Mike Stout

For the American video game designer, see Michael Stout.

Mike Stout
Origin	Pittsburgh, USA
Genres	rock, protest, indie
Labels	American Blue Collar Records

Mike Stout is an American labor supporter, social activist and rock guitar player and protest singer, who lives in Pittsburgh, United States. He is also called as "World's Grievance Man".

Music and activism

Stout was born in Kentucky, and began his musical career in New York City in 1968 playing his protest songs at Cafe Wha?, The Bitter End, and The Gaslight Cafe coffee house where also Bob Dylan played.^[1]

In 1977 became a steelworker at Homestead Works, then elected the union's head grievance man, he used his music to rally his co-workers at union meetings where "they fought to win more than $10 million in lost wages, severance pay, pensions, and unemployment benefits for 3,000 displaced workers ... with thousands of families losing unemployment benefits and facing foreclosure" he organized a benefit concert that drew attention from CBS, NBC, the AP, UPI and the international press to raise funds which lead to the formation of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food bank.^[1]

After the mill closings Stout started writing songs again, he has recorded nine CDs in the last 10 years and performed across the United States and Europe with "the message of human solidarity and peace". A Duquesne University professor took one of his CD to the People to People book store in Germany and played them his song People to People, impressed with his message, the book store stocked his CDs and sponsored his four concert tours in Germany and Poland. Stout claims to have sold "thousands of CDs" in Europe.^[1]

Influence

Mike Stout describes himself as "a socially conscious singer song-writer and community leader" who "leads crusades against local and global economic injustice rallying people with his music and he organizes them to take action." He tells "his stories from the heart about people who are affected by unemployment or social injustice or war." He states his tunes and lyrics are influenced by artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil Young, who he call as "musical heros".

John Hayes of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote of him as:

"In the Woody Guthrie tradition, his songs reflect contemporary issues without resorting to journalism. They're more like partisan op-ed columns that grab political opponents by the throat and don't let go." ^[2]

Organizations and causes Stout Supports

Stout supports various organisations and causes including, Depleted Uranium Watch, Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, Thomas Merton Center, he is founding board member of Just Harvest and Steel Valley Authority organizations that "aid displaced works and the poor".

Family

His brother Gary, was killed on the job when he fell 25 feet to his death, at a plant called Meadville Redi-Mix. Mike Stout claimed they sent him "to clean and shovel gravel in his final hour, all alone at the top of a concrete tower. On a dangerous loft without being tied off, with no safety equipment or warning signs up." Yet the company claimed "they didn’t send him up there, they weren’t to blame." In March 2009, Stout wrote a song about the case, titled ’’My Brother Did Not Die in Vain”.^[3]

See also

• Greenwich Village#Since the 1960s

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.myspace.com/mikestoutmusic
2. ^ http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/pg/04079/287884-42.stm
3. ^ http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/8494/

External links

• Official website
• MySpace Page
• http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08325/929275-388.stm
• http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07354/842958-42.stm
• http://www.postgazette.com/pg/04079/287884-42.stm
• http://www.pointofpittsburgh.com/CDshop.html
• http://www.mikestoutmusic.com/reviews.html

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Name	Stout, Mike
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