Wiscasset resident Barry Arvin Young has carved out a career for himself as a performer and sound engineer in Maine’s music industry. (Sherwood Olin photo)
For many friends and fans, summer in Hampton Beach, N.H. would not be complete without the soundtrack provided by Wiscasset resident Barry Arvin Young.
Supported by a sophisticated digital support system that includes backing tracks, a harmonizer to flesh out background vocals, and a set list drawing from more than 300 modern and classic songs, Young has made himself a popular draw in the vacation hotspot.
During the summers he works so steadily, that he purchased an RV two years ago to cut down on his commutes between Wiscasset and Hampton Beach. While he usually comes home during part of the week, Thursdays through Sundays he sets up camp in Hampton Beach near the clubs where he makes his living.
Long before he became a seasonal fixture along the Hampton boardwalk, Young was a rock-n-roll road warrior, making a living in the hardscrabble landscape of Maine’s music industry.
Like many musicians, Young found his way to the guitar as kid, teaching himself to play out of Mel Bay books. Inspired by the rock bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, he played with friends growing up and went on to play in rock bands working the circuit in northern and Down East Maine.
In the early 1980s, guitar in hand, Young found his way from his Down East hometown to the comparatively big city of Portland, where he made a name for himself as a first-call guitarist. Already an experienced musician by then, Young credited Portland legend LaForest “Kip” Brown for setting an example Young would follow with his own band.
Consisting of an ever-revolving cast of musicians, Brown’s group, the Wild Hearts, was a fixture on Maine stages during the 1980s. Brown would fearlessly walk onstage backed by a group of musicians who may have never even met before and deliver an electrifying performance.
“If you were lucky, he might tell you what key you’re in, and if you were even luckier he might tell you what the song was,” Young said. “Most the time, it didn’t even count. He just slammed the first chord and the guys would just light into it. I termed it barnstorming.
“Playing with Kip was one of the most liberating times in my life as a player because he was so good,” Young said. “It wasn’t like it was just thrown together. He knew everything he was going to do musically, but it was all up here. He wasn’t writing it down. He wasn’t going to tell you, and he certainly wasn’t going to hold your hand. If you did well, it was because you can play. If you fall on your face, guess what? You’re not that good … I absolutely loved playing with him and he was the guy that opened the door to this kind of performance. I will not give many people credit for changing my life, but I will Kip Brown. We did a lot of shows for a couple of years, and we became tight like brothers.”
Even while he was in the Wild Hearts, and especially as that group wound down in the early 1990s, Young started out with the Barry Arvin Young Band. Like Brown, Young relied on a rotating lineup of musicians to put a band on the stage. Unlike Brown, however, he traveled extensively outside of the state. The Barry Arvin Young Band played the Northeast, traveling from Maine to New York, Massachusetts to Vermont, and points in between.
Barry Arvin Young poses with his Yamaha SLG-100, his “weapon of choice” for the last several years. “I love that series of guitar,” he said. (Photo courtesy Barry Arvin Young)
It was during a break between lineups when Young stumbled into what would be his main vocation for a number of years. Without a group, Young still had a complete sound system he had just purchased. By chance, his management connected him with a band that needed a soundman. A few days later, Young was on his way to Limestone for a date at the then still-active Loring Air Force, playing a room he knew well from his own onstage experience.
Young described his early days as a sound engineer as “a trial by fire,” but he caught on quickly, eventually parlaying his skills into steady work operating the house sound systems for Portland nightclubs like Zootz and the Tree Cafe in between tours with bands like Portsmouth, N.H.-based Thanks to Gravity and Boston-based Sam Black Church.
When the State Theater opened as a performance venue in the mid-1990s, Young was one of two sound technicians who worked the venue on behalf of Greg Powers Entertainment. At the same time Young filled out his calendar as a sound engineer working for Earcraft Sound in Dover, N.H. All the while, he continued leading a version of the Barry Arvin Young Band.
All that time away from home proved to be a challenge for his family life. Young acknowledged he was on the road throughout much of his first marriage, when his children were young.
