The power of music over young people seems almost supernatural. Like torrents of rain over low ground it saturates them, leaving no appetite un-whetted. Ready to absorb new knowledge, they reach out to the music for answers to life’s most serious questions. Modern popular singers once referred to as “teen idols” are now more like spiritual teachers, their song lyrics taken for scripture and prophecy. But is this situation really so new… or so bad?

I remember thirty-five years ago when I loved the songs of Woody Guthrie, like This Land is Your Land, and Pretty Boy Floyd. These songs taught an idea, what you might call “moral individualism”, as the means to overcome life’s oppressions. I was imagining myself riding freight cars and beating the system before I even knew what a system was. These evocative songs had a creed: “I’ll get along on my own wits, my interests and special talents, and I'll do what's right, even when others don't.” Years passed and eventually I went to work in the communications industry. After some time I began to recognize unethical business practices at my company. My co-workers and I felt un-free to make honest decisions. When I raised the question with my boss she boldly answered with another: “Sam, are you independently wealthy?” In other words, she wanted to know if I could afford to be fired for not going along with the company. So! this was the system, and I’d been forewarned. I left that job, somehow knowing I could find another one based on my own honest interests and abilities. So, Woody Guthrie was a teacher of mine, though I never met him.

Teenagers are struggling to find themselves in the music they listen to. Their favorite song might simply consist of two rhyming couplets repeated twenty or thirty times, but it satisfies the young listener’s craving for power, independence and moral content.

“If I die before I wake,
At least in heaven I can skate,
‘Cause here on earth I can’t do jack,
Without the Man upon my back”
-- Popular song

" I recommend Sam and his songwriting program for any school interested in providing its students with this avenue for self-exploration and musical growth."

-- Wayne Rutherford, Headmaster, Hokkaido International School, Sapporo, Japan