Swett wrote the tribute in celebration of the Pine Tree State’s Bicentennial in 2020.
The 64-year-old grew up in North Norway and said that although he traveled around the country a lot as a young adult, he always came back to Maine.
“Growing up in rural Maine, I couldn’t wait to get out of here,” he said. “I put about 20,000 miles on my thumb” hitchhiking or driving “whatever car I could afford at the time,” in the late-70s.
“I always loved that small town feeling, and so Maine, the older I got, the more it meant to me. Each time I came back, (there was) more a part of my roots that I could feel.”