Linda Stout

There were some articles in the paper this week and a talk at a school about the perils of MySpace.com for kids. Perhaps, and I'm not sure kids must need profiles, but professional musicians can benefit from them. It is a great adjunct to this website. I have met people and collaborated with them, listened to new music. Check out some of my talented cyber friends, getting added every day. Some were already friends or acquaintances in real life. For instance, listen there to Matt Robbins, who plays with me. He is so talented; he could really gain attention. I respect how he likes to play for the music itself, to grow as a musician. He's not hell-bent on touring, though he has all the talent and niceness and looks to get somewhere as a hip young jazz/pop force. He has other talents, like engineering; he's developing sound programs for the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell. Good musicians are good at spacial relationships, math, putting things together, I think. Other relationships, well, that depends... Re. MySpace, it's free to create a musician profile, and you can post up to 4 songs and all your gig dates. It's sometimes too slow even with high speed, so sometimes when I'm listening, I link to the musician's website, if they have one, and listen that way. It is sort of exponential, the networking that can happen at myspace. Although the best networking for me is live and in person, playing, meeting real people. I like that. Today a MySpace profile titled Rickie Lee Jones, one of my favorite artists, asked me to be her friend. How cool and weird is that? Smalltime Ithaca musician, serious musician, yeah, but hardly famous here, gets asked to add Rickie Lee Jones? She is so amazing. I love the Pirates album. I sort of can't believe some of it, the songwriting, the production. It's so good. Usually I can tell; there's some disclaimer that it's a fan site. This linked to her website. Stranger things have happened. I might know someday if it is the real Rickie Lee Jones -- her people or or some other fan of hers. This other band, The Local, from NYC with members who play with famous people and tons of other bands and I have asked to be each other's "friends." They do really good folk-rocky almost jazz and great rollicking harmonies, and I swear it sounds just like Norah Jones on piano, in similar style is Jon Cowherd, very talented. Sometimes it's real networking, other times just the chance to listen to each other. Visit me, Rickie, The Local, Erin Bode and others (I have so many talented friends there) at www.myspace.com/lindastout. It grows daily.