I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now. I’ve actually started writing it more than a few times, but nothing feels right. Maybe i just need to lean into the uncertainty and let the words flow.  

A year ago this Tuesday, my friend Kevin Michael Williams finished his life journey, cut woefully short after a 7 year battle with a brain tumor. His wife and 2 kids, his family, and a host of friends gathered not long after to say farewell.  

Was it only a year? It feels like a long age ago, and yet so fresh in memory as to have been yesterday. It still doesn’t feel real. I keep expecting to get one of Kevin’s late night calls, a chance to chat about nothing and everything on his post-gig drive. This was a ritual we shared more than a few years. I miss those calls, and I miss him.  

At the risk of using some tired metaphors, life keeps moving, and the time for mourning eventually ends...turn, turn, turn.  

So now? We remember and we celebrate a man loved by many, who gave of himself and shared his gifts at every opportunity.  

This week, I’ll be sharing a song Kevin was kind enough to record back in 2012 (only a few months after the vocal session, doctors discovered his tumor). It’s a song that was to be on a new album project that was eventually shelved (due to lack of funding and evolving career circumstances). It was an emotional experience hearing Kevin’s voice coming out of the speakers, his talent on full display. He sounds vibrant and full of fire.  

Sometimes I feel so lost at sea             

Dark waves are crashing over me 

A light is shining 

Beyond the wind and waves 

Heaven’s proclaiming 

The one who came to save 

     -from “I Believe (featuring Kevin Michael Williams)” 

More words will come. For now, this is the Kevin I remember...