Linda Stout

I am usually quieter about my nighttime day job as an editor for the Ithaca Journal and am maybe playing too much into the mystique of being a professional musician (reality is, lots of us need day jobs). My first job out of college was as a music writer/critic for a daily newspaper; then my day job was counseling. I'm happily back at journalism (though way busy at music), usually behind the scenes, editing, planning and doing some page design, am even on the editorial board (they cannot say it's all corporate media; for one among others, I am a liberal and a rocker). This little item crossed my desk late the other night, so in short succession, like days of old when I wrote reviews on deadline, I wrote a little music story. My cohorts surprised me and put it on page 1 yesterday when I was off seeing songwriter Peter Karp (clever, literate lyrics) at Dinosaur Bar-B-Q in Syracuse. Anyway, I wrote the story of a guy who has Muscular Dystrophy whose nurse/friend orchestrated a meeting with his hero, Billy Joel. I remember just loving Billy Joel as a kid, how his really solid songs, I believe (among many others) sunk into me and inform my own songwriting (along with Cole Porter and the Gershwins and the list goes on). It reminded me how important songwriting can be, how music affects our lives. I don't think it was just the mystique of meeting a celebrity; this guy who got to meet Billy, Brent Larsen, who lives in Lansing, NY, near Ithaca, had been really passionate about Billy Joel's songs. The fame, I figure, had to have come out of heart; people like Brent get that, heart. http://www.ithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage. After today, you might have to search the Journal website for the story; search under Billy Joel. For another note on heart and wonderful songwriting, I just saw the concert film, "Neil Young Heart of Gold" at the movie theater in my neighborhood. In "This Old Guitar," about Hank Williams' old guitar, the lyrics go, "This old guitar ain't mine to keep,/ Just taking care of it now." Powerful. I think about that all the time, that there's only so much time to be in this body, making music, and it's so important, at least to me. By the way, I regular cover Neil Young's "Comes a Time" in a dropped D tuning, do a rock version. I have done Neil's "Already One," a lovely song about having a baby, and "Lotta Love." Besides the muggle life of music biz tax returns nagging at me, and the joy of lots of new original songs, new interpretations of jazz and rock tunes and recording plans, check out my calendar dates, and come see me live.