There’s a reason they say that music is a universal language and it’s because it speaks to us all. People can be total strangers, having come from completely different cultures, countries, and backgrounds, but when they hear a beautiful song, it speaks to everyone who hears. Heck, even deaf people have been known to fall in love with music just from the vibrations.
That’s the most beautiful thing about music, in fact, is that it can draw strangers who would otherwise pay no attention to each other together on common ground to listen to something that moves them in a way that nothing else does.
One man caught this beautiful phenomenon in action a few years ago when he was on his way to the grocery store and stopped to watch a street musician jamming on his guitar. He pulled his phone out for a quick video of the mellow riffs but had no idea he was about to capture one of the most epic videos ever.
Jaime Tatos Maldonado was on his way into his local Kroeger for a routine grocery shopping trip when a random guy playing his guitar caught his ears. He began recording the street musician, later identified as local Dallas musician, Jesse Rya, playing his raw, soulful-yet-upbeat original, Good Sensation.
At the beginning of the video, you can see another stranger donning a 76ers Jersey enjoying the impromptu jam session presumably as much as Maldonado.
As Rya brings his lyrics to a close, the 76ers fan identified later on as Howard Mullins jumps in with his own inspired lyrics while Rya continues to riff out some background music, softly echoing the words of his new jam buddy.
Coupled with the inspired nature of the random store-front rock-out, the words sung out by the stranger joining in made the musical meetup that much more touching.
In answer to the lyrical close of Rya’s Good Sensations, Mullins softly sings out:
“I don’t know what you can do…but we can!”
Intended or not, the lyrics beautifully frame the sentiment of the entire improvisation between the random strangers; people are stronger when they can lean on each other.
As fate would have it though, the sweet little diddy wasn’t over quite just yet.
After around a minute of Mullins and Rya feeling each other out in song, two more strangers walk up.
While one of the two headed straight into the store, the other one, wearing a construction vest, lagged behind a little, propping the door open just to listen a second longer. Apparently, the random dudes singing on the pathway really spoke to the inner artist of the third stranger, because he quickly decided to let the door fall shut as he turned back outside to join in on the music.
After singing along with Mullins and Rya, the third stranger, Ron Lashley, jumps in with his own inspired freestyle to the evolving song.
As Lashley lets the music flow through his body as he’s lightly dancing around he begins rapping lyrics that only add more to the beauty of the circumstance:
“See, now I don’t know what’s goin’ on but I try to figure it out. I’m just…tryin’ to keep my head up high and if I do that then I’m gonna make it out alright. And if I don’t, well I’m gonna just try to see the light. And if I can’t then I’m just gonna get down on my knees and pray that He can take care of me…”
The intro to Lashley’s freestyle, backed with Rya’s guitar skills marked by the added percussion of cupping his guitar, sets the song up even more as the strangers dive deeper into their inspired rhythm.
After the trio of strangers came to a natural close with their song, Lashley, the last to come, gave his musical companions a heartfelt thanks before returning to his original task.
“I needed that one, man, I appreciate that,” he says before sliding into the grocery store.
Since Maldonado originally shared his video, it has gone insanely viral reaching close to 40 million viewers!
While the impromptu meetup between these 3 complete strangers definitely turned into one of the most amazing street jams to ever grace the internet, it did something else, too; it has shown the world that there is no room for boundaries in music, and no matter who you are, what you do, or where you come from, we can all relate to one another if we try, and when we do it makes some truly beautiful music!
To hear the rest of these guys’ thought-provoking, soul-inspiring song, watch the video below.
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