Scott Paris is a well-known local entertainer and now author.
He has been playing and writing music since he was 12. He wrote a book last year about his musical life and buying a new guitar called “A Guitar Called Harry V and the Cover Band Conundrum.”
Paris, 44, was born and raised in Canton, and graduated from GlenOak High School. He lives in Perry Township. He and his wife have two daughters.
Paris has performed with the bands Broken Transmitter, Imaginary Cookies, Tender Hearted Rascals and French Donkey over a more than 20-year career as a professional entertainer and singer/songwriter.
“Writing lyrics for a song is a wonderful challenge,” he said. “The challenge is to tell a whole story in four minutes. Writing a book was more open to sharing in-depth explanations. I’m fairly long-winded when I talk, so it was not difficult to go into detail for these stories — almost the opposite … when should I shut up?”
Why did you decide to write a book?
For a few years, I toyed with the idea of writing a book of song lyrics. I’ve been a registered songwriter with American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) since 2005 and have published over 200 songs.
The idea of writing the actual book occurred to me in the spring of 2024. I had been journaling in notebooks to collect stories for my podcast (“99 Stories … And This Is One”). On the show, my bandmates and co-hosts would tell all the horror stories of traveling to play music.
We were in between seasons of the show, and I was compiling talking points for when we would resume. The idea of documenting the life of a guitar was part of that. After I filled in an entire notebook, I realized the concept had book potential.
How has Harry V been performing?
I still use Harry! Although, ironically, I’ve been playing a different and newer acoustic at solo performances … so I’m not totally over my obsession with buying new guitars.
Harry will definitely be at all the full band shows this year. And of course, he’s always at the book promotions and signings.
How and when did you learn to play guitar and write music?
I started taking lessons in 1991. No kidding, it was because of the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” I was about 10 years old at the time. I began writing songs in the same vein by the time I was 12.
If you could go back in time to meet a favorite musician, who would it be?
If I could go back, and without disturbing the spacetime continuum, I’d watch Jeff Buckley do a solo set at Sin-e’ in 1993 … and maybe a quick “great set, man!” — afterwards.
I’d also be enticed to warn him about swimming in the Wolf River in Memphis, where he drowned.
Would you describe what your perfect gig would be like?
A “perfect” gig is the easiest thing to describe and the hardest thing to do.
It would be a beautiful venue like Red Rocks in Colorado or the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. It would be a full live band, no backing tracks. We would play flawlessly to an excited crowd that sang along to the lyrics. That would be total success for me!
Editor’s note: Five questions with … is a Sunday feature that showcases a member of the Stark County community. If you’d like to recommend someone to participate, send an email to [email protected].
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cantonrep.com ’
