This feature has been supplied by Sally Maybury, a mother of two children who lives in Rugby. She is a keen musician, and can often be found singing a song or two at the local karaoke.

“One good thing about music is that when it hits you, you feel no pain” - Bob Marley summed it up, music has power beyond belief.

Whether it’s driving through the summer air, windows down, speeding (within legal parameter of course!) through a country lane blasting your favourite dance tune at full volume.

Or letting your hair down, throwing some shapes to that song from your childhood with your besties; there is a certain energy that comes from listening to music.

placeholder image — Sally Maybury on stage.

For me, a musician, it’s the one thing I can always rely on.

My life was in turmoil after I escaped an unhealthy relationship and to be honest there were times when I wasn’t sure how I was going to put one foot in front of the other, let alone live a normal life going to work and raising my children.

I’d lost friends, I’d lost my sense of being, and I’d completely lost myself; I had to find a way to rebuild me, to remember who I was.

I was mindlessly flicking through social media and came across a song, I’d never heard of the artist but I knew it was working magic in me; my foot started tapping and I found myself smiling, not because it was a particularly jolly song, but because the words were speaking to me.

It was as if they’d taken a page from my diary and were singing it word for word.

The song was called ‘Bird in a Cage’ and following the trauma of a past relationship, it was exactly how I felt, it moved me so much that I got a tattoo to remind me of the freedom I now had, and I even reached out to the artist, Caryn Dixon, on Instagram to share my story (and tattoo) with her.

An upcoming female voice in the country music scene I wanted her to know that all the way over here, in a small town in the middle of the UK her words resonated with me so much and to thank her for being part of what was now a healing journey to becoming a much stronger, more powerful version of the woman that I’d lost.

I’m so excited that she is venturing across the pond, all the way from Nashville to play a number of gigs here. It will be her first time in the UK and you can bet bottom dollar that I will be front row in tears watching her.

For me, she was the voice that I didn’t have, her song has given me my passion for writing back, the music she delivers has allowed me the freedom to explore parts of me I’d long forgotten.

Music is a tool so many of us take for granted, there are so many ways that we try to heal ourselves through pain, but for me, and maybe for you too, music is the one simple answer.

“Music is the shorthand of emotion” – Leo Tolstoy