Music Is a Friend

By Samuel Wells, Samuel Baker, Kira Bassler and Babett Mueller

Music is a friend. Not only to me but to anyone willing to listen. Music is a tool. Not only for enjoyment but for tension relief and hardship. It can be an escape. A place to run when you have fear. Music can be so much more than a silly song. Yet at the same time, it’s powerful in both the simple and complex. From Mozart to Weird Al Yankovic, all of it has had an impact of some kind. It all has a purpose. Music is a direct translation of emotion from your brain to a tangible, auditory event. Everyone has a song to share. Everyone.

My name is Samuel Wells and I have found immense joy in participating in, creating, and sharing music. I am a multi-instrumentalist songwriter, music teacher, and producer currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. I moved to Kansas City from Cincinnati, Ohio in January 2020. That move signified a large shift in my life that I feel wraps my time in Cincinnati up with a nice bow. My goal with this book is to tell multiple stories that shaped me in Cincinnati through the lens of music I learned, performed, and listened to. I will use music as the tree trunk that branches into my life stories up until moving away.

I originally started writing this book as a therapeutic mechanism for documenting my life before the memories dissipate. I’m only twenty-seven; I don’t plan on losing memories any time soon. That being said, memories have an opportunity to be morphed differently depending on the moment you remember them. You will always perceive things differently based on the point of view that you’re looking from. At the time of writing this book, I am finding myself in a unique perspective where it feels beneficial to document the memories.

It is my hope that, through this memoir, I am able to convey the deep love of music that is in my heart. Though it may sound cliche, I genuinely do not know what my life would be without music. It has shaped nearly every aspect of my youth and adulthood. It has formed the vast majority of my relationships in life thus far. I’m equally nervous as I am excited to write and share this book. I hope you enjoy reading these precious stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781387465477

Samuel Wells

Dr. Sam Wells is a visiting professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Kings College in London, England.

Book preview

Music Is a Friend

by Samuel Wells

Copyright © 2022 SAMUEL WELLS. All rights reserved.

Published by Samuel Wells

ISBN 978-1-387-46547-7

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Earliest Memories

Chapter 2: Musical Foundations

Chapter 3: Amelia

Chapter 4: Tyler and Stephany

Chapter 5: Brotherhood

Chapter 6: Grenada

Chapter 7: The Softer Side

Chapter 8: Birth of a Producer

Chapter 9: The Cove (Part One)

Chapter 10: The Cove (Part Two)

Chapter 11: Corrie

Chapter 12: The Music Store

Chapter 13: The Joy of Teaching

Chapter 14: Memphis

Chapter 15: Conversational Music

Chapter 16: Music and Mental Health

Chapter 17: A Hobby, Job, and Lifestyle

Epilogue

Special Thanks

Foreword

Hi, my name is Sam Baker, not Sam Wells. I’m sure that seems pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised how many times we’ve had to explain that to people. Sam Wells even bought me a t-shirt one time that said exactly that just to make it easier for people! It’s a funny joke that always makes me laugh when I think about it, but it also goes to show just how close we were back then. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Sam Wells for more than a decade now and my life has been infinitely blessed just by having him in it. He is a brother to me. He is one of the few people that know me fully. And he has absolutely, unequivocally changed my life through his friendship.

Even with all of that, I was super surprised when he asked me to write the foreword for his book. I was very honored but super surprised. My first thought was, Wait, you’re only twenty-seven! How are you writing a book? Isn’t that something you do when you’re fifty? My second thought was, I’m only twenty-eight, who do I think I am writing the foreword to a book!? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it! That was, until I read it.

I sat down at my kitchen table with the intention to honor my friend’s effort and potentially reflect upon some of our memories together, and I did that. However, I did not expect to cry and laugh and mourn, and celebrate, and I did that too. I was humbled by Sam Wells’ honesty and transparency. I was drawn in by his storytelling and his almost cinematic attention to detail. More than anything though, I was blown away by the sincerity of his love and appreciation for music and the way it has been present all throughout his life. Music has truly been a close friend to him and he makes an effort to honor that friendship on every page.

After reading this book, it hit me that this isn’t just Sam Wells’ story. I lived it and if you love music, you’ve lived it too. This is a story of the power of music, the way it binds us together and soothes us when we fall apart. It’s about the privilege of getting to share music with the people you love and to love people with the music you share. It’s about how music helps us to be our truest selves and gives us a place to hide when we’re scared to do so. Anyone who knows what it means to love music can see themselves in this story, and I’m so thankful to my brother, Sam Wells, for letting me be a part of it.

Sam Wells, you’ve truly given me something that I can never pay you back for. You’ve given me the chance to relive some of the greatest moments of my life in detail and I am so thankful. Thank you for writing this book even though you’re only twenty-seven! Here’s to more memories, more music, and more memoirs in the future! I’ll be around if you need any more forewords. Love you, bro.

