Anchorage Daily News

Folks around town pretty much pigeonhole Tom Begich as the mayor's older brother. But the rest of the world -- from Sitka to Montana, Vermont and beyond -- knows him as a talented singer- songwriter.

"People come up to me at shows and say, 'We knew you played music, we just never figured you played it that well,'?" Begich said last week between packing for a midnight flight to Washington, D.C., and fielding questions about his CD-release celebration on Saturday at his favorite watering hole, Side Street Espresso.

Living under the shadow of the family legacy has proved to be good and bad, but the hard part is carving out a separate identity, Begich said.

"That gets easier to do the further away from Anchorage I get."

Until recently, achieving that end required meshing two disparate lives -- professional and musical.

Begich works in the bureaucratic world of development, be it juvenile crime issues in communities across the country or helping people in Bush villages learn to sustain themselves. He also attends conferences and chalks up thousands of frequent-flier miles. That's where the music comes in.

Every hotel has a lobby, so Begich sets up with his guitar, plays some tunes and maybe sells a couple CDs. He also arranges gigs in advance.

That way, he uses his business acumen to offset travel costs while developing audiences on the side.

"Unlike most Anchorage musicians, I can perform in places Outside and then come back within a short period of time."

This hectic schedule has taken its toll. And more and more, the music loomed as a full-time gig. In a now-or-never, I'm-not-getting-any-younger frame of mind, Begich will quit his job next month -- the one with great health benefits -- to devote a year or so to music. He has bought a vehicle to carry his equipment and plans to tour Northern California and Nevada in February and March and Vermont and western Massachusetts in April.

And no second guessing.

Yeah, right.

"Sure, there's a little bit of uncertainty," Begich said, his usual smooth demeanor ruffling. "For now, if I can get 10 or 15 people into a room, then I'm happy."

So far, those small, intimate crowds are paying off.

Radio stations in Montana and New England are already spinning tunes from his fourth CD, "Cool Blue Light." And the orders are coming in, although the album hasn't been released. He'll also send copies to more than 200 stations across the country.

"I've got a list and a lot of product. I've been thinking about this chance for three years."

In keeping with the risk-taking motif, "Cool Blue Light" stands as the disc Begich always hoped to record. That means more acoustics and no compromises, and, of course, the writing's the best of his career, he said.

And his live shows ain't too shabby, either.

At a gig last year in Sitka, Begich composed a song on the spot that included such words volunteered from the audience as "succulent," "spank," "genitals" and the name of a local politician.

"He put together a funny little ditty that got the audience laughing their heads off," a reviewer said on www.LitRave.com. "On top of everything, it sounded good too."

As far as his guitar picking, Begich and his teacher at Steller Secondary School realized that expertise after three lessons. From then on, he taught other students and wrote songs. The passion petered out, though, around age 21 and stayed dormant until his mid-30s, oddly enough about the time of his divorce. Since then, Begich has honed his craft whenever and wherever possible.

The fruits of the past decade's work will be displayed at the CD-release celebration at Side Street with several local musicians helping out.

"I can't charge anything for this show," he said. "I just want to gather friends around, play a couple sets and mingle. And if anyone wants to buy a CD, well then, that's OK."

Free-lancer J. Mark Dudick is a former editor of 8 magazine.

TOM BEGICH celebrates the release of his fourth CD, "Cool Blue Light," at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at Side Street Espresso, 412 G St. Admission is free. Call 258-9055.

FOR MORE on Begich, visit www.tombegich.com.