LYNN — Lynn musician Brian Maes has made a career out of playing the keyboard and singing for well-known performers.
He has opened for Aerosmith and U2 and toured with Peter Wolf from the J. Geils Band, to name a few.
Maes is writing a three-part book series titled “Brushes with Greatness,” where he writes about his successful music career, encounters with music legends, and the experiences he has had throughout his 64 years.
He released the first book of this series, “The Seed,” this past December, where he discusses his musical influences and encounters from the third grade up until he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
The books are handwritten and unedited in diary form, and include notes and stories he wrote in his journal throughout his career. He said he began writing in his journal after shows and during his downtime on tours, but recalls that he didn’t think anything of it at the time.
“My hope for this book is that some young kid reads it and thinks ‘OK, I can do this because I love it,’ ” Maes said.
He said the books aren’t about him highlighting all of his achievements, but rather showing people how lucky, fortunate, blessed and grateful he feels about what he has been able to accomplish.
He said some of the stories he wrote began as just stories between him and his bandmates while they were packing up the truck at 2 a.m. after shows.
“It was just like ‘oh yeah, let me tell you about the time I met this guy,’ and everybody kept saying that it was so cool and I should write a book,” he said.
That went on for years, so Maes said he finally decided to act upon those requests and wrote a book about his journey.
Originally, the book just included short stories of his one-on-one meetings with famous people like Bruce Springsteen, whom he says he was lucky to encounter.
His late older brother Leander “Lee” and younger brother Jamie — who Maes said always supported him and attended his various gigs and concerts — said they wanted more out of the books, such as the circumstances that led Maes to the well-known legends. That input influenced him to write a three-part series about his journey.
His first book sold out in three days — about 250 books were purchased — which he said was cool given that the title was released on a smaller, local publication.
“This was an example of how wonderful it’s been to have such wonderful and undying support,” Maes said. “These people that have followed me for years were the first ones to buy the book and they just loved it.”
Maes said his musical calling came in the third grade at Callahan Elementary School, where he constantly whistled and drummed on whatever was around him.
He started with the trumpet, which he said evolved into music becoming the main focus of his life.
“I’ve been very fortunate and I’ve had a lot of great opportunities,” he said. “It’s been a lifelong career of what I call musical gifts.”
His second book, “It Grows,” begins with his experience at Berklee College of Music and continues until what he considered to be his biggest show audition, which was for a rock opera on Broadway.
He also spent time traveling through London, doing shows and experiencing adventures that he said he was so grateful for.
The third book, “Into Flowers,” discusses the tours he embarked upon up until the 1990s.
Between tours, Maes said he performed locally as a solo artist in bars around the North Shore. This was awesome, he recalls, because he would go away but knew there would always be gigs waiting for him when he got home.
He eventually formed his own music group, the Brian Maes Band, which is still active — though not as much in the past year because of the pandemic. Maes has released 15 CDs throughout his career.
Maes said the support from his parents and the inspiration from his older brother had a big influence on his successful music career.
His second book is scheduled to be released on June 20, and he is aiming to release his third book by the end of the year.
With the release of the second book, Maes said he will also re-release some copies of his first title.
“There’s a lot of talk about the first book especially, because there’s so much about Lynn,” Maes said.
A graduate of Lynn Classical High School, Maes said his book includes a lot of talk about places in Lynn that aren’t around anymore.
“My local friends of Lynn said they loved the book because they forgot about a lot of the stuff,” Maes said. “I’m proud to be a Lynner.”
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].
