Brains Daughter Learns About One Of The Most Important Female Artists Of All Time

One of my favorite things after I pick up my kids after school is being barraged by what they had learned at school that day. We did this. Did you know that? Sometimes it's about nature and science. Sometimes it's about a boy at recess. But on Wednesday it was about music. The first thing I heard when Carly got in the car was, "did you know that Carole King didn't want to be a singer?" No, I actually didn't know that. Carly went on about the singer/songwriter all the way home. When we got inside I asked her if she wanted to hear some Carole King music. Her eyes lit up. So I pulled out my copy of Tapestry and changed her world.

If you've read anything I've written before, you know how important music is to me. I love listening to it and I love discussing it too. So I put on my vinyl version of the classic Carole King album and Carly sat down and listened to every track with me. From the opening 'I Feel the Earth Move' all the way until the last chord of 'Natural Woman' Carly was hooked. Her favorite song? 'You've Got a Friend'. Carly smartly pointed out that some other guy recorded that song too. I said, 'you mean James Taylor?' She blurted back 'you know him too?'

I'm not sure if the music of Carole King and James Taylor will inspire her to want to write and sing but think about the countless other artists that those two inspired. And kudos to her music teacher for turning her on to a relatively contemporary artist. And even though Carly was back playing on her iPod a little later, for one album she listened to everything Carole and I had to say. I'll take that any day.