How many artists have sat on this couch and played music over the past year?

During tonight's practice, I decided to break out some truly old songs of mine to perform tomorrow night at Roberts Hall. One of the things I'm discovering is that since I played a lot in the key of C with the mountain dulcimer in the 80's and 90's (gosh that makes me sound old - oh, wait..), a lot of these tunes work out very nicely on the ukulele. At least the concert or soprano anyway.

One of these tunes is a piece that I wrote in 1992 for a girl from Colorado named Nicole; I had a major crush on her when we were both working at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. The song pretty much just lays it out there but I realized, as I worked with it, that it's actually got a pretty cool hook despite being somewhat juvenile and highly topical. So, here are the lyrics, and you'll be hearing it pretty soon:

This Cool

Driving down the middle of the interstate thinking 'bout the day ahead

Egg McMuffin in his hand on the steering wheel and a Six Flags hat on his head

and he wonders now "will she be there today?"

he will survive somehow anyway

she's a lovely little lady with deep brown eyes that haunt him in his sleep at night

hair of Rocky Mountain gold that the wind does blow, chills his heart at the very sight

and as he starts his day, there she is by the door

now he will smile and say, "good morning Nicole, what are you waiting for?"

CHORUS

He needs to say the words that burn deep inside him

he needs to let her know

but something's missing and he keeps it inside him

in a word, you might say he's a fool, but then love has never been this cool

In the cafeteria they laugh and talk, seems like the time does fly

in his imagination he sees them walk underneath a starry sky

and he takes her hand and looks deep into her eyes

but the dream soon ends, and as she departs, he starts to realize

CHORUS

he'll watch her go and wonder why he's so shy

just one word, end the misery

out of the blue, is she calling to you can't you see?

CHORUS

Yeah, shy. If you only could've seen me then. Ha!

Breaking Out The Oldies

This Cool