Ep. 71 - The Patron Saint of 3 A.M. - A Tribute to Brian Moore - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

EP. 71 - The Patron Saint of 3A.M. - A Tribute to Brian Moore

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After seventy conversations with good people doing good works, one might expect that sitting down to write a proper reflection on a guest would get easier. It does not. It's not that it's hard work, or that it takes some great skill to sit and reflect on the words-and-works of a person. Mostly, it is my own commitment that gives it gravity. I never wished for these meditations to be just another task in the list of things it takes to produce "Find the Good News." With each guest, I've tried to bring my full attention and sincerity to a sharpened point before a single word is typed or spoken. In the case of this episode, this conversation, I have felt an even higher duty to honor the individual properly, for he is no longer here with us.

 

When Brian Moore passed from this world on February 6, 2019, it was as if the social networks in Southwest Louisiana groaned and erupted his name. The great sigh of weeping that followed carried cascading professions of the manifold ways he embraced and comforted the people he encountered during the days and nights of his life. It goes beyond the obvious to state that he was a beloved musician. He will be remembered for his skill and the tutelage that he provided to blossoming musicians of every sort for uncountable years.

 

While the tales of his musical prowess were legendary, it was the stories of Brian's larger-than-life heart and his ability to listen—and then love—that reached my ears. These were stories of the lonely, the seemingly unloved, the worried, the curious, the lost, the outcast, the angry, lovers, fighters, friends, enemies, people cast into every crevice and crack of the damp morning hours. It was there on barstools, cafés, and stoops that Brian Moore would wrap countless people in the full attention of his presence, offering ears to hear and hugging arms to heal.

 

Is it possible to miss someone that you were never close to, having only known them through the loving legends shared by others? If it is—I believe it is—then I, like those who knew him best, miss Brian Moore. I wish dearly that I had reconnected with him in the last decade of his life so that I too would have the love of this giant to lean on. I harbor deep regret that I had only just begun this Good News journey at the time of his passing. If I had started sooner, then perhaps it would be his voice you would hear on this show today.

 

This is not what happened, so it cannot be the way forward. The true way forward is to remember him in detail, tell stories of his good works, think fondly on the various hallowed spaces he haunts, and ponder each of the known-and-unknown faces that he lovingly called, "Pumpkin." This is what three of Brian Moore's closest friends—Marcus Sawyer, Joshua Pierrottie, and Cody Louviere—came together to do in this tribute episode of "Find the Good News." These friends shared a trinity of laughter, love, and loss as they sunk into places of great joy and deep pain.

 

What they shared reminded me yet again that there are beings in this world that transmute their personal pains, sorrows, and loneliness into a wellspring of love and consolation to the lonely. Because they have great personal suffering, they are able to bear the burdens of others. Often, when they enter your life there is a presence so strong and permanent that even when they leave us their vibration remains, permeating the textures and surfaces of the spaces they inhabited. These beings firmly wedge into the hearts of the people that remain to carry their flame.

 

Amid the misty morning, when the gigs are over, and the bars have closed, through the lingering smoke, there is a man on a stool, smiling your way.

 

Brian Moore—Patron Saint of 3A.M.—Heavy-B thy name.

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