By MATT THACKER

It was the middle of the night when Josh Payne showed up on his brother Sam's St. George doorstep, guitar in hand.

"Sam," he said, "everyone in the family plays except you. It's time to learn."

Then, without even coming inside, he handed Sam the guitar and left.

Sam Payne picked up the guitar that night and hasn't put it down since.

Payne marks that night 11 years ago as a pivotal moment in his life and the beginning of a musical journey in which he still finds himself.

Following in his father Marvin Payne's footsteps, the singer-songwriter from Utah has emerged as a staple in contemporary and LDS music circles with an eclectic style reminiscent of artists from James Taylor and Bob Dylan to Brian Setzer and the big-band jazz of the fifties. His live shows, highly energetic at times and acoustically soothing at others, are just as much stages for Payne's stories as they are for his songs.

"He's one of the best in his field," said Earl Madsen, who works with Sounds of Zion, the company that distributes and promotes Payne's albums. "He's the consummate performer. The connection he makes with people onstage or in person is a rare thing that many artists don't have the ability to do."

Payne's most recent album "Father to Son" was released in June 2008 and features what many fans have been looking for - a live album that includes the stories Payne typically tells during his concerts.

"The stories that I tell in conjunction with my songs are kind of an integral part of my live show," Payne said. "And people for a long time have been coming up to our merchandise table at shows and asking, 'where's the album with the stories on it?'"

The album, which was recorded in front of a live studio audience, features some of Payne's favorite songs stripped down to their bare roots. The instrumentation is completely acoustic to set the stage for telling the true story behind each song.

With tunes ranging from the soulful "You May Still Remember Me" - a duet with LDS singer Cherie Call - to a cover of Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country," each song has a story that highlights the legacies and heritages of life.

"The songs on the album are all about the people that we come from," Payne said. "They're all about the heritage, the line that connects us with those who have come before us."

And although he didn't pick up a guitar and begin writing until he was a college graduate, music has long been a part of Payne's heritage.

When Payne was young, his father Marvin Payne was a folk singer who struggled to earn a living for his young family, consisting of his wife and two sons.

"My dad would go door-to-door at apartment complexes trying to sell record albums, and that's how we made our daily bread," Sam Payne said. But Payne rarely noticed the family's financial hardships, describing his childhood as "blissful and full of music."

Besides the talent of his father, his mother was an accomplished fiddler, and music always seemed to emanate from their little pioneer-era home where Payne shared an attic bedroom with his three younger brothers.

"Few were the nights that I went to sleep in silence," Payne said.

Payne's father said his son's energetic and enthusiastic personality started early.

"Sam never had a problem relating to people," his father said, adding that his son was always outgoing. "On Sam's first day of Kindergarten, his father told him to wink at the teacher. So what did he do? He winked at the teacher." Payne said after winking at the teacher he invited her over for a spaghetti dinner.

Payne made music a part of his life, participating in choirs and other activities, but he was wary of pursuing it as a full-time career after realizing the economic hardships that affected his family.

"I think one of the greatest things Sam learned from me was to get a job," his father said. "I never actually told him that, but I think he just figured it out after seeing how much we struggled."

After serving an LDS mission in Argentina and getting a degree in English from Weber State University, Payne got a job, teaching seminary in St. George where he taught for 11 years.

Mark Robison, a former student of Payne's, said that his teacher's influence on him continues to this day.

"He just knew how to connect with us," Robison said. "He was able to explain things in a way that was easy to understand and that was on our level." Robison said Payne taught him how to be serious about the gospel but also how to stay a kid at heart.

"I miss it every day," Payne said of his seminary teaching days. "Sometimes I still wake up in the morning and feel like I should be putting on a shirt and tie to go teach."

It was while he was in St. George that Sam's brother Josh stopped by his house that night in 1997 and dropped off the guitar.

Marvin said that as soon as Sam got that guitar, he "dove right in," learning how to play and write songs. His devotion to learning, as well as his genetics, began to pay off.

"He was a natural," Marvin said.

After performing the only song he had ever written at a church fireside in St. George, he was approached by a member of the ward named Korky Ollerton who had played drums for various California punk rock bands before moving to Utah.

