It’s plain to see (and hear): The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in the Divinsky family.

Lyle Divinsky loves the old soul and R&B singers: Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder, to name a few.

But the lead singer of the Colorado-based funk band The Motet says his favorite vocalist ever is his father, Phil Divinsky.

“I copy him as much as I can, he’s my absolute favorite singer,” said Lyle, 32, from his home in Denver. “Anytime somebody says, ‘You sound like your dad,’ I take that as a great compliment.”

His dad teaches at Portland Arts and Technology High School but has been singing professionally his whole life and started taking young Lyle with him to gigs when he was in grade school. Today, when Lyle and his band are working on new songs, he sends clips to his father for input.

Lyle makes it clear his father has helped inspire his own path in music. They’ve performed together many times over the years, and they continue to showcase their musical bond and how much of a blast they have performing together. When Lyle comes home for Christmas this week, he and his father, who both sing and play guitar, will perform twice at Portland clubs – Blue on Thursday and Portland House of Music Saturday.

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But their shared passion for music, not to mention shared singing genes, might have been a bit of a stumbling block for Lyle. Even though he loved to sing, he didn’t perform solo in public until he was about 17.

“Singing was my dad’s thing, and he was so good at it. If I wasn’t good, I didn’t want to be stepping on his toes,” he said.

Lyle’s hesitation to sing was also partly because he was focused on basketball as a youngster and had dreams of playing in college or beyond. His parents never heard him sing solo until one day, when he was on the high school basketball team, he announced that he would sing the national anthem before a game.

“We were stunned. We had never heard him sing by himself, so we asked him if he’d be OK singing it for us,” said Phil, 63. “By the end, we were just weeping, asking, ‘Where did this come from?’ ”

Anyone who has heard Phil sing could tell you where Lyle’s talent probably came from. And Lyle’s hesitance to sing in public could have come from his dad, too.

Phil grew up in Queens, New York, where his father was a flute teacher. He sang from a young age but didn’t start singing lead with bands until he was about 21.

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“I did music with friends and wanted to keep it special,” Phil said. “I was nervous about trying to make it my vocation.”

But he did, eventually. Phil first moved to Boston, where he had friends, then in 1977, to midcoast Maine, where he found lots of musicians to play with around Camden and Belfast. At first, he sang folk-singer/songwriter material, songs by James Taylor and Cat Stevens, then R&B, soul and originals. He worked as a carpenter when not playing music, got married and started a family.

In the late ’80s, Phil became the singer of the Port City All Stars and moved that family – including his wife, Carol; daughter, Chandra; and Lyle – to Portland, where he also got a new day job. He started teaching food service to students with special needs at the Portland Arts and Technology High School, where he has worked for 26 years.

Through the years, Phil has sung with the ToneKings and The Jim Ciampi Band, known for events and gigs at local clubs like The Big Easy. In recent years, he’s sung with Lyle and various groups, and he sings solo once a month at the Snow Squall restaurant in South Portland.

Phil says that once Lyle started singing in public and joining bands, the two began teaching each other about music. They’d settle in one room of the house, each with a computer, and play each other their favorite artists.

“He turned me on to the neo-soul singers like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, and I turned him on to Marvin Gaye and people like that,” said Phil.

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Lyle joined his first band, Model Airplane, when he was about 17, and he’s still performing in it when he’s home in Maine. His two longtime friends, Pete Genova and Dan Boyden, were playing music together, and they asked Lyle to join them. He said he didn’t play an instrument, but they said he could be the singer. They had heard him sing around them for years and knew he had the pipes. He was nicknamed Malylah Carey because he could hit the high notes of any Mariah Carey song.

Genova said he knew Lyle’s dad was musical. He remembers going to outdoor events, including ones at Portland’s Payson Park, where Phil would be performing.

Over the years, Genova has had a chance to listen to, and compare, the vocal styles of father and son.

“There’s no question Lyle takes a lot of inspiration from his dad’s style,” said Genova. “Some of it’s biological, I imagine, and I’m sure Phil has taught him a trick or two.”

Lyle graduated from Portland High School in 2004. He went to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and majored in music. By 2009, he moved to New York City to pursue music and made a living playing and singing in the subways.

He made connections with other Maine musicians who were playing music there and around the country, including Ryan Zoidis of the funk band Lettuce.

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When another funk band, The Motet, was looking for a new lead singer, members of Lettuce recommended Lyle for the job. And he got it. He’s been with the band now for two years, touring around the country and overseas.

When Lyle and The Motet played the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado before a crowd of 10,000, his parents were there to cheer him on.

Lyle says his parents have been supportive of him pursuing music as his career.

“Both my parents are teachers, and I think they understand the necessity of learning through experience,” he said.

Lyle now lives in Denver and travels with The Motet frequently. The band’s tour schedule next year includes dates in New Orleans, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C., California, Wyoming and Arizona, among others.

Lyle says he’s looking forward to singing with his dad this week, because some of the songs they do together have very special, personal memories.

“I love to do ‘Feels Like Rain’ by John Hiatt with him, because he would always sing that to my mom, and my mom loves it,” Lyle said. “To have two parents who love each other and to share harmonies with him on that song is just the greatest.”

 


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