Song pays tribute to Bigfork at Cowabunga
The stage at the Bigfork Center for the
Performing Arts hosted the first major public performances of a
special musical tribute to the Village during the ninth annual
Cowabunga Variety Show last weekend.
Resident Gilbert Couts’ song “Bigfork,
Montana, USA,” aided by the vocal and instrumental performance of
local youth, drew applause during the three showings of the
production between Friday and Sunday.
Couts and his wife Liz moved to Bigfork
in 2004. Before retiring, Couts taught linguistics and English as a
second language at the college level, including 30 years at
American University in Washington, D.C.
The couple first visited Montana 10
years prior, after Liz discovered country music and wanted to pay a
visit to the Wyoming and Montana area. They flew into Billings to
drive south to Wyoming, but fell in love with Montana.
“We kept coming back each year looking
for where we wanted to be,” he said.
It was Bigfork they settled on.
Couts said he’s always had a liking for
music. He took violin lessons when he was young and then attempted
to pick up the guitar in high school. His sister got a baritone
ukulele, and he decided that was the instrument for him.
“I’ve written a lot of songs, all with
very personal meaning to me,” he said. “But I’m not a song writer
and I’m not much of a singer.”
The first Christmas after moving to
Montana, he got an electric keyboard and eight-track recording
software as gifts from his wife and son.
“I started having a lot of fun
imitating songs I already knew,” he said. “I started sending them
to my son and he said, ‘Enough covers, Dad. Do something
original.’”
It was his son, Brian, who suggested
Bigfork as the inspiration for a song.
“That was the seed of it,” he said.
“The ideas came to me after that.”
Couts wrote the song originally in
2006. He made roughly 50 CDs with it, which he handed out to
friends. He then performed it with the community choir at the
Community Methodist Church in Bigfork twice and made additional
copies of the CD, which were sold at Bigfork Drug and the Bigfork
Area Chamber of Commerce.
“Well, there’s a place where you should
go, To lift your spirits up when you’re feeling low,” Couts writes
of Bigfork in the first verse of the song, which he describes as
having a country music flavor.
The song extols the virtues of Bigfork,
naming familiar locations for those who live in the Village
including the Echo Lake Cafe, Bigfork Inn, Marina Cay, Flathead
Lake Lodge, Eagle Bend, Woods Bay and the Wild Mile.
“I’m really proud of it,” he said.
“It’s the best effort of song writing that I’ve ever put out.”
Couts and his musical antics are
familiar to students at Bigfork schools, where he serves as a
substitute teacher. The students often ask him to play songs for
them on his ukulele. It was last year while subbing that a group of
students asked him to play his CD recording of the Bigfork song. He
asked them if they would consider performing it for the 2011
Cowabunga and they agreed. Only one of those students, now senior
Jacob Sefcak, is in the performance now, but it sparked the
idea.
“Ever since I wrote it, I’ve wanted it
to be performed in public by real singers,” he said. “We ended up
with all seasoned performers of theater.”
The performance evolved from singing to
Couts’ instrumental track to having live guitar and drums,
performed by homeschooled senior Colton Christensen and BHS junior
Matt Sefcak, respectively.
Christensen also sung the lead in the
song, joined by Jacob Sefcak, sophomore Olivia Witt, junior Rebecca
Sewell and senior Conner Seyfert.
“We’ve just been having a lot of fun
rehearsing,” Couts said before the performances.
As a special treat for students, Couts
joined in for the last verse of the song.
“I was thrilled to be able to direct,”
he said. “They just insisted I come out of the wings for the last
verse. It’s a big thrill to have these talented, entertaining kids
to work with. I was very nervous when we started working on it. I’d
never performed on a stage this size. It’s always been before
students and small groups. As time went on, I saw how the kids got
into it. When I saw they, who already are old hands at performing,
were still excited about doing my song, my confidence grew.”