Paul Szmal: and I am joined by, well, you would know him as Scott Trumelow if you were following the local music scene. Scott Simlin is joining us here on FLX Morning. Good morning, man. Thanks for getting up early.
Scott Truelow: No problem. Thanks, Paul. Yeah. I appreciate it. You're getting ready to play live at the Vista next Friday at the Seneca Lake Resorts. Tell me a little bit about your musical background and how you come to be where you are now.
Paul Szmal: So it goes way back if I really want to do it. Taking lessons. My first public performance was, you know, doing a recital, working with a local piano teacher, but then I went on to do some banjo lessons with a fellow out of Skinny Atlas who still plays as far as I know. Soda Ash Six is his band. Dick Sheridan. Dick Sheridan is a banjo player. So I had that great first experience and I played a big stage at Grassroots. They do a band competition. That was my first kind of like exposure.
Scott Truelow: Wow. No pressure.
Paul Szmal: Oh, yeah. I was a wreck by the end, you know, but cut my teeth at least getting on that stage.
Scott Truelow: How many years have you been gigging here around the Finger Lakes now?
Paul Szmal: It's been on and off. I was out in Portland pre-pandemic and playing, you know, some music out there. I was playing in 2011 with a group that I recorded at Pyramid Studios in Ithaca. A pretty, you know, professional recorded album with Alex Perry-Ellis. So since then it's been kind of an up and down here and there, but more of an acoustic solo thing for me since then.
Scott Truelow: Oh, okay. I was going to ask what your kind of style or genre was. How about influences?
Paul Szmal: So I guess going back to that project since then, I've really doubled down on my initial roots of kind of like the Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, folk genre and kind of just having more of a message, more substance, I guess, to the music.
Scott Truelow: Folk with a little blues on the side?
Paul Szmal: Definitely, yeah. Country blues. Yep.
Scott Truelow: So what can people expect when they come to see you next Friday?
Paul Szmal: I still do a mix of, you know, going back to what I recorded 2011 with, you know, I'll cover some, I like to say it's more 20th century based. I think I do one song maybe from the last few decades, but definitely, you know, such an expansive record of music going back to choose from. So I'll do anything from like 30s of Blind Willie Johnson through to, you know, the last couple of decades with a couple of tunes, but yeah, definitely 20th century from early blues up until, you know, the 80s with like a Huey Lewis cover or something like that.
Scott Truelow: So how cool is it to play at a place like the Vista? It's kind of an outdoor venue, but not quite an outdoor venue.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it was great. I mean, last year I kind of didn't luck out with the weather, but yeah, the times have gone. It's incredible. I mean, so much going on and people who are there just for the summer camping and then people come just to check it out. It's just, it's an incredible site. I used to play with another female singer from the area before it turned into what it is now and just, it's amazing to be back and see it.
Scott Truelow: Yeah, the place kind of has a whole vibe going on with the food trucks and everything there and stuff.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Yeah. Great people too. I met, you know, some of the people who work there and they just love it, you know, they love their jobs.
Scott Truelow: Awesome. Awesome. If people want to check you out, do you have an online presence?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, scotttrumlow.com. You can check me out there.
Scott Truelow: Okay. Beautiful, beautiful. And Scott is playing live at the Vista next Friday. Major Keys is playing this Friday. That's at Seneca Lake Resorts. You can go to SenecaLakeResorts.com to find out more. Scott, appreciate it, man. Thanks for stopping in this morning.
Paul Szmal: Thank you so much for having me.
