Linda Stout

I'm catching up on blogging, saw 3 bands and songwriter Richard Bruckner tonight. I think I want to listen to Richard when people are not yelling at the other end of the club, so I'll get his CD. He has a good voice and was looping, to overdub one guitar part over another, and had a bunch of guitars. But I am not one to talk about having a bunch of guitars -- and a baritone uke and a Danelectro bass and a keyboard. My point in writing is partly a postcrypt to the fun rural gig blog this follows. Reading the NY Times, a day late, I see that the new editor of Harper's is from a ranch. The publisher noted that because the new editor, Roger D. Hodge, was from a ranching family, "...He was bred to be independent and self-governed, to think for himself, and I think that's a great credential to edit a magazine." I've done some newspaper editing, but also I would add, that at least a reasonably healthy farm upbringing -- speaking for myself and my own early life on a farm -- did indeed nurture some of my quirkiness and independent and creative thinking. If I consider independence just in terms of music, on that same farm, years before I was there, my grandparents, who met at Alfred University, put 8 kids through music lessons (my grandmother's father had been a church organist, and there are pro musicians on the other side, too). Also regarding independent thinking as related to musical taste, on that same farm when I was growing up, my father, Galen Stout, had done classical music as a cellist and bassist, then did "dance bands," swing, and when I was little led rock and jazz bands, and he still plays jazz, mostly swing, regularly, in western NY and Fla. My cousin, Ward Stout, across the road, had a little classical training in school, then learned bluegrass. I became a show tunes nerdette. Also for a future songwriter, it was not just independent thinking, but storytelling, not in a formal sense, but something that was incorporated into daily life, still is. My uncles and aunts, though they moved away from the farm, still had this country thing of enjoying telling stories about people. I wonder if people, despite all the farm work, which one can pace to some degree and again, self-direct, took more time to really talk and tell each other stories. Schedules can seem like emergencies for lots of people I know, just getting through the day. Also along these lines, I think I didn't last and escaped one particular job just after vesting in a pension because I was too much of a "rockstar" -- and farmer. The boss was micromanaging and punitive instead of trusting me to do the kind of work I had done for years. It was unfortunate because they lost a good worker (farmers know how to work) and creative thinker. But I was something of a rocker already, and the job was a transition thing, a "day job" even though I cared about my clients. There are other ex-counselors who escaped into music. careers. I wonder if family members read this obscure blog. Also, in the same section of the Times, there's a big article about Johnny Depp and his newest movie. I love Johnny Depp. I am not usually impressed by celebrities, though I will read People magazine at the dentist's. Johnny Depp is such a great actor who takes interesting roles. He's intriguing and hot. I think he might have once played guitar, 21 Jump Street. I could google that. The new movie, about John Wilmot, a 1600s poet I am not familiar with, but apparently his favorite subject was sex, one mine, sometimes I wonder, maybe the only one of mine, too (well mine as related to love and spirit), so I'll have to find it and read it. Although apparently he was explicit even by today's standards about body fluids. Maybe I won't like the poetry of this man who is now being called a rockstar ahead of his time. I will like Johnny Depp. And I can't wait to see "Walk the Line" about Johnny Cash.