BOWLING GREEN — Tim Tegge has an ear for telling stories.

Sometimes the stories are his own. Other times he picks them up in passing conversations with strangers or in familiar chats with friends. In some cases he asks for them by phone or email, listening for the hook that will let him spin a universal story through a narrow character.

Then he shares them with the strum of an acoustic guitar.

“I’ve written songs for somebody’s mom’s 95th birthday, for somebody’s dad’s 80th birthday, for somebody’s grandparent who meant a lot to them, or somebody whose father passed away,” Mr. Tegge said. “It’s really, for me, a great honor to be able to listen to somebody, to hear their story, and then to give them a story that represents them.”

It’s an honor and a gift for Mr. Tegge, who is a regular at wineries and festivals in Bowling Green. It might even be a vocation, but Mr. Tegge, who is Catholic, doesn’t think that’s quite the right word. He feels called to write songs and, in some respects, is uniquely positioned to do it.

Mr. Tegge, 53, is legally blind. Stargardt disease, a form of juvenile macular degeneration, leaves his corrected vision somewhere around 20/600 — so impaired that he can’t see even the biggest letter on an optometrist’s chart.

In describing the way he listens to those around him, a characteristic that’s central to his work as a singer and songwriter, he casts his visual impairment in a positive light.

“If there’s a gift in being legally blind, it’s (that it’s) helped me listen and to hear things that maybe I wouldn’t hear if I was visually distracted,” he said, describing, for example, the sort of conversations he’s had on the Greyhound buses he takes because he can’t simply drive himself to a destination. “I think seeing it as a gift makes me realize I have to pass it on.”

Mr. Tegge has been strumming on an acoustic guitar, off and on, since he was a teenager. (His vision was somewhat better then than it is now, he said.) He’s stowed his instrument for years at a time, at first frustrated that he couldn’t manipulate the strings like James Taylor or John Denver and later hampered by the responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood.

It wasn’t until a close friend passed away about 15 years ago that he found himself again reaching for the guitar. Then, as he said, “the dam broke.”

Mr. Tegge has written about 120 songs since then, often picking away at the lyrics and melodies in his evenings in Bowling Green. He typically has several songs going at once; often he’ll jot down phrases or ideas he likes throughout the day on his iPhone, which he reads with the help of a magnifying glass.

Because he doesn’t drive, his gigs are often in or around Bowling Green. Sometimes he plays solo; sometimes he plays with Tim Tegge and the Black Swamp Boys.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Mr. Tegge draws on his own experiences in “I Don’t Need My Eyes to See,” a song he said is inspired by the Sight Center of Northwest Ohio, where he currently works as development coordinator. “Glory Be” is inspired by a mural at his parish, St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Bowling Green. He wrote “Honor and Remember” upon being invited to perform for a local chapter of the national organization of the same name and “Build it on Life” at the request of fund-raisers for Foundation for Life in 2013.

“What I like about Tim’s music is that it’s really accessible,” said Kerry Patrick Clark, a fellow musician who sometimes records with Mr. Tegge in Mr. Clark’s basement studio in Whitehouse. “It’s really well written and intelligent, but not condescending. … He does it in such a way that is sometimes quirky, sometimes intelligent, sometimes just fun and always good.”

Where Tegge really sees himself as a songwriter is his ability to reflect the experiences of others in music and lyrics.

Sometimes these are by request: When he puts up songs for auction at charitable fund-raisers — he agrees to write a song for the highest bidder — he hears these bidders’ describe relationships with parents, grandparents, and more.

Other times he’s inspired by a person or a conversation.

He recalled a one-time conversation with a fellow attendee at a conference, in which the two discussed similar experiences of the loss of someone close to them. Reflections on that conversation grew into a song, and, after pushing past his initial hesitancy to share it, he found a positive reaction in the acquaintance.

“I think there’s a real power in somebody — especially somebody who’s maybe gone through a hard time — knowing that someone is listening and totally understands,” Mr. Tegge said. “And there’s nothing like getting a song that says what you just experienced to say, ‘OK, somebody understood me. Somebody heard.’

“When we accompany someone through life … we don’t need to fix all their problems. In fact, we can’t fix all their problems most times. But to just be there and to experience it with them or to be present so they’re not alone. I think songwriting helps me do that in a real meaningful way.”

The Rev. Mark Davis, who is pastor at St. Aloysius, where Mr. Tegge is an active parishioner and where he has performed at Saturday evening functions, said he sees his Mr. Tegge’s music in a similar light.

“That’s one avenue that he shares the gift of himself,” Father Davis said.

Contact reporter Nicki Gorny at: 419-724-6133 or ngorny@theblade.com.

First Published July 30, 2017, 4:00 a.m.