Ten Years Old

Ari Vais always liked to refer to our songs as our children. If that's the case, "Chara" is, at fourteen, the same age as the new student added to my American Literature class, "Something European" is a sophomore in college, and the song the students in my brand-new Musical Expression class worked on today is ten years old. Although it seems like I knocked off "I Wouldn't Know" only a handful of autumns ago, the truth is it's hitting double digits this very year.

Huh? Wuzzat? Yep, for the second half of the school year, rather than teach the journalism class, I've been given a Musical Expression course, which is essentially working with a small group of students in the ways of a rock combo. We have a drummer, a bassist and a singer/songwriter/ acoustic guitarist, which makes me the lead guitarist and harmony vocalist. Sounds familiar. Anyway, the group wants to play a few Westcott originals so we tried "I Wouldn't Know," which came together well. It's relatively easy and sounds perfect in that two guitar/bass/drums format. And just as it was coming together on the fourth run-through, the sun showed its appreciation by flowing through the windows, flooding the floor of the room of the building, which is one of those traditional little red schoolhouses with the desks all removed and replaced with amps, drums, keyboards, etc. So pretty, so pretty.