My wife Susan and I attended our 1st grade son’s “end of the school year” variety show this morning. There were kindergarten thru 6th graders performing skits, dances, and songs. It’s always fun watchin’ the kids! (our now 9th grade daughter attended the same school from kindergarten to 6th)

As songs from the movie Frozen were performed (multiple times ), along with Miranda’s “Automatic”, a thought came to me. These kids were singing these songs because they really liked them. In fact they liked them enough, to be able to get past their nervousness of being on stage, giving it all they had. For a moment, those young performers had taken ownership of those songs. Here’s the thought part-

I want to write the kind of songs that people want to take ownership of. I want to write the kind of songs that people can connect with. I want to write the kind of songs that people want to sing, and listen to for years to come. I want to write great songs.