was an innate musical phenomenon. I conjecture that Tommy’s French ancestry runs deep with Gallic euphonious minstrels. Tommy utilized this gift to perfection; one might even say he had a pact with the devil, or delved deep into the Codex Gigas, because he was a master.
Tommy was a reserved man of few words, yet when he sang, the women hovered around him like ancient elders around a campfire. How could a person like Tommy conjure up so much talent from modest surroundings? Tommy was quiet as a ghost in a monastery, yet patient as a marble bust. Tommy’s music is his universal gift, he's a profound musician who always thought his sound was superficial when haggling over the right magical chord. Like Tommy, we both received our knowledge from the same God-lit candle at St. Thomas. His conscience was as stark as Gabriel's, he could sleep through a hurricane; he had no enemies!
He played that mandolin magnificently, he was adroit as an octopus, and yes, I envied him, and for whom myself, was as adroit as a sloth-I'm no musician. Tommy was kind to everyone and very respectful of all who entered his charmed circle. Ignorance never won any battles, yet kindness wins every contest.
Tommy had brothers too, and I think all of them played music very well. The Cecil Family endured hardships like every Catholic family, yet never lost their faith in God. Tommy had that Adonis mysticism that served his profession well.
