Who Do Ya Love

It seems like a hundred years ago when my dream was to study at Juilliard and perform on Broadway.  Arias and Show tunes were replaced by Rock and Roll and the Blues. Rock and Roll and the Blues were replaced by, well, by real life and that's where we sit today.
I learned a thing or two along the way, changed a few things, grew up a bit (I like to think I grew up a bit.)
I learned that dreams and goals are different, but both demand pursuit. I learned that I don't, in fact, have nerves of steel.  I learned that good singers are a dime a dozen.  I learned that I'm not as tenacious as I thought I was.  I learned that I'm often more likely to fight for someone else than to fight for myself. I learned that its better to listen than to be the one always making noise.
I discovered that the truth about music, about art, is that its often hurt woven into something beautiful. 
I fell in love with dissecting all the things I hear in songs - even more than I loved singing them. 
The rhythmic genius of John Bonham kept me listening to Led Zeppelin for days at a time.  (I wasn't sad about Robert Plant's voice either.)  Eddie Van Halen was intoxicating with a guitar. He changed everything, and he could do anything.  Michael Jackson sang the orchestration for his pieces before they were recorded and totally blows my mind with every song (he really should have a category of his own). Johnny Cash decided to modulate down instead of up when he wrote "I Walk the Line" - because he wanted to.  I'm even a little bit glad that the devil went down to Georgia, looking for a soul to steal from Charlie Daniels and his little band.  Cher's brilliance is undeniable, and she taught us about fun with auto tuning.  P!nk is one of the most gifted and most honest vocalists of my generation (also the least auto tuned, which gains much respect from me.) Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald made me wish I was not a little white girl.  Peggy Lee and Margaret Whiting made it ok that I am. Christina Aguilera can sing her face off and leave everyone's jaw on the floor.  Robert Nesta Marley could take the most stressful day and melt it to something smooth and easy.  Nobody writes lyrics like Billy Joel, his stories are colorful and real. The piano is (crocodile) ROCKED by Elton John.  I am a Willie Nelson fan by marriage; he's an acquired taste.  I immerse myself into the moody chords and lyrics of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Natalie Maines.  Those Gershwin boys put words to my dreams and Mr. Andrew Lloyd-Webber provided the soundtrack to long drives and late nights. I can't even imagine my formative years with out Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein.
The space between me and Juilliard has never seemed quite so vast.  I don't even care.  The space is filled with amazing artists who say the things I want to say. For a girl like me, that's handy, because I speak in lyrics, I even pray in lyrics.  It really is ok to speak the words someone else wrote, isn't it? Doesn't it give them, and you, just a little more credibility? Doesn't it say that those feelings that fill up lines and spaces are true and valid? 
I LOVE music.  I'm so glad that I learned to listen. I want to learn more.