Louisville singer/songwriter Gavin Caster has put a lot of hard-earned wisdom into his new song "Alive". The song covers the last few years that have been fraught with a cancer diagnosis, social injustice, political turmoil, and a world-wide pandemic. It's a lot to cover but Gavin comes at it in the most honest way he knows how: through music. I asked him what inspired the song:
“Alive” was a song that was “channeled” more than written from inspiration. The story begins in May, 2021.
I received a text from St. Matthews Farmers Market saying that they are resuming live music, after canceling it in 2020 due to COVID restrictions. It’d been over two years since my stage rig was used. So when it was powered up, I started playing the riff from “Alive” out of nowhere. When testing the mic, I sang what became the first four lines of the song...from nowhere. The song was “put away” for sometime afterward. I caught up with friends a few weeks later and we thought it was interesting how my recovery, COVID, and Breonna Taylor and George Floyd all ran parallel. It seemed more than serendipitous. But I didn’t know how to bring it all together.
Finally on a Sunday afternoon, my wife, Retha, and I were having a deep conversation about my “cancer journey” in 2019 and some of the things I can no longer do. She said “Yeah, you may not be able to do as much, but you know what? You’re alive...and that means everything.” And there was the song. It was one of those times that when it’s all finished, you have no idea how it happened...the song just came into existence."
Gavin created a video for "Alive" which is now streaming.
