Scott Fish, left, and Jason Carey stand Wednesday afternoon on the shore of Bear Pond behind Fish’s home. The two recorded a song about leaving the Maine flag alone in response to the upcoming vote to change it. Visit sunjournal.com to watch a video of the song. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

At the start of the music video, a craggy-faced fisherman in a yellow slicker snarls at the camera. 

“Argh,” the fisherman growls. “You wouldn’t be thinking of changing Maine’s flag now, wouldya?” 

That about sums up the feelings of Jason C. Carey and Scott K. Fish, a pair of area musicians who recently released a song in response to a movement aimed at changing the state flag. 

The title of the song, “Leave the Maine Flag Alone,” does a good job of describing their feelings on the matter, too. For that matter, so does the chorus of the tune, which repeats the line “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

Carey and Fish feel strongly on the matter, in case you haven’t put that together. 

The song was released at the start of the week under the label Pinecone Records. 

Carey and Fish, as it turns out, aren’t as concerned about the flag debate as much as they are about the waste of state resources that could be focused on larger issues. 

“Car-killer roads, homelessness, under-performing public schools, drug addiction, high electric costs,” Carey said in a release issued to announce the song. “These are just a few of Maine’s essential matters Maine lawmakers ignore. Let’s solve those problems. Then if there’s time and money left over we can talk about the wisdom of changing the Maine State flag.” 

Carey is from Belgrade, Fish from Turner. The two men have been writing and performing songs together since they met more than a decade ago working for the Department of Corrections. 

“I think it’s fair to say for both of us that music is and has always been our first love,” Fish said. 

Before they got around to the flag ditty, the duo wrote a song called “Private Person,” which expressed some of their thoughts on the mass shooting in Lewiston last year. 

“This was our take on the Robert Card incident and particularly about his efforts to get help and how often they were just ignored or fell by the wayside,” Fish said. 

More recently, Carey and Fish began talking about nonessential matters on which Maine politicians tend to waste time and taxpayer money. 

It didn’t take them long to get around to the matter of recent efforts to change Maine’s flag from the iconic current version to and older design featuring a green pine tree and a blue star against a light background. 

The two men were agog that with all the problems facing the state right now, the matter of the flag is getting so much attention. 

So they wrote their song, which is really quite catchy. They consider their tune mostly tongue and cheek, a humorous way to get people to think before they take a stance on the flag matter. The bottom line: Fish and Carey would like people to give their song a listen and keep it in mind when they vote on the issue next month. 

“Maine’s a wonderful place to live, to work, and to visit,” Fish said, “But it’s not without serious issues. We hope our song at least prompts Maine voters to think about urging Maine legislators to focus on the important stuff.” 

“Leave the Maine Flag Alone” can be found at pineconerecords.com or on the Pinecone Records YouTube channel.