If you rise with the dawn and walk into the garden, you will find some fresh flower bud with a shining bit of dew glistening in the first light.  A beautiful moment, but you have to be ready or you’ll miss it.

   The audience at Black Hills Piano Gallery had such a moment this Saturday, August 8, when 16-year-old Ariel Pocock took the stage.  She appeared in a simple, navy sundress with oversized, white buttons, long brown hair tucked behind her ears to reveal  single-strand dangles, little yellow sandals on her bare legs….a simple hello…. and then she took over the stage.  

     The first number was restrained, but then she kicked off that little yellow sandal and started to stomp that  primary beat with one foot and a secondary with the other.  The old standards were fresh and new with her mastery of the keyboard and pleasant voice.  While singing her voice can reach down into the husky, contralto range like an ol’ gal who’s “been there and done that”,  but her speaking voice still has the ever-upward lilt of an American teenager. 

     Chatting with Ariel and her family afterward, I discovered that she will be returning to Washington state to start her driving lessons.  Driving lessons ?  This girl can handle a strange crowd in another city, with two other musicians she practiced with ONCE, and noodle her way around some impromptu improvisations……and she doesn’t drive yet?? 

    Well, let me tell you,  if pianos were automobiles, this girl could drive a stick-shift with 3-on-the-tree and never bat an eyelash.

    In Rapid City we usually see/hear musical phenomenons at the end of their career (witness all those tired ol’ rockers at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally).  This was a chance for us to see someone at the beginning of a career.

Don’t take my word for it…check out this Youtube link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx7KM4apb9A

I’ll be able to say “I knew her when”.  Thanks Ariel!

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