JAY – When he was 15, Barry Wood taught himself to play the guitar. At 16 and a Mexico High School student, he was playing in his first band, the String Serenaders, which went on to perform country music live on a Rumford radio station.

Today, the 71-year-old Jay man is an award-winning musician performing around the region singing his own arrangements, playing on his electric guitar backed up by what he calls his “band in a box.”

“My mother used to sing around the house, and she had a nice voice. I guess it rubbed off on me,” Wood said Monday.

From the time he heard Gene Autry sing, he wanted to be a country western singer, he said. “I liked his music,” he said.

Wood went into the military and later worked at a Rumford paper mill but continued to perform in bands.

His taste in music changed, and he broadened his interest in other musicians, but he always carried traditional country songs in his repertoire along with a mix of rock ‘n’ roll and “old standards” such as “Stardust” and “Georgia.”

Then one day after retirement from the mill, his wife, Leanne, suggested he do a single act.

Initially, he didn’t want to do it but then he tried out some new technology that is almost like a computer, where he plays lead guitar and sings.

His so-called “band in a box” lets him create his own arrangements out of music already in the system.

“It’s the way I feel a song should be done, and I can put it into any song I so choose,” Wood said.

The box has different functions and he can choose what he wants it to sound like from a country eight-beat style or something different.

So he doesn’t forget how he arranged the song, he writes it down in a book.

As a solo musician, he didn’t know what to call himself, he said.

He decided on Act I.

“I said, ‘What the heck, I’m all by myself why not Act I,'” Wood said.

He performs at gazebos in Livermore Falls and Farmington, and nursing homes in Androscoggin, northern Oxford and Franklin counties, among other venues. In September, he’ll play at the Farmington Fair.

A couple of years ago, he decided to try competition to see how he would do. He is judged not only on his music but his personal performance in front of a crowd in that arena.

He discovered he could perform with the best, bringing home top honors as a vocalist, instrumentalist and entertainer and capturing an award for his album, “Keepin’ It Country” and receiving the prestigious Little Jimmy Dempsey Award for outstanding musical achievement.

Wood was recognized with a legislative sentiment Friday for his commitment to music and his guidance of young musicians and has even played with Les Paul, who he considers one of the best.

His guitar rested Monday in its a stand in his music room in the basement of his house.

A one-of-a-kind mother of pearl inlaid-rose catches one’s eye on the Gibson electric guitar. Instrument-maker and musician Dick Pelletier of Fayette put it on after hand-carving the 24 pieces to fit just right on the pick-protector.

“I just love to entertain people, and if I can find one person of that audience that is truly digging what I’m doing, that’s enough for me,” he said. “Somebody asked me once when I plan to retire. I said, ‘When they plant me or when people don’t want me anymore.'”