The Future of Rock

Who needs mo' cowbell when you've got Mo Formica?  Thanks to a recent episode of The Voice, the world is coming to know teen rock phenom Moriah Formica.  Her performance of Heart's classic "Crazy On You" wowed the judges and has garnered nearly 400,000 views on YouTube in just a few days.  Take a listen and see if you can believe that this powerhouse is just sixteen years old!

I first started hearing Moriah Formica's name a year or so back when Michael Sweet of Stryper started talking about her.  He was impressed enough with her sound when she was still fifteen (just pause and ask yourself what you were doing at that age) that he invited her onstage with Stryper to sing their epic "To Hell With The Devil."

Now, let's just take a moment to consider all this.  This young lady has a voice that can belt out rich, punch-in-the-face songs like "Crazy On You."  She has a range that can hit the high notes of Michael Sweet.  Oh, and she has stage presence.  Seriously, go back and look at the video of her singing "To Hell With The Devil" again.  Does she not look as if she absolutely belongs on stage with those veteran rockers?

Michael Sweet knows a good thing when he hears it, and that's why he asked her to sing lead on "Can't Take This Life," the final track on his monstrously successful One Side War album, which went to #1 on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums in October of 2016.

As readers of this blog know, I am a high school Latin teacher at a large public high school in Indianapolis.  I see almost 4,000 students walking the hallways each day, and nearly two hundred of them pass through my classes.  I have the privilege to know what many adults do not or simply ignore.  Teens are amazingly capable people.  I have seen leadership skills in teenagers that surpass those of adults in titled positions.  One of my students while still in high school once presented a paper at a medical conference of doctors and scientists based on research she had completed.  And I have known many talented young musicians and artists, one of whom, Brandon Signorino, is now a teacher himself at our local School Of Rock.  It is easy to comment on the shortcomings of the current teenage generation when social media makes the foolishness of all generations trending news.  Yet I can tell you from more than a quarter century of direct experience, teens have amazing abilities and can do incredible things if adults will just check them out.  Whether it is covering the classics of rock or recording her own material, like "Time," Moriah Formica is taking her place in the pantheon of music.  The good news for us is that she has many, many years of powerful recording and performing ahead.