LEWISTON – In the final moments before he climbs the stage, Brian Philip Wardwell peels off his SpongeBob T-shirt and pulls on his cowboy garb: shirt, boots and a white Stetson.

For this 9-year-old singer, there is no anxious hand-wringing or fussy vocal exercising. He plays his Gameboy until he’s called.

“I got nervous once,” Brian said, recalling a time he sang the national anthem before a Portland Sea Dogs game. “I was singing and just went, Eech.’ I forgot what came next.”

Such fumbles are rare, though.

Family and friends say the boy, who is about to enter the fourth grade, has perfect pitch. Songwriter Jim Flynn calls him a “prodigy.”

“He just does it,” said Flynn, a 66-year-old Lewiston man. A retired teacher and textbook seller, he has written more than a dozen songs for Brian. “He has a natural gift.”

And it’s something he’s sharing as fast as he can.

Working hard

Over the next few weeks, Brian is scheduled to perform at several agricultural fairs, lodge halls and country competitions.

On Friday, he is scheduled to perform an hour-long show at the Festival de Joie. He’s set to begin at 8:30 p.m. on Stage 3.

And on Aug. 27 at the Oxford Fairgrounds, he will open for a group of nationally known country performers – Rhett Akins, Daryle Singletary, David Kersh and Chad Brock.

The show will make a song come true.

The first song Flynn wrote for the boy was called “The Opening Act.” It imagines the moment when Brian touches the big time, opening for a country star on a large stage.

He sings:

“I’ll give my heart and soul to try and reach my goal/

To be the opening act for a big-name country show.”

The song became the first track of his first album, the self-published “The Opening Act.”

“It’s really great for all of us,” Brian’s father, Adam Wardwell, said of the concert. He found out Thursday, when concert organizers called to confirm the date.

Big break

It’s the kind of break Brian’s family has been working toward for four years, ever since the boy picked up a karaoke microphone at a family gathering.

The first song was a goofy, Latin-flavored pop song, “Mambo No. 5.” After a couple of tries, he sang it without a mistake. Then, he started going through the machine’s country music catalog, singing the songs to the automated accompaniment.

His grandmother, Sandi Wardwell, a former judge at country music contests, began praising Brian. Soon, he was enrolled in contests from the Downeast Country Music Association and other Maine groups. He has also performed several times in the South, twice in the Colgate Country Showdown in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

“You should see him,” Flynn said in an interview this week with Brian, his sister Alyssa, 7, and his mother, Monica. The Wardwells live in the York County town of Limerick.

Quiet and polite, Brian sat in a chair with his cowboy boots dangling above the floor.

“He’s a different person on stage,” Flynn said.

He dances as he sings.

“I just move to it,” said Brian, who sometimes works with a local choreographer. When asked what he thinks about on stage, he shrugged. “Nothing,” he said.

In all, Brian has recorded two albums. After the first, he made a Christmas CD. He is already at work on a third album.

Meanwhile, he and his family hope the Oxford show – titled, “The Honky Tonk Tailgate Party” – will give him a lift.

Flynn believes fame is merely a matter of time.

“He’s getting there real quick,” he said.