Cormac
McCarthy

Descriptive Review of a Workshop:

"On Thursday...I had opportunity to witness a most unusual educational experience. Cormac McCarthy, a singer, songwriter, poet and scholar from New England mesmerized an English class here at State College Area High School. I met Cormac when he came to State College to perform at a local coffeehouse. He had agreed to come to the high school during the afternoon in advance of his evening performance. At that time he sat on the stage of our auditorium and played , answered questions from students and talked about life. In my opinion, his strength lies in his guitar playing. When he extracts his vintage Guild from it's beat-up old case and begins to play the whole room becomes magical.

When I learned that Cormac was driving through State College in mid May, on his way to Boston, I jumped at the chance to have him come back to our high school. On his second visit he agreed to host a seminar in a junior English class. As we discussed logistics and the specifics of what was to happen in the class Cormac said that he would elicit input from students in the form of poetic lines or thoughts and create a song. The newly created song would then be performed at the culmination of the class. Personally, I though it sounded risky!! A class of high school juniors!! They are a tough audience!! Finally, the time came to begin the class. Cormac began by performing an original song. He got their attention!! Next, it was time to get input from students. Using the song to create the mood, Cormac asked students to write down one poetic line on a scrap of paper. "You don't have to be a poet to write down a thought" he said. Then he collected approximately 20 pieces of paper and spread them out on a desk top. He then "poured" over the scraps explaining that he was looking for "themes". The first theme he found was " The Sun" and he said that several among us must have been thinking about being outside in the sun rather than inside writing poetry. Finally, he arranged and rearranged the papers looking like a "Shellgame" player. After a moment of silence he exclaimed, " I think we have created a poem, not a song - a poem." He went on to explain the difference between poetry and song lyrics. The students were fascinated and I was too!! Eventually, he set "our" poem to music and it sounded incredibly good. All of this had taken approximately 45 minutes.

Cormac finished the class, moved to another room in our school and performed for another 45 minutes. Several students stayed until long after the close of school to ask questions and listen. After what I thought was a rather exhausting day I followed Cormac to a 8:30 p.m. "House Concert" at a local home where I listened to him perform his music for more than two hours.

Cormac McCarthy is an outstanding performer. He is a singer, songwriter, poet and scholar. I recommend him to you.

Thank you,

Robert Nixon

Learning Enrichment Specialist.

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