Here I am, at the age of 47, finally singing in a band. Who would have believed it?

Should Mephistopheles have shown up in my alchemical workshop ten years ago and offered to swap my soul for Aretha's voice, I might have been tempted. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cook, Otis Redding . . . they're the real singers. I am merely a dedicated car warbler who likes to switch back and forth among all the Belle & Sebastian harmony parts just for the fun of it. But last night, as we were practicing that Crosby, Stills, & Nash song "Love the One You're With" (full disclosure: I am not a CSN fan, possibly because of David Crosby's horrible hair), and we got to the chorus, and our three voices hit the song's final high meshed chord, I could tell we all had the frisson. There's such glory in getting those sounds exactly right. Who cares if we ever perform it in public? The moment itself was perfect.