Three musicians talked to Poland students about how to succeed in the music industry.
POLAND
Scotty Huff is a successful musician.
As a singer/songwriter, he has toured with Natalie Cole, Manhattan Transfer and The Mavericks. He has formed a company that produces musical scores for animated films. And he recently released his own debut album, “Assorted.”
Despite those accomplishments, the Maine native always wished that someone had talked to him about the music industry when he was a kid. It would have been nice, he said, to have known that he could study music business, that there were careers between band teacher and rock star, that other Mainers had been successful in the industry.
On Wednesday, Huff became the mentor he always wished he’d had.
“I want to encourage excitement, motivation,” Huff said. “That, yes, you too can grow up in Maine and reach the dreams that seem unreachable.”
Huff and fellow award-winning country musicians Joe Smyth and Robert Reynolds talked to more than 50 students from Poland Regional High School and the attached Bruce M. Whittier Middle School. Smyth is also a Maine native. Reynolds grew up in Miami.
Between jokes and stories about their lives, the men talked about the hard work, luck and open-mindedness it took to get them where they are. There was the time Huff played trumpet at weddings to earn money. There was the period when Reynolds and The Mavericks peddled their own homemade records to get the attention of a record label.
“As focused as people get sometimes, we want you to kind of keep the blinders off and look at the whole spectrum. There are lots of side hallways, lots of doors, lots of rooms,” said Smyth, a Westbrook native who received a master’s degree in music composition from the University of Miami and who has been nominated for a Grammy for his work with country music band Sawyer Brown.
For an hour, the trio discussed the range of jobs open to music lovers, from entertainment lawyer to roadie. They encouraged the teenagers to follow their passions, start with their garage band or school band and work up from there.
“Play performances. That would be the first step. If you’re in your garage, you know that won’t seat the world,” Smyth said.
It’s advice that Huff, Smyth and Reynolds have given to hundreds of teenagers this week as they tour 24 high schools throughout the state. Poland was one of the few stops in western Maine.
Huff and the school’s band director, Larry Williams, went to college together. Williams made sure the men dropped by.
“They’re from Maine. That’s special,” Williams said. “It goes to show these kids that can happen.”
Sponsorships from Maine music stores and instrument makers helped the trio pay for their trip to Maine. Schools pay $275 to make up the difference.
Poland students were happy their school was one of them.
Josh Fournier, a 16-year-old junior at the high school, said the talk impressed him. A drummer who plays in four school bands, a Westbrook Marching band and Tony Boffa’s kids’ band, Fournier said he wants to make music his future.
He believes the meeting Wednesday will help him do that.
“You get an insight of what’s going on in the real world,” he said. “It was a great experience.”
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