Thunderstruck!

By a 12 year old Panamanian girl who is rail thin and looks 10. And can she sing! She won the Panama Idol last year which tells you some of the story.

First a little discussion on great voices.

When Yella and I were on the road, she started to develop vocal nodes after about a year. We were playing and singing 5 hours a night, 6 nights a week. It was just too much for the human voice.

Yella found a vocal coach in KCMO who was an opera star in Europe but then living in KC. She took lessons for a few weeks and invited me to go to one of them. I didn't know she was learning how to sing in a whole new way.

Oh boy...just what I wanted to do...how much fun could that be?

After I arrived, sat in a small living room, crowded with a baby grand piano, the lesson began.

The coach told Yella to warm up singing scales.

Of boy...love those interesting scales...

She played the scale on the piano and Yella started to sing.

A voice I had never heard came out of Yella. It was huge, piercing into every nook and cranny of the room, penetrating into my soul, moving me to the quick.

I had never heard anything like this. It was a rare experience that I remember to this day.

So back to Ana Lisa, the little girl.

I went to the rehearsal for the Grand Opening of the Boquete Community Players new auditorium. I was invited by the music director who said I HAD to hear this girl even though we would be in Colorado for the show. So come to the rehearsal.

I waited for 3 hours and no girl. I was nodding off in the corner, about to leave, thoroughly discussed with my waist of time.

Then in walks this little girl with her dad.

She walks right up to the stage, stands in front of the microphone, hands at her sides, smiling, waiting for the band to get it together.

She already got my attention by her way of being.

Then she hit the first note...oh my God...what and hell was this!

Her voice filled the auditorium and beyond, resonating all the space, penetrating into every cell.

Everything stopped.

People that were working or milling around, stopped.

Jaws hit the floor.

To hear a voice this magnificent is moving. Now the problem is how to look good and not make a fool of your self by sobbing out loud with joy from the shear beauty of it.

Wow!!!

I cannot properly articulate the experience. It was so moving.

A voice at this level, LIVE...IN PERSON...chokes you up, makes your nose run, your eyes leak and tightens the chest while simultaneously calming and centering you with serenity.

This is an altered state for sure.

Am I glad I waited!

It took me back to that lesson in KC with Yella.