Earlier this year, my wife and I took a trip as part of an early 40th birthday present for me.  Isabelle surprised me with tickets to the Festival d’été de Québec.  The 10-day festival had a wide variety of acts playing, but the point of our trip was to see Foo Fighters.  (You can read about the trip in this blog.)  As much as I loved finally getting to see the Foo Fighters live in concert, one of the highlights of the night was one of the opening acts; namely Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls.

Frank Turner is an English Folk/Punk/Alternative singer-songwriter.  The passion and energy that this man exudes while on stage is undeniably addictive.  He draws you in and entertains the hell out of you.  Not knowing the group before we saw them perform, Isabelle and I were pleasantly surprised to recognize a few songs.  Evidently they made the airwaves on CBC Radio 2 since that’s the only live radio we listen to these days.

Before heading back home on our 7-hour drive the following day, we stopped by a record store and picked up two of Frank Turner’s albums, which also turned out to be the two most recent – Positive Songs for Negative People (2015) and Be More Kind (2018).

Despite the very catchy nature of the music (I can almost guarantee you a couple of ear worms that will stick in your brain), what spoke to me most about Frank Turner were the lyrics.  So many upbeat, positive, reinforcing messages.  It was a breath of fresh air and resonated with me strongly.  To hear such great messages coming to the masses, and to have experienced tens of thousands of people smiling, dancing and singing along, gives me hope for this world.

And when you’re out there floundering
Like a lighthouse I will shine
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind

Like a beacon reaching out
To you and yours from me and mine
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind

In a world that has decided
That it’s going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind

–Be More Kind (Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)

Songs like Get Better talk about continuing to fight and to improve yourself.  So long as you have a breath in your body, there is still time to get better.  Little Changes tells you that everything stays the same, until you are willing to start to make small changes. It doesn’t have to be a big shift of consciousness.  Small steps lead to great journeys, as the old saying goes.

These are just a few examples of the upbeat, positive message that Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls bring with their music.  I’ll end off sharing the videos for two of my favourite songs.  If you are a positive person (or a negative one for that!) I suggest checking them out.  Who knows, they might cause some Little Changes that will help “lift up the weight of the world from your shoulders, just for a moment or two.” (from the song Glorious You)