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The Arts: Peters musician plans 'spontaneous' performance at Kofenya
Sunday, February 03, 2002 By Dave Zuchowski
Tom Breiding, 38, says music has been his passion since boyhood. To prove his point, all he has to do is show the sitting room of his comfy Peters home. There, an electric keyboard nudges against the front window and an assortment of six acoustic and electric guitars hang from a rack on the opposite wall.
"My really good ones are still in their cases," he says of the six or seven additional guitars that make up his collection.
While the main reason for our interview was to discuss his upcoming performance at Kofenya's Cafe in McMurray, a quick run down of his background is crucial to understanding his music.
"I write a lot of story songs, songs about steel towns, fathers and sons, and the working man," said the self-taught musician and composer. "When I write, I like to create characters and situations people will be interested in. It's the lyrics, the story line behind everything, that entertains my audience."
A native of Wheeling, W.Va., Breiding has had a way with words since childhood. It's a trait that made him an English major at West Liberty State College and, following graduation, an English teacher for the past 14 years. He has been the English and reading instructor at St. Thomas More School in Bethel Park since 1999.
While teaching suits him to a T, it's evident by talking to him that it's music and composing that really turn him on. Over the past 18 years, he's written a couple hundred songs, some of which were collaborations with composer giants like Steve Dean, who wrote Reba McEntire's "Walk On" and Alabama's "Southern Star."
In 1991, Breiding landed a position as staff writer with the Tom Collins Music Corp. in Nashville, Tenn., where he worked for a year. At that time, Collins was the largest independent publisher on Nashville's Music Row and was responsible for helping launch the careers of singers such as Barbara Mandrell and Ronnie Milsap.
While country has influenced the music he writes, much of Breiding's output is a mix of genres that includes elements of blues, folk and rock. A lover of all types of music, Breiding started listening to pop songs in the early '70s. Today, you're as likely to hear classical music playing in his home as the new U2 album or Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits.
Similar to his upcoming appearance at Kofenya, about 90 percent of Breiding's live performances are solo gigs, sung and played on acoustical guitar. For the remaining appearances, he teams up on electric guitar with bass guitarist Nathan Peck, guitarist Kirk Engel and drummer Alex Peck. In either case, the focus of the music is on his original compositions.
Voted Pittsburgh's "Best Acoustical Performer" in 2000 by City Search, a Web service at http://pittsburgh.citysearch.com, Breiding says he can play his songs almost anywhere -- in front of a country audience at the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling (where he's performed three times), for a rock audience at Nick's Fat City on Pittsburgh's South Side (where he's opened for Joe Grushecky), or at Moondog's in Blawnox, which caters to a blues and rock crowd.
"In smaller intimate settings like Kofenya, I can be spontaneous," he said. "I walk in, start playing and see where everything goes. In larger venues, I can't afford that luxury and play according to a predetermined format."
While Breiding tries to write his music within the parameters of the hit radio repertoire -- three-minute pop songs with a moving story line -- he once worked on a song that took him a year to finish.
"Longest, Darkest Day" is drawn from the 1972 Buffalo Creek mine disaster in which 125 people died and thousands were left homeless when three slate dams broke after a heavy rainfall, and swept through eight West Virginia towns.
"I became enthralled with the story of these people and did extensive research, including reading accounts of eye witnesses and survivors," he said. "In writing the song, I tried to make it as historically accurate as possible as well as dramatic enough to capture in words and melody the suffering these people went through."
"Longest, Darkest Day" will be the focal point of his next CD, (his sixth) tentatively titled "Dark River." Breiding also intends to perform the song at his upcoming appearance at Kofenya.
To date, "Steel Town Blues" is his most requested song, his personal favorite, one of the first ones he wrote and the one that got him the job with Collins. The story line deals with growing up in a small steel town, moving away, then looking back and realizing how much your roots and beginnings are part of you.
Breiding says he's worked so hard in his relatively long career and that he's come so close to becoming successful that it's made him realize the fine line between making it and not making it in the music business. A lot of it has to do with commitment and perseverance.
"Even if I don't make it big, I'll still be content knowing I've created a musical legacy on the plight of poor people," he said. "It's a legacy I'll be proud to pass along to my 6-year-old son, Jack."
Breiding can be heard live at Kofenya's, 210 Valley Brook Road in McMurray, from 9 p.m. to midnight Friday. He'll also perform during the Sweet Sunday fund-raiser for the Washington City Mission from 2 to 7 p.m. next Sunday in the Holiday Inn-Meadowlands. Visit Breiding's Web site at http://www.tombreiding.com.
Dave Zuchowski is a free-lance writer who covers arts and entertainment for Washington Sunday. He can be reached by e-mail at: owlscribe@yahoo.com
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