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.”