October. 2004
Excerpt from the Liner Notes of Wesla's New Album "In My Life"
These notes are being written in the fall of 2004, very shortly after completion of all production work on the album
they accompany. For me, this fall also marks completion of 36 years of living in San Francisco.
Where did all that time go? And even though this year isn't one of the traditionally significant ones, noting the end
of a decade or a quarter century or the like, it strikes me as being as good a time as any to reflect on my life and
career so far. "In My Life" is a song held dearly in my heart ever since first hearing it — which happens to have
been not very long before my entry into this city -- and it seems an inevitably choice as the title of this recording.
It speaks of life's changes, both the good and the ones that don't seem so positive, and thus it recalls for me how
I felt when I first arrived on that September day in 1968. I knew absolutely no one. Sure, I'd visited for a few days
a decade and a half before as a very young girl on a vacation trip with my family, but I had not been back since.
My loneliness in those first few weeks was overwhelming. For several days in a row there was no one to speak to
except for an occasional polite hello. (At least the hellos were friendly on my part; I wasn't too sure about the quality
of the responses.) I remember flashing on the possibility that this might well be what very old age was like, when
everyone close to you has died or gone away — not a cheery thought. But that period of extreme anxiety only
seemed endless; it actually didn't last very long. Classes soon began at San Francisco State, and I quickly made
friends in the music and drama departments. Friends always lead to more of the same, and over the years I"ve been
blessed with so very many. When I recall that initial emptiness and compare it to my life today, filled with literally
hundreds of people so dear to me, I can only smile. These are the life lessons that offer hope in the midst of despair,
along with the knowledge that the changes that will come cannot be known to us in advance. And yes, it is all there
in that wonderful song.
Nevertheless, I had known since that first trip in the early Fifties that somehow I'd get back and hopefully make a
life for myself here. Now, when people comment on how much change I must have seen in San Francisco in almost
four decades, I must agree the city has indeed altered a great deal. But San Francisco has also had a hand in
reshaping me — and on the whole I think it hasn't changed nearly as much as I have....
Wesla Whitfield
Full Liner Notes Here
