Izzy Gilden – The Road (Official Music Video)

The dining room was empty. I can still hear how my voice echoed off the walls. I can still smell the chemicals of cleaning supplies mixed with mashed potatoes that they must have served an hour earlier.
Dinner was over at the nursing home so now all the chairs and tables were empty except for me and my father in his wheelchair. The occasional nurse in blue scrubs would come in to get something from the fridge. One or two of them would even acknowledge us.
I held my guitar as I sat across from him. I played song after song after song, some even his own compositions.
As a musician himself, I hoped the music would clear up the blank stare that lay across his face. I hoped that the music would break through the walls of the dementia and that he would sing along. There were numerous times that miraculously he did.
That night he didn’t.
As I ran through every song I knew, a wordless melody of hope came to my lips over a very simple C chord. In that melody, I wanted him to know that although his situation was dire, and that considering Parkinson’s and Dementia were notorious for their horrible deterioration, there was still hope.
Verses were added later, but that melody stayed wordless. Words can not describe the emotions I was feeling.
That melody is the chorus. The Road is that song.
The music video shows me pushing a man (played by Alex Wachtenheim) in a wheelchair. As the song progresses, the man gets up and walks with assistance. Eventually he finds the power to walk on his own. Independently.
That’s what I prayed for every day. All I wanted was for him to get better.
My father passed away less than 2 weeks before this release. I desperately wanted him to hear “The Road.”
The Road is an “onward moving ride” where we can reach the unattainable, where someone in the late stages of Parkinson’s can get up and walk perfectly on their own. It’s where my father and I can be in that same empty dining room but laughing and harmonizing as we sing our favourite songs.
The Road is where we can even “reach the sunrise. I know it’s far away but it’s so close in my eyes.”
This is a Hopeful Road.
May the Neshama of Yehuda Reuven ben Meir have an aliyah.
Video by: David Patino (www.davidpatino.com)
Song produced by Rob Freeman at Audio Pilot Studio
Izzy Gilden - "The Road" is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and any major platform that music is listened to.
Listen to Izzy Gilden on iTunes: https://tinyurl.com/ycc8pd2v
Listen to Izzy Gilden on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yay7gs72
Listen to Izzy Gilden on Souncloud: https://tinyurl.com/y9xbfyr8
Follow Izzy Gilden on Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/yd2zq3nz
Follow Izzy Gilden on Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/ya2ds9bu