Freedom is a Boat

I am a member of a big family, and have been lucky enough to know two grandmothers, two parents, one wife, two daughters, fourteen aunts and uncles, two godparents, an uncountable number of cousins (including sixteen first cousins), three siblings and their spouses, my wife’s four siblings and their spouses, and all the children and grandchildren of my siblings or my wife’s siblings. If you doubt whether a large family is a gift, that probably means you come from a small one. But I have clear evidence to prove the advantages of a large family (in spite of the bill at Christmas time): Both my nephew, Demetri, and my niece, Patricia, have included me in their family trips to Greece in recent years. Yes, I was allowed to tag along for free. That’s two trips to Greece, accompanied by fun people!

This is relevant for Ákou! because both of those trips had musical consequences. On the first trip, with Demetri, Rachael, and their six children (Emma, Andrew, Charles, Jenna, Ella Rose, and Abigail), after our stay on the island of Naxos together (the island where my mother was born), I went to Nafplion, where I wrote To Mayico Tou Bourtzi (featured on the Evlogía album). On the second trip, with Patricia, Ted, and their sons, Will and Stephen, we spent most of the trip zigzagging the Aegean, spirited along by a yacht called Freedom, where I wrote the closing track to Evlogía, entitled Elefthería (which means freedom in Greek).

I’ve been to Greece many times, starting with a summer-long visit when I was ten, and another one when I was twenty. In all those trips (prior to the one with Patricia and her crew), we got around the country by ferry boat, automobile, bus, or hiking. I thought yacht voyages in Greece were a bad idea – they disconnect you from people you otherwise would meet, they are expensive, and they lead to an emphasis on mindless leisure, taking the focus away from important inland destinations (I love archaeological sites!).

But then I went on a yacht trip. It’s not that all those criticisms of yacht trips are wrong; it’s just that they miss the point of being on a yacht. Putting aside the occasional “yacht rock” soundtrack (which wasn’t as bad as you might think, and after all, it’s called yacht rock for a reason), on a private boat you can go to destinations that are very hard to get to, and sometimes impossible to access, in other ways.

There is also a unique feeling of – you guessed it – freedom! There are the obvious physical freedoms of movement and exploration, but also the less obvious spiritual freedom that comes from peaceful places and quiet moments. If you want to know how that felt to me, have a listen to Elefthería. And if you behave yourself as an elder relative, maybe someone will let you tag along on their yacht trip someday.

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