Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Pearson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in St. Cloud with parents who were both music teachers. Their love of music was quickly and willingly absorbed by myself in my early years. I went to SCSU, where I got my music teaching degree. For 37 years, I taught Band & Music in the New London-Spicer school system along with my wife who taught Elementary Music. We’d heard it was frowned on to hire new teachers who were interested in each other so we pretended we were just acquaintances. While teaching full-time, I was actively performing in a number of music groups in the area. Polka bands, community bands and orchestras, community musicals, wedding bands, funeral and wedding soloist, rock bands, jazz bands and a lot of providing music at numerous churches. At a certain point I began to write music for whatever music group was in front of me. It started with my HS jazz band, early childhood music, vacation bible school programs, jingles, and bible camp musicals and moved into more artist-styled songs and Beer Choir. It’s been seven years now that I’ve been retired but music is still life! I’m more active musically now than ever with many of the same groups, some I even get paid for. Music has molded every aspect of my life & I’m so grateful for every musical experience I’ve had the pleasure to be involved in. I’m also into classic cars.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
With every bump in the road, there is a story and an opportunity to get to know someone better. Teaching, although very rewarding at times, can be a road filled with potholes. Throughout my teaching career, I made it a point to get to know every one of my students and help build them first as a person using music as my tool. Not a day would go by that there wasn’t a struggle or an obstacle to overcome, but through patience, grace, love and communication, many miracles occurred with those students. Every day I’d make phone calls or send emails of praise, letting parents know the wonderful things that had happened in my classroom that day. That little bit of effort every day smoothed out the road for years to come. One of the other struggles was dealing with death. Dealing with student suicides or accidental deaths, along with my brother’s suicide, provided a challenging road course but one of healing and education. Being able to acknowledge death by comforting those that were grieving was a major life change for me. Knowing when & how to love people in many different situations is important to me. Many of my original song ideas have come out of those very bumps in the road.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a songwriter-musician. I write, arrange, record, produce and play & sing most of the parts you’ll hear on my recordings. Sometimes I hire musicians and sometimes I talk friends into adding their voices or instruments in trade for a beer. You can hear my music on almost any music streaming platform by searching “Brian Dale Pearson.” Right now, I have about forty songs streaming. My top five songs now are 1) There’s Nothing Wrong With You 2) Mistletoe for Christmas 3) Want to Ride the Bus? 4) Laugh it Off! 5) Take Care & Carry On. Probably what sets me apart from other songwriters is that usually I play and sing all the parts myself. When people ask me how many instruments I play, I tell them, “only one at a time.” I profess to be average on almost every instrument. I strive to be proud of every music experience I’m a part of by myself or with others.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
A childhood memory that helped shape my future as a trumpet player was going to the dances in the summer at Wilson Park, where the “Nocturnes” big band played once a month. I got to stand behind the trumpet section since my father played in the band. I knew someday I wanted to be in groups like that. I did get to play numerous times in that band with my role models.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: Brian Pearson
- Youtube: search “Brian Dale Pearson” for music
