If you’ve ventured out to experience the local music scene any time during the last two decades, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Paul Shearer perform. If you have, then you certainly remember the performance.
Shearer is down-home friendly and sings his brand of country music with an authenticity that’s become scarce on today’s country radio. That’s because Shearer doesn’t just sing the songs. He’s not a singer. He’s an artist.
Not one to stand up and sing someone else’s songs, he writes and sings what he feel and bares a bit of his soul with each strum of his guitar. He’s toured all around the tri-state area with a band and as a solo artist. He’s also sat in with some more well-known acts in larger cities like Pittsburgh and Columbus.
In 2007, Paul and two other musicians hit the studio and produced a 10-song album titled “Empty Bottles and Broken Hearts.” He readily admits it wasn’t his best work, but the money and time spent provided some important lessons that helped shape his path moving forward.
Today that path consists of work and family time. Shearer has worked in the gas and oil industry for years and has done well for himself. He’s married, and he and his wife are raising their 4-year-old daughter.
But don’t think Shearer is done with the music game. He still regularly puts pen to paper and crafts songs inside his home studio. He’s got a few albums worth of songs ready to go and was in the process of getting back out there when the coronavirus pandemic began shutting everything down.
A quick search for Paul Shearer Music on Facebook will bring you to his fan page, where he’s posted a number of acoustic videos lately and doing a few covers but also a lot of original songs. He’s keeping it simple right now. Just a man, his words, and his guitar. Nothing fancy, just good, authentic country music.
We’ll start with the easy one and also the most complicated. What first made you pick up your first guitar and start singing and writing songs? Was it an overall love of music, or was there one particular artist that stoked the fire, so to speak?
Growing up at my parents’ house, music was always there. It was a big influence in our lives. So I decided to pick up a guitar when I was younger. I took some lessons, and once I got the hang of it and understood chords, that’s all I needed to know to start writing. I write songs about past experiences, things I’ve gone through, and things people I know have gone through.
Was it important to you as far as authenticity goes not only to perform and play the songs, but also write them yourself? How difficult a process is that, as it seems less and less successful national artists pen their own material?
I think it is important. You have to be true to yourself. You can’t sit there and be a poser and sing other people’s songs. Do you want to be a jukebox, or do you want to be an artist and be your own person?
What is your opinion of the current direction of the ‘Nashville Sound,’ where it’s headed and how someone with a more traditional sound has difficulty breaking into the scene now?
You used to have true artists, musicians with talent. I’m not saying no one has talent today, but the true artist, the ones who wrote and performed their own songs and played an instrument, that went out the window, and it’s all about money now. It all sounds the same. The artists look the same, sound the same—it’s all plastic surgery and auto tune now. It’s crazy. Artists like Jamey Johnson, Cody Jinks, Tyler Childers, Lydia Loveless, they are songwriters. Chris Stapleton is a songwriter and a performer. You just don’t get that a lot anymore. They don’t look the part. They don’t have all the glam and fancy stuff.
You were married in 2010 and later the two of you had a daughter. Between your current job and family obligations, is it hard to find time to devote to music? How did your priorities change after hitting those milestones? And even though your daughter is still pretty young, are you wanting to instill in her your love of music? Has she taken a liking to daddy’s music, or is she already branching out in her musical preferences?
I played a lot of years in these little honky tonks and bars, these ‘choke ‘n’ pukes,’ and eventually just said that I wanted to build a foundation and settle down a bit, get my priorities straight. That’s kind of what I’m doing now, rebuilding myself, going out and doing it a different way. As far as having the time it’s all in the relationship. You have to find the right person that will stand by you and support your dreams and tell you to find a way. I found that person in my wife. She’s a huge supporter, and I’m a supporter of her. If she wants to go do something, I tell her to go do it. When she met me, I was playing at dives and backwoods bars, and I’d get home at 3 a.m. It was great, but I wanted to settle down, build a life, and then pursue the dream after. I’ve been working in oil and gas now for a while and thankfully, not working seven days a week any longer. I’m home more now and off on the weekends. It’s given me time to better myself and my writing. I went back to that first album and, God, I could have written that a lot better. Was I drunk? What was I thinking? Now my daughter? Well, she’s four, but we don’t stop her from listening to anything she wants to—any clean music that is. But I want her to pursue school and get an education and make something of herself, but we will support her in whatever she chooses. I’m not one of those guys that’s like “,you’re going to be a mechanic like your daddy.” If she wants to learn to play, that’s great. But if she wants to act, or cheer, or dance, or play sports, that’s all her decision. You can’t stop kids from doing what they love. Let them do it.
What are you doing musically currently and what direction do you see yourself taking it in the future?
I have a couple of albums worth of songs, but I just haven’t put another one out yet. That one was a horrible album. We had a three-piece band and thought ‘Hey, let’s go do some of my songs, go to a studio, spend a ton of money and get a bad recording.’ But we learned from it. I tinker around in my studio now, but I haven’t done anything performance wise on my own in a while. I was planning on it before this whole virus thing, just doing some acoustic shows, maybe a two-piece, me and a bass, just to get some of my songs out there. One I am proud of is ‘Mama’s in Heaven.’ It’s probably the best and worst song I’ve ever written because it’s about my mom, who passed away form cancer. After she died, music was therapy for me. Probably a year later, I was driving home and I had this melody that I’ve had stuck in my head since I was 18. The song came to me, and I wrote it in 11 minutes. It was so hard to record. I was balling like a baby.
