The Catskill Chronicle

Story by Carol Montana, Photos by Leni Santoro, Kathy Lounsbury and Carol Montana

Grahamsville, NY – “There’s something about living in Wyoming … I was just writing music all the time,” says Grahamsville resident Paul Lounsbury.

Now his, friends, family and fans can hear that music and more in Lounsbury’s first CD From My Perspective, released this past November.

Lounsbury is that rare breed, a Sullivan County native. He grew up on his family’s farm at the top of Columbia Hill in Hurleyville and attended Monticello Schools. “My family were dairy farmers, here since the 1700s .”

After graduating high school, Lounsbury attended SUNY Farmingdale during the Vietnam War. “The only lottery I ever won was the 1970 draft lottery. They picked your birthday and assigned a number to it – mine was 5. While in college, the army called me for my physical. I went to the Whitehall Street Army Induction Center (made famous in Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant) where you get infected, detected and selected.” He was given a 4-F because of his “horrible flat feet.”

Graduating with a two-year degree in Electronics Technology, Lounsbury came back home and worked installing cable TV systems for awhile, then got a job with NYSEG as a field engineer.

Getting married changed his life in more ways than one. “My wife always wanted to go west. Prior to going, I sent out resumes to power companies out there. We flew into Billings, MT, started driving south and got to Casper Wyoming, where I eventually got a job with Pacific Power and Light.”

Up till the 1960s, there hadn’t been any musicians in the Lounsbury family. Even when he was in 4^th grade, none of the instruments available in the school band appealed to Lounsbury. But in the 60s, with the songs of Simon and Garfunkel, and Peter, Paul and Mary, “that’s when the music clicked for me. My parents got me my first guitar from Jamesway when I was 14 or 15.”

His parents also got him a beginning guitar book, but it wasn’t quite what he had in mind. “I didn’t want to play Polly Wolly Doodle. I wanted to play Bob Dylan …” During lunch break at school, Lounsbury would hang out at Bill Sedlack’s appliance store on Broadway in Monticello, where they also sold records and sheet music.

One day, “there on the rack was Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, a big hit at that time. … I opened it up and over the music were chord diagrams. … At the end of that night I could play a D, G and an A chord.”

Lounsbury kept going back for more music.

To read the full story go to – From His Perspective – A Profile of Singer / Songwriter Paul Lounsbury in the new Sullivan Faces Section of The Catskill Chronicle.