WORDS AND MUSIC: An Album of a Life in Story and Song

ONE RAINY AFTERNOON, sixth grader Philip Gerard sat down and made a list of ten things he wanted to do: Go to Alaska. Write a book. Sail the ocean. And so forth. A virtual outline of a life.

The legendary writer would check off most items during his lifetime, some many times over. But Number Ten remained elusive, a quest unfulfilled:

Make a record album.

Gerard had been learning to play his first instrument, the guitar, when he made the list. Song-writing was well in his future. Yet he knew wh...