Daily Inspiration: Meet Sean Poole

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Poole.

Hi Sean, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was introduced to music by my mother, and we sang together to her record collection. I received my first guitar on my ninth birthday and taught myself to play by ear. I still have that guitar to this day. When I was 11, I promised my mother that I would have a song on the radio one day. She passed away a year later when I was twelve; it has been 39 years since I made that promise, but I still intend to see it fulfilled one day. At age 15, I took the bold step of creating what I knew one day would be my professional Sean Poole logo.

When I turned 21, I decided to try singing karaoke in local bars to take the first step toward singing in front of people. I sang what I grew up with, the 50s, and 60s, music from my mom’s old 45s. I wasn’t sure if I would be good enough to go any further, and I wanted to see what people’s reactions would be. However, from the first time I nervously stepped in front of the mic and started to sing, a noisy crowd got totally quiet. I wondered what they were thinking, but I received a standing ovation when I finished my song. This motivated me to keep trying, and local bars became my second home.

One day I was in my car scrolling through radio stations. I stopped at a country station and heard Keith Whitley singing Don’t Close your Eyes. From then on, I knew I wanted to be a country music singer. I started seeking out all the country records I could find and practicing to sing those songs at the local karaoke nights. As the years went by, I transitioned from doing karaoke to doing a live show by auditioning for a local jamboree. After that audition, I sang there every Saturday night for three months. From the responses I was getting here locally, I decided to drive to Nashville and take my best shot there. In Nashville, I could sing in three places, Legends, Tootsies, and The Stage. I was fortunate to make enough money in tips to cover my hotel expenses and food daily for about a month. In Nashville, I did speak to two record companies and found out that I would be expected to make long trips on the road being gone for extended periods. However, I was not ready to commit to anything like that, as I had a young daughter at home. So, I decided to come back home, get a regular job, be a Dad now, and pursue my singing career later.

Later in life, when my daughter turned 15, she heard about me coming home to raise her and asked me, “why don’t you try it again” so I decided to try to pick up where I left off and give it my best shot to fulfill that promise to my mother. I quickly found a jamboree holding a singing contest and decided to enter. To my surprise, I won! After that, I regularly sang there and at another opera with house bands. I then decided to take the next logical step and put together a band we named Hickory Lane. I then started Sean Poole’s Music page to begin marketing. Soon after, I got a festival gig, and the word began to spread. I started doing private parties, community events, and other local festivals, sometimes for free or for tips, just to get started. This went on for three years.

I had the talent, but the one thing I lacked was the support that was about to change. They hired me to play at a local festival in Leesburg, OH, by Angel Greenlee, the new President of the Leesburg Lions Club, which was organizing the town’s festival. She had just created a Facebook page for the Lions Club and the festival and wanted to interview for the page. She didn’t know that from looking at her Facebook page to prepare for the interview, I had already decided somehow I was also going to work on asking her out. It didn’t go as smoothly as planned because she was all business, but it only took a few days for her to change her mind. We have been together ever since and were married a year and a half later, and she became Angel Poole.

After that, I had the support I had been missing and more. We became a team! We went over every aspect from the ground up together. We worked hard to raise the money together to buy the professional equipment I needed. We worked together to create our brand for the band. We renamed the band Sean Poole & Buckin Krazy and had a band logo created. We created a Facebook page for the band and had merchandise created, which was easy to sell with the new name. I selected some new upbeat songs to add to my song collection that would cater to more venues—revamped my image by growing my hair, growing a beard, and changing my way of dressing from carpenter jeans and a ball cap to western wear and a cowboy hat. Together, we went full steam ahead with marketing, promotion, and booking, and in a few short years, we went from a few free shows a year to being one of the busiest and highest-paid bands in our area. We just booked our 60th show for this year, and we are still going!

Over the year, some of the journey highlights include singing in Nashville, TN, at The Keith Whitley Memorial Bike Run for the last two years and the Roadside Bar and Grill, and also singing in Kentucky at a Jesse Keith Whitley Concert and the Keith Whitley Fingerprint on Country Music Award Show. One of my favorite trips was going to Sandy Hook, KY, and getting to Dwight Whitley, Flo Whitley, Margie Page, and Randy Hayes (who I sang in Nashville). I have met several people in the country music business. I admire Lorrie Morgan, her husband Randy, Whey Jennings and his manager Tammy Long Carolus, Struggle Jennings, Bobby Mackey, Randy Travis, Rory Feek, Paul Overstreet, Dallas Moore, and more. They work so hard to keep the name of my inspiration for singing country music alive, Keith Whitley. I also do my part to keep his name alive for future generations of country music fans by opening every show with Don’t Close your Eyes, the original country song that inspired me to sing country music.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was not a smooth road. My first challenge had no parental support to pursue singing after my mother passed away when I was twelve.

My second challenge included my struggle to find a balance between my music ambitions and being a father to my young daughter. Her needs won out until she was 15 and old enough to understand. This meant that I was starting over in my forties and still striving for success at 50, in what is often considered a young man’s game where being marketable is everything.

My final challenge was feeling aimless after my mother’s death. This left me untethered and often feeling like I had nothing to lose; this created a lack of stability and, therefore, a lack of funds. This caused missed opportunities, such as in 2015, when I tried out for The Voice and received a callback but didn’t have the money to make a return trip from Ohio back to Chicago, where the callback auditions were being held. I didn’t have the funds to take the trips I wanted to take sooner, such as going to the Keith Whitley Memorial Ride for several years or returning to Nashville without a sure booking. These things eventually came after I met Angel, and we could work as a team to plan and pool our resources for what I needed, such as a reliable vehicle, music equipment, merchandise, and music-themed vacations and trips I used to further my goals.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My music career is my job. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you can find me at a show doing my best to perform and entertain the crowd, but that is the public portion everyone sees. Every day my wife and I are working on marketing, booking, interacting on the music pages, and having merchandise designed, and I am picking out and learning new songs. I feel like having specific goals set for each year, and working daily at these goals, is the main thing that has contributed to the growth of my music career and that of the band. I am most proud that I have come this far in the last few years, even at my age, and keeping my drive and love of music despite every obstacle. My wife would say what sets me apart from others is my voice. She says she repeatedly falls in love with me every time she hears me sing. She is at every show encouraging me through my nerves, then the first one on the dance floor, dancing and singing along. She also takes all the pictures and videos of every show. She posts them on Facebook to keep the music pages active and help us connect with all our fans, even the ones that can’t make every show can log on to Facebook and feel like they are a part of this journey with us. Through this process, I have also gained the respect and support of my local music heroes from Greenfield, OH. The home of Johnny Paycheck and many local music celebrities who have become my mentors, and one is even the bass player in my band now. I never saw that coming. I still dream of having a song on the radio to fulfill my promise to my mother, and every music artist dreams of singing on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting?
My advice would be to never give up on your dreams. Believe in yourself even when nobody else does—you’re never too old, broke, or lost, to set and reach your goals. Put in the work. It will be worth it in one day. When I started, I wished I had a better belief in myself. I wish I knew I was worthy. I still struggle with this and get extremely nervous before each show and with each opportunity, and I always wonder if they will like what they hear or think I am not good enough. Angel says all I was missing all those years was someone to love me and be my cheerleader. She is probably right because it has made a huge difference; hopefully, one day, those final doubts will be less and less a part of me.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: Sean Poole’s Music ://www.facebook.com/groups/641776572594965
• Youtube: -Sean Poole’s Music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf4_Uo56_8Emw-lB-gvMRFQ Sean
• Other: Sean Poole & Buckin’ Krazy: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063463903172