Making music brings harmony to attorney

David Tolk believes that music should take you to a better place. After a stressful day at the office, he turns to music to help him find peace and relaxation, and he hopes his music will do that for others.

Tolk is a litigation attorney, so he knows about the stress. But he is also a pianist; in that, he finds peace. And, with four CDs to his credit, he's bringing it to others as well.

He recently signed a five-record contract with North Star Records, a company based in Rhode Island (but with nationwide distribution), which specializes in instrumental music. His first CD under the new contract, "Memory Road," was released earlier this year, "and it's going really well. It's now listed as a best-seller on North Star's Web site."

The CD features an eclectic mix of songs, ranging from Dan Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band" to Sting's "Fields of Gold" to Paul Simon's "Scarborough Fair," with a couple of his original compositions thrown in. "North Star encourages its artists to take their styles and use them with something familiar," Tolk said. "I'm used to doing my own compositions.

But I got to choose the songs, so I picked ones that link to certain events in my life. It's kind of intimidating to take songs that everyone knows and loves and try to add something that's all your own. But I'm pleased with the results."

The CD was recorded locally and then sent to the company. "We both had to exercise a bit of trust. And we did a lot of FedExing. But it worked well."

"Memory Road" is the first CD of his new contract, but it's actually the second that North Star has distributed. "I was working with a guy who used to work with them. He heard my Christmas CD, and he encouraged me to send it to them. I was surprised when they called to say they were interested, because they get tons of submissions." And he knew they already had a couple of pianists (Robin Spielberg and David Osborne) on their label who had each sold more than a million CDs.

"But they picked it up under a licensing agreement. And then they wanted to talk about doing some new things."

It's a nice feeling, Tolk said, to be on a label with other artists doing quality work, and it's also nice not to have to worry about things like marketing and distribution. (His CDs are available locally at Deseret Book, Media Play and at www.davidtolk.com.)

"My first three CDs were done independently, with limited resources. It was exciting to have a recording budget and to think about what needs to be done instead of just what can be done."