The Music of Genesee Johnny

Starting and flowing North 160 miles from atop a hill In Potter County Pennsylvania and passing through rural, suburban and urban communities through Seneca lands and the Grand Canyon of the East to Rochester with three more waterfalls, one of which is a semi-secret place that is one of the best fishing sites in New York State...a secret shared by neighbors and fishermen and at least one serial killer, the Genesee River heads to Lake Ontariio.
On it's way from Letchworth, the river continues its flow through Henrietta New York which is in itself a mixture of urban, suburban and rural populations sometimes described as an inner suburb. Sperry High in Henrietta is as microcosmic a school as you're likely to find anywhere. You name the population whether it be gays, blacks, Caucasians, alcoholics, sinners, saints, musicians, jocks, actors whatever it's all happening in the halls of Sperry High. If you're looking for trouble...you came to the right place. If you'r e looking to learn, you've come to the right place. Henrietta looks a lot like America and as such is quite the prepratory school to whatever road you want to take. Some say, the best school in the country if your preparing to live in America

Genesee Johnny took about as many roads discovered and undiscovered in Henrietta as possible and continues to find new ones. Johnny can play that geetar, he can compose, he can sing, he can collaborate, he can write and now after so many resilient roads have led to and through frustration and disappointment, he's truly become the bluesman he's always wanted to be since his open mike days at Blue Sunday. He's paid the dues. He ain't "that kid" anymore.

I lived in Rochester for many years. I've consumed many a Genny beer and taken hundreds of Kodak processed pictures. I was there for the opening of the War Memorial. I was around for the riots. I was there for the decline of Xerox and Kodak. I was introduced to film at the Dryden theater, the home of George Eastman. I'm A Red Wing stockholder. 

Eventually, I couldn't take the darkness and frigidity of the winters and moved down South. Now, I miss the cold. I miss the lilacs, I miss the lakes. I miss the danger. Look at the stats, Rochester can be a dark, dangerous and diseased town. I miss the moods and the beautiful autumns. I miss my youth. I miss my parents. I miss taking the buses ( 8 main to Wyand Crescent....2 Parsells/Thurston down or town) I miss the race track and the bowling alleys and the zoo and the bars)

Put it all together from Potter County to Sea Breeze, from Tiny's Bengal Innn to the ghost of Roseland, from the jackrabbit to the Skyliner.

The closest I can come to all of it is when I listen to the music of Genesee Johnny. He's got a new CD coming out. I can't wait to hear it and transport home for a dozen or so tunes and feel that familiar pain.