"Hey," he told Payne, "we should start a band." Payne, still doubting his abilities, reluctantly agreed. The two recruited another member and began performing as the Sam Payne Trio. Payne, as frontman of the group, was the principal songwriter, a new role for the seminary teacher who still felt like a novice musician.

"Writing for the trio was fast and tough," he said. "But I truly, honestly loved every last minute of it."

He drew from a variety of influences for his songwriting, from Dylan and James Taylor to Thelonius Monk and Shirley Horn. He even mentioned more contemporary artists such as Dave Matthews, and local artists Peter Breinholt, Ryan Shupe, and Cherie Call. He still lists his friend Korky Ollerton as one of his biggest influences and mentors as he learned about what it took to be a songwriter.

As Payne honed his songwriting skills, he also expanded his horizons as a performer. He went on to front a jazz quintet before hitting it out on his own as a solo artist. He still tours extensively, both with a band and by himself, and this year alone has seen him play venues in Texas, Washington, D.C. and Edmonton, Alberta, besides the dozens of shows he plays in and around Utah.

Despite the sometimes rigorous touring schedule, Payne's eyes seem to brighten when he speaks about performing live.

"It is one of the great personal pleasures of my life," he said. He often uses his race car analogy saying that recording in the studio is like building a race car, but performing live is like driving the race car. There are enjoyable aspects to both, he said, but was quick to describe the rigorous attention to detail that the studio requires compared to the energetic feelings of liberation that come from playing live.

As much as he likes performing, Payne's emphasis remains on the stories he tells through his songs. Songwriting is an act Payne said he takes very seriously.

"If you presume to be a songwriter, you have to be able to work even when the fire is dead, when the iron is cold," he said. "You've got to be able to just go to work. Sometimes songwriters feel the inspiration and can just get a song out, other times you'll have to fight for every word."

Payne said that no matter whether he's "under the influence of the muse" or simply struggling to hammer one out, his songwriting is a personal spiritual act that is driven by much more than marketing, business, or writing a catchy melody.

"The reason I write songs is that it's through that process that I reconcile myself to God," he said. "In my songs I try to explore sacred ideas like relationships, history and family, and that comes to be an exercise to figure out my relationship with God."

Payne also feels an obligation to those who came before him.

"I'm a Latter-day Saint, the son a folk singer, the third great-grandson of the pioneers that settled Salt Lake," he said. "If I have a goal, it's to be the voice of my people."

Payne fan Paula Hale, a senior majoring in child development, said she appreciates the personality behind Payne's thoughtful songwriting and storytelling.

"His music is wildly imaginative without ever losing touch with reality," she said, noting that whether Payne's performing one of his humorous songs about random topics like outer space, or singing a deeply religious ballad, there's always a connection deeply rooted in the human experience.

As for himself, Payne is confident the path he is on is the right one for him and his family, which includes his wife Kristie and four boys: Skyler, Caleb, Seth and Sam. He is unsure about the status of celebrity, something he said he feels far from. Even as his popularity grows, he said the life of a music star at the height of fame really doesn't seem that appealing if it means conflicts with the relationship he has with his family.

He praises Kristie and his boys as the primary factors in keeping him grounded.

"They are the great balancing factor," he said. "Without the balancing influence of my wife, I think my music would just become ... not very useful."

He said he feels very much like a normal guy.

"It's something my wife constantly reminds me of," he joked, with a hint of gratitude towards his high school sweetheart. He and his family like to rappel - although he's admittedly afraid of heights - and he's a self-proclaimed movie junkie.

"I even like the dumb ones," he admitted about his film-watching habits.

He writes children's books and works at a publishing company for educational literature, and even raises chickens at his home in Lindon.

This "normal" lifestyle, however, is filled with the relationships Payne has constructed over the years with family, friends, students and fans. And although he is unsure of what the future holds, he sees music as a part of it.

Regardless, his family said they are proud of him and what he's chosen to do with his talents.

"What's always surprised me," said Payne's father Marvin, "is that no matter what I expect of him, he routinely exceeds it."

More details about Payne, his albums and his live shows can be found at www.sampayne.com.



Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Sep 2008