The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to get caught up in the spin cycle and let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week, we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
This week’s Something Good is two musical performances that, for different reasons, will make you smile.
First, we have a little boy from Dayton, Ohio who was born with optic nerve fibroplasia. Avett Ray is six years old and is legally blind – he is totally blind in one eye but has limited vision in the other. His mother told CBS News that Avett walks with a cane and reads braille. The “old soul” who has “music in his body” taught himself to play piano by ear and has been playing since he was old enough to pull himself up to the piano at 11 months old.
His musical tastes have evolved over his career as a prodigy thus far but his current inspiration is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Avett’s cover of the classic has gone viral and is quite incredible.
If Queen isn’t your cup of tea, Avett has posted videos on YouTube of him performing “Happy Together” by the Turtles or a brief rendition of “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor when he was a toddler.
Our second musical performance is the Colorado All State Treble Choir performing “Down in the River to Pray” in a hotel atrium. It will send a shiver up your spine and put a smile on your face. If one was sleeping in that hotel and woke up to that song, one might think a choir of angels had settled in the atrium.
The Facebook video, posted on the choir’s Facebook page shows the director, but the sound quality isn’t quite as good as the YouTube video. Both videos are posted below.
Music is definitely Something Good that lifts us up and helps us smile. Now it’s your turn… tell me something good!