Following a painful divorce that finalized in 2017, Young felt he had turned a chapter in Portland. The area had changed significantly since he first arrived.
“After being there for 20-something years, 25 years, I just found myself spiritually, artistically, and financially priced out,” Young said. “The Southern Maine I moved into was not the Southern Maine I was living in and I had my eye on this area for some time as I was feeling things changing.”
Already familiar with Lincoln County, Young was ready to move when a friend connected him with a place to live in Wiscasset in 2019. Shortly thereafter he met the woman who became his second wife, Cindy Gagnon. The couple married in 2023.
According to Young, his current career as a solo musician more or less came about by accident. Around 2009, needing a refresh and wanting to learn to surf, Young and his band mates agreed to take the summer off and resume in the fall.
Young was enjoying the break when, near the end of July, he fielded a panicked call from a booking agent who had just had an act fail to show up for him.
“He said ‘I’ve got a patio full of people that I need somebody to come play some music for. Can you help me out?’” Young said. “’I’ve never done it before.’ ‘It doesn’t matter. Play what you know. Just get me out of this hole.’”
Young showed up with his acoustic guitar in hand and put together his first solo show, furiously mentally editing his full band set list for songs he could adequately cover with just a guitar and his vocals. At the end of his first set, the manager of the bar came over and offered Young his choice of dates for the rest of the summer.
“That was the beginning of my solo career,” Young said. “Like, I never intended to be a soloist. It’s not in my DNA. It’s not what I ever thought I was ever going to do.”
Over the decade-plus since, Young has built his solo act into a thriving business. In some respects it’s easier booking a solo musician – the money is better, scheduling is easier, and there is a pronounced lack of band-related drama.
When he first started, Young was a prototypical solo act – one guitar, one microphone, and a stool. Playing an outdoor afternoon gig on the boardwalk at Hampton Beach some years ago, Young noticed other solo performers were incorporating backing tracks to fill out their sound.
“I started paying more attention to what they were doing,” he said.
During a trip home, Young had a conversation with his son that put him on a new path.
Barry Arvin Young leads a version of his namesake band onstage around 2010. (Photo courtesy Barry Arvin Young)
“I was struggling with these ideas in my head … I see what they do, but I’m not sure how they’re doing it,” Young said. “I’m not sure if I should go buy a new some computer thing or something like that. My son looks at me in total disgust like he would do. He said, ‘Dad, your phone. You have more computing power in your phone than any of this other stuff that you might buy for yourself.’ So he goes and finds this a program that is designed for your phone.”
Starting with a simple phone application, Young built an extensive library of backing tracks, fleshing out his solo acoustic guitar with a full band sound. Using a program he can edit on the fly and a Midi controller he can operate with his foot, Young said he can tailor a show to produce exactly what his audience wants.
“To my audience, it’s just not musicians, it’s people on vacation, or people on a date, or couples going out, or just people mixing or who want to dance, or they just want to listen,” he said. “Now I’m in an environment that I can deliver to every single one of them. You want your Jimmy Buffet songs? Here’s a few. And you want to dance? Here’s some music you can dance to. If you just want to listen and want me to create something, something that is easy for you to listen to and have some beers for dinner, I can do that too. I can do all of it.”
The results have been phenomenal for his business as he is in residency in Hampton for the entire summer, playing 85-95 shows during the season.
More than 40 years into his music career, Young said he is enjoys making music just as much as ever. The same things that called him to music to begin with, the sense of identity and the connections with people, are just as attractive and enjoyable now as they ever were. Even as he acknowledged the passage of time, Young said he has no plans to stop anytime soon.
“Luckily I’m in good health, but the clock is ticking no matter which way you look at it,” he said. “It’s a limited time. I want to be able to enjoy this as long as I can. I’m 65. I haven’t figured out how to make thing this thing go backward yet, so I am going to make it go as far forward as the universe will allow.”
For more information about Young, go to barryarvinyoung.com.
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