Songs of hope and soul from a fellow West Sider

Kevin Sconiers music was nurtured in a Black Chicago-bred creative spirit that captures slices of life that reverberate through time.

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Kevin Sconiers

“Far too many lies; Far too many fears; Far too many cries; Singing in my ears”

– Kevin Sconiers, “Far Too Many Tears”

The winds must speak a breath of change that births new life to heal our people. From every corner, new winds must blow until we sing new songs that have the capacity to usher in a new movement for the greater good.

Not drums of death and destruction. But a prophetic sound of renewal that speaks of those things that are, and calls into existence new visions of hope, truth and peace.

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No song of late for me greater captures and conveys this spirit than, “Far Too Many Tears” by Kevin Sconiers Sr. His music company Sconsongs is a new start-up, so to speak, even if he has been writing and composing for years.

From the pen and musical heart of a fellow West Sider, the perhaps unintended message of the song is that we all have a story to tell, and that the conditions of the Black community necessitate that each of us uses our talents, time and resources to help lift us.

Kevin Sconiers reminds me of this with every beat and every word.

You probably have never heard of my friend Kevin. He is not Common, nor Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, Chaka Khan, Sam Cooke or Chance the Rapper. His music, however, was nurtured in that same Black Chicago-bred creative spirit and authenticity in voice, lyric and soul that capture slices of life that reverberate through time.

“Far Too many Tears” is a fusion of urban, gospel and rap music with an orchestral underlayer. Released this week, it is both soul stirring and socially conscious, calling attention to the scourge called homicide and incalculable human loss.

The song is Kevin’s second release but hardly his first at age 58. He is a prolific writer and producer who over the years has collected a storehouse of songs that a few other family and friends like myself have been privileged to glimpse.

That’s, in part, because Kevin is a bit of a perfectionist. A pianist raised in the holiness church, he inherited the gift naturally from his late-mother Maria Sconiers, a sweet woman whom I can still envision tinkering the ivories while teaching our choir a new song at All Nations Church of God In Christ on Pulaski Road off 15th Street.

We were church boys together. Boys who inherited an ear for music and a heart for storytelling with an eye and compassion for the human condition — and a faith that believes that even one voice can make a difference.

We grew up in a time before rap music, a time before video games and handheld electronics, a time when a pen and paper and a melody were sweeter than cotton candy. Kevin has always dabbled in this sweet science.

“Over the years, I have run into people who ask, ‘Are you still into music?’” Kevin writes. “I cannot imagine not being into music and I am always writing songs.”

For Kevin, like so many other unheralded artists, it is about music not money, about message and moving others. Not about popularity as much as clarity.

“I write because it is so much a part of who I am. I write because it is one of the ways that God has given me to express myself. I write because it is like breathing...”

“I simply have not shared much of my writing,’ he says. “This year, I have made a commitment to share some of my musical thoughts. I hope to inspire and to provoke thought.”

Far too many die

Laughter disappear

Far too little love and

Far too many tears…

May the winds of Sconsongs help usher us back to healing, hope and life.

To see the “Far Too Many Tears” video, visit:https://youtu.be/hnfVq7vy7ds

You may reach Kevin at: https://www.sconsongsmusic.com/

Write John W. Fountain at: Author@johnwfountain.com

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com.

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