Peter Breinholt — Just plain folk

There is a saying in the music industry: You can get rich doing music, but it's very hard to make a living. And yet here is Peter Breinholt, a local pop-folk, singer-songwriter-guitarist, earning a paycheck with his music and making a living.

For 10 years he has played to packed houses in small venues around Utah — Sundance, Tuacahn, Thanksgiving Point, Kingsbury Hall, Sandy Amphitheater — and produced five CDs. He has cultivated a loyal following with his big-band folk music and become a fixture on the Utah music scene, so the question always arises:

Why not sign with a record label and go national, fans and reporters ask him?

Because he can have a normal life and make a living. Because he can be a good husband to Becca and a father to their two children. Because he can tend the kids in the morning and make trips to the grocery store. Because he can be at home most nights. Because he can teach early-morning seminary at Murray High School. Because he can live close to extended family. Because he's missing the gene that causes people to seek fame and fortune. Because his whole career is kind of a giant accident anyway.

"I was uncertain how much I wanted to throw myself into this business," he says. "More than anything, I want a pretty normal life. I grew up following bands, and I know enough that there's a lot of dysfunction." Breinholt is almost apologetic for the wonderfully bland normality of his life. "It's not that interesting, is it?" he says. "Here's this guy with an average life."

He has avoided a life on the road, which means his fans — mostly centered in Utah — get Breinholt almost all to themselves, except for a few occasional, brief forays into nearby states. He is making his entire living by playing music and touching his fans, and he never saw it coming.

Dear Peter, Your music . . . has lifted me when I was down and helped me realize I would make it over my problems. . . . Thank you for your wonderful ability to write songs that help me with my life. . . . I am very amazed at how your songs make me so happy. I wish I could repay you for how much you have helped me.

Breinholt, who served a mission in Chile for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a decade ago, has to pinch himself some days to see if he is really making his living this way. For years he expected it to end — he was just riding it out as long as he could before he got a real job — but at the age of 34 he's still riding it.