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ELO - Sitting on his piano bench, Raymond Leon Schultz strums his guitar, hoping for inspiration to come his way.

Residing in a house tucked between Pelkie and Elo, Schultz, now 58, has been writing music since he was 16, but was never really recognized for his talents. Yet in mid-September, that changed.

Schultz - a quality control worker for Pettibone - won the instrumental category of the UK Songwriting Contest with his "Steel String Rag," a work for guitar off his album "If This Record Survives Me."

"This was actually my first win, it actually felt pretty good," Schultz said. "It's an honor."

"Steel String Rag" was one out of approximately 600 entries, according to Schultz, and it rose to the top. However, this honor may not have even been available to Schultz had a friend not approached him about a decade ago.

"About 10 years ago, I decided that's it: I'm not going to write any more songs, there's no point because nobody wants to listen to them," Schultz said. "Then my friend Cathy Bolton called me up and said I want to record one of your songs, and just like that I was back into writing songs again.

"It doesn't take much to inspire me to write something."

Schultz grew up in Pontiac, Mich., but eventually made his way into the Elo area after visiting his grandparents numerous times.

"I came up here when I was 17 and knew I'd found home," Schultz said.

Schultz then spent time with numerous bands in the area, finding his niche in the Marquette area.

"I used to play in a rock 'n' roll band in Negaunee called Sideshow," Schultz said. "It was my favorite band to play in, all first-rate musicians.

"In fact, we went and made a .45 in it must've been '78, which we tried to get the radio to play," he continued. "It was good fun."

Yet at around the age of 30, Schultz decided it was time to hang up his touring shoes.

"You just can't work all day and play in a bar all night and have a house, it's just too much," Schultz said. "It's for young people to do that stuff."

Now Schultz focuses on music as more of a hobby, but is still able to record with the help of his favorite recording program, GarageBand. He doesn't just record for contests, either, as he recently recorded a song titled "Lesson of the Cross" about his brother's first day of school and his mom's consequent worry for his brother's 65th birthday party.

"He just had his 65th birthday this past week, and he liked it," Schultz said.

Whatever the motivation, Schultz continues to record and press on with his writing. In addition to the contest win, "Steel String Rag" also placed eighth in the Indie International Songwriting Contest and he is in the finals of the "Show Me the Music" contest.

The winning song, "Steel String Rag," can be heard at myspace.com/uksongwritingcontest.

Zach Kukkonen can be reached at zkukkonen@ mininggazette.com.