Introduction

Music is a friend. Not only to me but to anyone willing to listen. Music is a tool. Not only for enjoyment but for tension relief and hardship. It can be an escape. A place to run when you have fear. Music can be so much more than a silly song. Yet at the same time, it’s powerful in both the simple and complex. From Mozart to Weird Al Yankovic, all of it has had an impact of some kind. It all has a purpose. Music is a direct translation of emotion from your brain to a tangible, auditory event. Everyone has a song to share. Everyone.

My name is Samuel Wells and I have found immense joy in participating in, creating, and sharing music. I am a multi-instrumentalist songwriter, music teacher, and producer currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. I moved to Kansas City from Cincinnati, Ohio in January 2020. That move signified a large shift in my life that I feel wraps my time in Cincinnati up with a nice bow. My goal with this book is to tell multiple stories that shaped me in Cincinnati through the lens of music I learned, performed, and listened to. I will use music as the tree trunk that branches into my life stories up until moving away.

I originally started writing this book as a therapeutic mechanism for documenting my life before the memories dissipate. I’m only twenty-seven; I don’t plan on losing memories any time soon. That being said, memories have an opportunity to be morphed differently depending on the moment you remember them. You will always perceive things differently based on the point of view that you’re looking from. At the time of writing this book, I am finding myself in a unique perspective where it feels beneficial to document the memories.

It is my hope that, through this memoir, I am able to convey the deep love of music that is in my heart. Though it may sound cliche, I genuinely do not know what my life would be without music. It has shaped nearly every aspect of my youth and adulthood. It has formed the vast majority of my relationships in life thus far. I’m equally nervous as I am excited to write and share this book. I hope you enjoy reading these precious stories.

Chapter 1

Earliest Memories

Unhealthily obsessed with music isn’t far from the truth. I was enamored with sound and songs from the very beginning. It’s possible I inherited it from my dad, who’s also been a musician since he was a kid. It’s also plausible I, an only child, took the you can pick your friends proverb too literally. Either way, music is a close friend that I spend the majority of my time with and happen to know very well.

The first memories I made with music came on long drives to Brookville Lake with my family. We had a sailboat at the lake and we would spend summer weekends there. Those were great times out on the midwest waters. My dad would often play music from The Beatles on the long drive to and from the destination. It wasn’t actually that long, only an hour and a half from our Florence, Kentucky home. But to a kid, that felt like an eternity that needed distracting entertainment. Music was the answer to this problem.

We’d usually get through two full albums before arriving and another two before returning home. Rubber Soul and Help! were always my favorites. In retrospect, I feel those albums had the most variety that I could comprehend as a child. Later Beatles records had a lot more oddities and earlier Beatles records had a totally different feel due to them being filled with cover songs. The middle albums were a perfect selection within their vast discography for a kid like me to enjoy.

It probably drove my parents mad over the number of times I asked for us to repeat I’ve Just Seen A Face. It was such a sweet hypothetical love letter to a woman you spontaneously met in passing. I’d listen to that song and dream about being older, meeting a girl, and falling in love. I didn’t want romance at the time of course, because cooties are scary. Nobody wants cooties! But music allowed me to pretend to be older without the gross reality of adulthood.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is my favorite Beatles album now. My taste shifted significantly the older I grew. When I was little, I wasn’t that crazy about the album. I listened to it again when I was seventeen and said Wow this surely can’t be the same album I listened to!. There isn’t a single song I skip on that beautiful record. The bright and joyful melancholy mood of Getting Better brings a smile to my face. She’s Leaving Home never fails to place me in a different headspace with all of the beautiful orchestration. When I’m Sixty-Four never fails to make me bop my head blissfully back and forth as I pretend to be an old man. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion.

My dad is a distinguished gentleman who typically sports a grey goatee or beard. It depends on the day. He would share interesting facts about the bands we listened to. He was and still is a music history machine who can spew off hours of information at any given moment. How he keeps it all retained is a mysterious accomplishment to me. He’s like a sponge that retains everything ever said to him! Though at the same time, I find myself doing the exact same thing if you allow me the time to talk without interruption. It’s possible it’s a genetic skill that can be passed down.

Due to how my dad talked about these artists, I would become fascinated knowing there were people behind the songs I heard. The songs didn’t exist solely for my enjoyment, they meant something personal to somebody else. They were original thoughts owned by a creator. Imagine my excitement when I realized more than one band existed! Do you mean every single one of these artists sits down, writes, records, and releases music that comes from their own creativity? Sure, as an adult this seems obvious. But as a kid discovering this idea for the first time, I began to listen with even more amazement at what was being put into my ears. It was an incredible discovery!

My mom is a bubbly, short woman with shoulder length black hair. She is never short of fun energy. She would drive me to school every day and I would use up every ounce of those fifteen minutes on hearing new things. My parents were fairly intentional about showing me a wide variety of music as I grew up. I loved getting an opportunity to discover new music