Happy Holidays from Switchback

We just got back from playing schools throughout south central Illinois, including 13 schools in five days, with three concerts for the public to boot. We decided to feature our "Why Did We Write That?" program, which consists of getting students to tune into the "radio in their mind" and tap into the creative muse. All the shows were a great success, with all the students coming up with wonderful ideas about songwriting. There were a couple of zingers. We started off by playing in Springfield, Illinois. At our first school, St. Agnes, we were playing the song "Stranded, Ragged and Poor". We finished the song and Brian asked the students what they heard when we played it. One second grade lad raised his hand. "I'm from Texas," he said. "Ok," said Brian. "Yes, I'm from Texas and I like that kind of music", the lad answered. "That's good", Brian said, "what did you think of the song?" "I like the song," he said. "I'm from Texas and I had CD's that I like to play with that kind of music." We then couldn't get him to be quiet as he stood up and for the next three minutes told us all about Texas and how he listens to our kind of music every day. We later played "Frightened by the Little Things" at the Little Flower School. When we asked kids what they heard, one cute little Indian-American girl immediately had an answer. "It's like a beast that comes after you, takes you into a hole and sucks out all your blood." We were on a roll.

The next day we were at St. Patrick's school in Decatur, Illinois. Again, the song was "Stranded, Ragged and Poor". We finished the song and started asking the students what they thought of it. A first grade boy's hand shot up. "It is about a flood," he said. "Good, you are really listening", said Brian. "I was in a flood," the young kid said. "Really," said Brian. "What was it like?" "Oh", he said. "My basement flooded and so I got this new coat." He held up the coat for everyone to see. "Very nice to see the new coat," said Brian. We later played a song in which we asked the kids to close their eyes and listen with their ears to the melody. We chose "Amadeus" as the song to play. All the kids closed their eyes and listened intently. After we finished the song, we asked them to tell us what they saw. A preschooler raised his hand. "Hi", he said. "Hi," said Brian. "Hi" he said. "Hi" said Brian. "Did you see something in the song?" "Hi" he said. Later on we played "Black Mountain" for the Lutheran Students Association. One serious third grade boy stood up to tell us what he thought. In a wavering high voice he said, "I see it as a song in which a person is deeply in love and it is unrequited." We couldn't have said it better ourselves! Actually I don't think we could have said it!