MICHAEL ZIMMERLE (HE/HIM)
Weekly Back Porch Blues Jam founder, builder, wandwright, musician
Paonia, Colorado

​​I am relentless when it comes to getting people up on stage. Music gives voice to the soul directly, and it almost completely bypasses the intellectual thought. Watch someone sing, and watch their expectations drop away, and suddenly the power of that music becomes a force of nature. It doesn’t matter whether it’s technically correct or not; I’ve heard some off-key stuff that touched me in ways that are almost indescribable. When you get somebody up on stage who is trying something for the very first time, and you get an entire group of people exploding in applause for them — even if for no other reason than that they got up on stage and gave it a shot — that is, to me, one of the most beautiful things that happens. They’re reaching, they’re exploring — they’re giving voice to a portion of their soul. Those moments are why I do this. 

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This article appeared in the November 2024 print edition of the magazine with the headline “#IAMTHEWEST.”

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‘Music gives voice to the soul directly’

by Luna Anna Archey, High Country News
November 1, 2024

<h1>‘Music gives voice to the soul directly’</h1> <p class="byline">by Luna Anna Archey, High Country News <br />November 1, 2024</p> <br /> <!-- RTT removed image (329197) --> <p><strong>MICHAEL ZIMMERLE (HE/HIM)</strong><br /><em>Weekly Back Porch Blues Jam founder, builder, wandwright, musician<br />Paonia, Colorado</em></p> <p>​​I am relentless when it comes to getting people up on stage. Music gives voice to the soul directly, and it almost completely bypasses the intellectual thought. Watch someone sing, and watch their expectations drop away, and suddenly the power of that music becomes a force of nature. It doesn’t matter whether it’s technically correct or not; I’ve heard some off-key stuff that touched me in ways that are almost indescribable. When you get somebody up on stage who is trying something for the very first time, and you get an entire group of people exploding in applause for them — even if for no other reason than that they got up on stage and gave it a shot — that is, to me, one of the most beautiful things that happens. They’re reaching, they’re exploring — they’re giving voice to a portion of their soul. Those moments are why I do this.&nbsp;</p> <p><em>We welcome reader letters.&nbsp;Email&nbsp;</em>High Country News<em>&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:editor@hcn.org">editor@hcn.org</a>&nbsp;or submit a&nbsp;<a href="https://country-survey-collabs.info/feedback/contact-us">letter to the editor</a>. See our&nbsp;<a href="https://country-survey-collabs.info/policies/lte">letters to the editor policy</a>.</em></p> <p><em>This article appeared in the&nbsp;<a href="https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/56-11/">November 2024&nbsp;print edition of the magazine</a>&nbsp;with the headline&nbsp;“#IAMTHEWEST.”</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/56-11/music-gives-voice-to-the-soul-directly/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=328997&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/56-11/music-gives-voice-to-the-soul-directly/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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