Linda Stout

The recent gig in Genessee, Pa., for the Potter County Arts Council benefit was really fun. I met really nice people, musicians including some songwriters with impressive credentials, old-time country players and an amazing knitter and glass artist from the Ukraine transplanted there, into Coudersport, land of the former Adelphia mess. (The Adelphia guy was my uncle's schoolmate, but that's another story). The benefit concert was the only game in town perhaps In a county with a sign declaring it's "God's country," and the old ski resort/nature center was packed. I was happy to have a set and brave enough to spontaneously invite any of the other musicians who wanted to join me on my last song, a Tracy Chapman cover, and so a bunch came up, and we had this little one-song jam. It was also nice how people really went quiet for my originals. What a great audience. CD sales were pleasing, too. I played in the village in NYC before and very few came out during a snowstorm. But this in this tiny place and some others like Canaseraga, NY, about an hour from there, people go out in numbers and like to listen. Genessee was convenient for me, too. My parents live nearby that tiny place, and my father's band used to play at the same place (then called Penn Valley) when it was a ski resort. It was fun hanging out with my honey and my sister. My lovely sister, who really has a personality, is coming to my gig Saturday, so that'll be fun, better than venturing off alone to gigs, though that's often fun, too, because I usually know people or meet new people.