by: John Foyston (section: Arts & Entertainment page: A01)

ELMIRA - Summary: The Elmira student's words win out over 17,000 entries in a contest sponsored by the band 10,000 Maniacs

Amy Dean, 11, had some new friends over to play Friday -- friends who had recently graced the cover of "Rolling Stone".

Dean won a national lyric-writing contest and beat out 16,999 other students for the first prize -- a concert by the band 10,000 Maniacs at the winner's school.

"I'm excited, I'm happy -- I don't know what I am," she said Friday morning at Fern Ridge Middle School. She needed all the poise learned in seven years of gymnastics to stay calm as people thrust microphones and television cameras in her face. Mostly she just grinned as the morning unfurled.

That grin widened when a teacher introduced her to lead singer and songwriter Natalie Merchant. The contest -- sponsored by Scholastic Magazine and Elektra Records -- was Merchant's idea. A high school teacher had once made Merchant's class keep a diary, and she never forgot what a difference it made.

"I remember how good it was for my self-confidence," said Merchant, 29, "so when I got the chance, I wanted to do something to inspire children to write."

She succeeded. Thousands of kids from all across the country sent in lyrics. Amy was the youngest of the 25 finalists whose work Merchant judged, but something drew Merchant back to I'm Black and Blue. Dean wrote in the voice of an old black woman talking about trying to raise seven grandchildren.

"I kept coming back to Amy's piece because the image was so clear and direct and the story so simply told," Merchant said. "Then I looked at a map and saw how far away from any inner city she lived, and I was just amazed at her ability to empathize."

A real woman inspired I'm Black and Blue. Amy met her last year while helping her father, Tom, run one of three Christmas tree lots in Hayward, Calif. The woman was carefully sweeping up branches, trying to assemble enough scraps to make a tree.

Amy asked if she wanted to buy a small tree, but the woman couldn't afford anything because her daughter was a crack addict and she was raising her grandchildren. The Deans made sure the woman left with a Christmas tree, and Amy was left with an indelible image.

"She sat down at the kitchen table and just wrote it out," said Tom Dean. "Her mom checked the spelling and looked it over, and then I read it and said, 'Amy, this is incredible. You'll win the contest with this.'"

Amy wasn't quite so sure. But when the band launched into These Are Days, from a stage in the school commons, she looked convinced at last. The lighting was dim, and the band's rented sound reinforcement system was a hundred times smaller than the one the band planned to use Friday night at Salem's L.B. Day Amphitheater. But the Maniacs held nothing back.

Nor did the crowd of 500 students, teachers and parents who heard the Maniacs' brainy brand of alternative pop. They clapped enthusiastically after each of the eight songs. Merchant's darkly beautiful voice filled the room as she sang songs such as Candy Everybody Wants, and Stockton Gala Days. Sometimes she sang standing with hands clasped behind, at times she sat at the edge of the stage, knees hugged to her chest and sometimes she couldn't stand still, pirouetting and skipping around the speakers.

"She's magic," said Terri Dean, Amy's mother. "This whole day has been magic."

The band generally agreed. "It's been a great day," said organist Dennis Drew. "The contest was a wonderful idea -- something that Natalie's lyrics are really perfect for."

Guitarist Robert Buck enjoyed the gig, too -- except for one thing.