Noted bluegrass songwriter Mark “Brink” Brinkman is profiled in today’s edition of The Columbus Dispatch.
The focus of the piece is a new song of Brink’s, With Love from Normandy, which he had performed at a Memorial Day celebration this past weekend. The song is written from the perspective of a young boy who discovers a letter his grandfather had written to his grandmother the day before he died on the beaches of Normandy.
The article also touches on Brink’s decision to pursue his muse as a songwriter in mid-life.
“Seven years ago, I stepped down from the corporate life,” Brinkman said. “I’d been the state manager for American Family Insurance for 10 years. But the travel, the meetings; my kids were growing up without me, my music was suffering. . .” It was a sentence fragment that needed no end.
Brinkman, who still free-lances as a claims adjuster, has been playing with notes and rhymes for 40 years.
“I like performing,” he said, “but I don’t need to perform. On the other hand, I need to write.”
You can read the full piece online.
