By Bob Arnold
Music is alive and well in Southwest Mississippi. Young and old alike who feel called to express themselves through music can develop their skills to play instruments and sing. Musicians who have learned their lessons well can continue to grow in their art by interacting with peers whether they are soloists or want to perform with them in more than a few bands that have emerged in recent years encouraged by the variety of venues and events that flourished to showcase them for appreciative audiences.
There are many reasons for the robust music scene in the area. Tony Norton, who grew up in Loyd Star, is one of them.
Norton, a 1999 graduate of Loyd Star Attendance Center which he started as s kindergartener, opened Downtown Music Academy in 2019 on South Railroad Avenue in Brookhaven with Gregory Smith to teach music and repair musical instruments following the greater part of two decades doing almost anything but music.
After high school, he earned a certificate in welding at Co-Lin, but went to work at Walmart stocking merchandise on the late night shift because he didn’t want to lay oilfield pipelines. “I then spent some time in construction, gutting the old buildings for what is now the Mississippi School of the Arts campus in Brookhaven,” he says.
For 14 years, Norton thought he had found his career in landscaping based in Jackson, first for Lakeland Yard & Garden and then self-employed as a contractor, but his love of music brought him back home nine years ago. “I grew up in a music family,” he recalls. “I was introduced to the guitar in the late 1980s, and jammed with friends. I never played sports. My passion was always music. My sister played guitar, too, and both of us performed.”
When Norton returned to the area, he played shows at Recess and Magnolia Blues in Brookhaven, recorded his own CD album – Songs from an Unfinished House -- and joined other locals -- Shaw Furlow, Tyler Bridge and his later partner at Downtown Music Academy Gregory Smith -- in helping to nurture the nascent music scene in the area. For several years, he recruited new musicians and bands to play on Open Mic nights at the then just-opened Magnolia Blues restaurant.
Since 2019, Norton has focused on Downtown Music Academy, which now has eight instructors that teaches more than 100 students aged three years old to 80 years old piano, wind and string instruments. Norton himself teaches beginner guitar and repairs string instruments. His business also repairs wind instruments, rents band instruments and sells string instruments. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Norton no longer performs, but he continues to compose – “mostly for myself” – in what he consider a “country” style, although he’ll let others decide whether it is or not. His best known song, he says, is Kings of Lincoln County about “growing up as a teen locally, getting married and divorced, people I know dying and special events in my life.” He considers “The Best” his best song which, he says, Cole Furlow, his recording engineer, made it so by bringing our the best in his voice and musical sound. Both are on Songs from an Unfinished House, which refers to the music he made while building the Loyd Star home in which he lives.
Norton has an 18-year-old daughter, a recent culinary arts graduate.
What are your hobbies? I enjoy kayaking and fishing in local waterways – Lake Lincoln and the Homa Chitto River. I also like to cook.
Are you a reader? I am not an avid reader, but I will get into it if it’s weird and quirky. My favorite novel is Confederacy of Dunces.
Do you follow movies or theater? Yes. And the dumber the better! I love comedies and actors Paul Rudd, Jack Black and Bob Bergen.
What would you do with the winnings if you won the lottery? I am happy with my life. My house. My vehicle. But I would like help paying bills. And new experiences would be nice – the red rocks in Colorado, travel to see the northern lights in Alaska or Sweden.
How would you change the world? I like the place in the Invention of Lying where people can’t tell lies. We’d have a better world if people would quit lying.