Convention has it that it takes a rebellious streak to start a band and put up with the long hours in the studio and the late nights on the road. But Peter Spink took on the rigors of a musician's life only after meeting the right woman, getting married, starting a family and taking on a mortgage.

Mr. Spink's journey into the music business after nearly a decade as a journalist is the story of a man, as he said, ''Throwing himself to the wolves.'' But he has willingly taken the plunge despite the uncertainties.

''Next to religion, people look to music for a critical experience of themselves,'' he said. ''It's something they trust.''

Mr. Spink, who lives here with his wife, Lorraine, a psychiatrist, and their two children, 4-year-old Zachary and 1-year-old Nicholas, will not disclose his age. ''I'm only willing to concede I'm over 30,'' he said. ''The record companies will not think of sinking $10 million in you if they don't feel 14-year-old kids will buy your album. You're just sort of blackballed in this industry once you turn 30.''

Mr. Spink's songs of heartbreak and learning to follow one's heart speak of someone who has lived a little.

''You know, 'I love you, baby,' has been said,'' Mr. Spink said recently after a performance with the Peter Spink Band at the Gaslight Grill in Manhattan. ''I try to write about what's real for someone who's had some life experience.''

The band, which consists of Malcolm Gold of North Salem on bass, Chris Tedesco of Brooklyn on electric violin and Dean Sharp of Woodstock on percussion, is making a living touring clubs, colleges and ski resorts throughout the East, Midwest and Southwest. Its third album, ''Road Show,'' a compilation of driving melodies all written and sung by Mr. Spink, shares musical ties with Counting Crows and The Dave Matthews Band.

And yes, Mr. Spink said: ''Seventeen-year-old girls e-mail me to see if it's O.K. to use my lyrics as quotes in their yearbooks. The fact that they're buying my records shows I'm viable.''

But for years, Mr. Spink lived the 9-to-5 existence working as a reporter for newspapers first in New Jersey, then New Hampshire and, finally, Connecticut. The Closter, N.J., native wrote his first song when he was 7 and began performing at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village at 17. But his father, an advertising executive, discouraged him from pursuing music as a career.

''He believed it would lead to ruin,'' Mr. Spink said, ''and he and my mother were getting divorced and wanted to get my sister and me up on our feet. They really didn't want to deal with us anymore because they so detested each other.''

As an English major at Vassar College, Mr. Spink pursued a career as a reporter because ''writing papers in school felt a little like writing music.''

''I felt, 'If this is as close as I can get, then let's do this.' ''

Mr. Spink continued writing songs, performing on his own and taking voice lessons. He liked his job -- ''My press pass was the ticket to meeting and asking questions of people that I really wanted to pay attention to me and talk to'' -- but what he was looking for was the courage to follow his heart and pursue his music.

''I woke up one morning and I was hating myself,'' Mr. Spink said. ''I felt cheated.''

Then he came back in touch with Lorraine Innes, the daughter of a family that had been friendly with his while they were growing up. ''She was very supportive of my music,'' Mr. Spink said. ''Lorraine said: 'If this is really what you want to do, then let's get on it. You've been waiting a long time. You don't have to hold down a lie for me.' I felt inspired because she was very much a woman who followed her dream.''

Lorraine Spink said: ''It's important to do what you love. When Peter was struggling with this, I said: 'Do it! Do it! This is an opportunity.' As a doctor, I was able to sustain a certain amount of income and it wasn't like I was sacrificing for his dream because I love what I do.''

Women in troubled relationships are the subjects of many of Mr. Spink's songs. ''They're sort of in a place where they feel they can't be understood and they can't get out and be free,'' Mr. Spink said. ''I really learned about that place from my mother through her divorce. My mother was clearly not an independent woman. It infuriated her and floored her and it terrified her. What to do next.''

Where his new career will lead him is not as important to Mr. Spink, he said, as his family. ''I love and really enjoy my family,'' he said. ''It's very satisfying on a soul level to have that kind of experience. It doesn't matter if all I ever do is play colleges and small clubs and have a fulfilling life doing that. You could be Bill Gates, but does he experience love every day? You've got to watch the baggage you acquire. Sometimes, it'll kill you.''

Singer/songwriter Peter Spink's latest CD, All There Is, makes a great first impression by starting out with an extremely ear-friendly tune called Goin' Down, featuring Spink's smooth, clear voice dancing melodically over sweet chord changes that stay in your head long after just one listen. Poignant keyboard strains and a killer violin solo round out this uptempo folk/rocker, with nice, well-thought harmonies on the chorus contributed by singer Leslie Ritter. Other standouts on this CD include the title track, All There Is, which showcases Spink's skills as an acoustic finger-picker, and again as a songwriter with strong melodic and lyrical content. Halfway is a pretty tune, featuring excellent mandolin work by Scott Petito as well as beautiful nylon-string lines by Spink. The easy-listening theme is broken up somewhat with the energetic The Way I Want, Say A Prayer and a belligerent honky-tonk tune called Heart of the Highway, and closes with In The Misty Morning, another of Peter Spink's evocative folk/soul works that tend to tug at your heartstrings; that is, assuming you have any. Well, I do, and this CD tugged mine into a knot! A stellar offering. -RC

bio | news | cd's | dates | notes | pics | order | press | home | contact