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Ryan Harris Brown remembers the first time he got chills from witnessing live music.
He was in the fifth or sixth grade, hanging out with relatives at a family Super Bowl party, when one of his older cousins started playing guitar.
"I was smiling and not really knowing why, and I couldn't stop," the Nashville resident said. "I went home, and I might have been 11, and started asking my parents for a guitar."
The Waverly Twp. native found one of his father's old axes, which only had two or three strings still on it and was falling apart, but undeterred, he "noodled around" on it for a few months until his parents bought him a new guitar for his 12th birthday.
"I hit the ground running and went through phases," Mr. Brown said.
Now 27, the Abington Heights High School graduate is making his living as a professional musician and preparing to step into the studio to make his first full-length album, "Stranded in the Present Tense."
An online crowdfunding campaign to finance the effort is in effect until Sept. 20 on indie gogo.com. Expected to be released by next summer or fall, the record will feature Mr. Brown on guitar and vocals, with help from David LaBruyere on bass and Nir Z on drums, both of whom have played on early John Mayer albums and individually with other notable artists like Shawn Mullins, Sara Evans, Genesis, Billy Squier and Joss Stone.
"I've got two of my all-time favorite musicians ... I don't know if I'll ever get an opportunity like this again," Mr. Brown said. "Having two of my heroes is attributed to living here (in Nashville) and finding a community to reach out to these people. These guys are pros. I have to pinch myself every day."
Played covers
It's a long way from Northeast Pennsylvania, where Mr. Brown got his start performing radio song covers and older Beatles tunes at Northern Light Espresso Bar in downtown Scranton at 15 years old.
It was...