When I think back on the last CD I ever owned, I think of Blackbird by Alter Bridge. I was around 14 or 15, and by then MP3 players had all but replaced CDs. Still, on my birthday, my mom handed me this album from a band I had never heard of. It ended up being one of the most meaningful musical discoveries of my teenage years.
From the very first listen, I was hooked. Nearly every song had a drive and energy that stuck with me. “Ties That Bind” was my instant favorite. I used to blast it through my oversized bass-heavy headphones on the bus ride to school, volume turned all the way up. I’d close my eyes and imagine myself on stage, guitar slung over my shoulder, playing those riffs for a roaring crowd. At the time, it seemed impossible — the kind of technical playing I could only dream of. Years later, after more than a decade of practice, I can play it. That song is a thread that runs through both who I was then and who I’ve become now.
Other tracks carried their own weight for me. “Coming Home” and “Before Tomorrow Comes” were favorites too, each with their blend of heavy riffs and soaring melodies that set Alter Bridge apart from the other bands I was listening to at the time.
The song that has come to mean the most to me, though, is the title track, “Blackbird.” I didn’t truly connect with it until years later, after my grandfather passed away in 2017. The song’s themes of departure and longing struck me in a new way. Even though my grandfather was older, I couldn’t help but feel he was gone too soon — that there were still parts of his life left unwritten. The song became a kind of quiet elegy for me, a way to process grief and reflect on what it means to say goodbye.
Blackbird isn’t a flawless album, and I don’t hold it up as one of the greatest of all time. But for me, it’s unforgettable. It was the last CD of my youth, the soundtrack of bus rides and daydreams, and later, the vessel for loss and remembrance. That is the power of music: not just in how it sounds, but in how it grows with you, how it becomes part of your life’s story.
— Written by William Edward Villano
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