Carter County teacher turning trying times into new country music album

Dwain Messer was having a bad week. Nothing catastrophic was at hand, mind you. But enough of the everyday pressures — money woes, family squabbles and the like — were ganging up for the Carter County songsmith to take a weekend off and pack all the unraveling into a tune called “Ease My Troubled Mind.”

Combating stress isn’t the only aim of the single. With a full album of original material set for release in late October. Messer is hoping his troubled mind, and all the music that goes with it, might lead to a renewed shot at a country music career.

“Sometimes you can sit down, try to write and nothing comes out,” he said. “Then again there are times when you fiddle around with the guitar, things start flowing and you get some really cool ideas. This was one of those Fridays where that happened.

“I had a bad week and thought, ‘My gosh, I wish I was a teenager again. That’s where the first line comes out. ‘It would be nice to be able to go back some day to a simple way of life.’ Then I started thinking, ‘Well, are other people’s experiences (like mine)?’ That’s when the rest of the song came out. Finally, the chorus about talking to the good Lord for help hit. That’s how I felt inspired. I started it on a Friday and finished it two days later.”

While hardly antique in its sound and presentation (veteran Nashville producer Mark Beckett oversaw the studio sessions for the single as well as the upcoming “Goes So Fast” album), there is a strong traditional country slant to “Ease My Troubled Mind,” especially in its vocal design.

“Having an Appalachian background, that kind of comes about naturally. I have family members that have sung gospel and bluegrass music, so I was raised on that. I dabbled in it myself when I was a student (at Morehead State University). Some friends and I used to do some gigs on and off in college for pocket change. I enjoyed bluegrass as an art, but I decided to pursue country and go that route. I still feel I have that sound in my voice that comes from out of the hills. It’s that Kentucky sound, I suppose.”

His inspirations

“I guess it’s sort of how (Country, Bluegrass and Kentucky Music Hall of Fame inductee) Tom T. Hall made music. I get a lot of influences from the folks you meet, the things that happen to you and the things you think about,” Messer said.

Like Hall, Messer hails from Olive Hill, but he has lived and worked in Grayson for many years. In fact, his offstage vocation for over two decades has been as a social sciences teacher at West Carter High School.

“I find it to be an inspiration,” Messer said. “You see young people move on and do something with themselves and realize you had a part in that. You had an ability to mentor and maybe give them some of your advice and lead them in the right direction. With teaching being my day job, as it has been for quite awhile, a lot of my students find interest in what I do as an artist. They ask me questions about it and follow me on social media to see what I’m up to. Since the single has been out, they have really been taking a big interest.”

Going the Nashville route is not an entirely foreign journey to Messer. As far back as 2000, he shopped around some recordings with the help of songwriter Phillip White and Shenandoah bassist Ralph Ezell. The door-knocking came close to securing him a contract with RCA Records.

“We were on the verge of signing a deal with RCA,” Messer said. “I didn’t know how close it came until a few years later. Ralph told me later that it didn’t work out because the guys we were talking to at the label were let go. But knowing you had your name on a paper that was almost going to be signed was pretty great. It made me think, ‘You know what? There’s something to this.’ I’m going to keep on going. I’m not going to quit.”

New album coming

Now comes “Goes So Fast” – an album that is being launched in the midst of a global pandemic, meaning the usual route of touring and promotion is, for now, closed.

“Well, it is a bit frustrating. I mean, it’s hard to play out, but I have been doing some online things and have plans on doing more in order to be known, to just get my name out there to people. Of course, Facebook and Instagram are great tools to do that with.

“Everybody is dealing with this. It’s sort of like independent artists and big label artists are now on an even playing field in a sense. What we independents are doing is very similar to what Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson have been doing on Facebook. Everybody has been doing the same kind of thing.

“It puts you in that situation where everybody has got a chance to grab the same audience.”