Penn Hills musician adds album to list of career successes
Bryan Cole has come a long way since his father volunteered him to sing “Johnny B. Goode” during intermission at a Linton Middle School summer concert nearly 40 years ago.
Cole, 46, of Penn Hills, is a rock musician who since has performed as the opening act for artists like Quiet Riot, Ted Nugent and Eddie Money, and recently released his second album — “Sands of Time” — after signing with Melodic Rock Records in August.
That first performance as a 7-year-old in front of his schoolmates got it all started.
“They loved it,” Cole said, adding that he also performed “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” and “Kansas City” that day. “Right then and there, I knew music was what I wanted to do for a living.”
Cole traveled a long road to where he is now. First, he sang in the 1980s along with blaring stereo music from cars in a parking lot on Frankstown Road where he and his friends would gather. Next was a series of bands he formed to play gigs at local bars.
He fine-tuned his skills in those shows, even though band after band fell apart.
As he got better, offers to play larger venues came in and he found himself mixing with big names in the business — musicians like Nugent, Money and even country legend George Strait.
“From them, I learned how band business is put together,” Cole said. “I was fortunate. I was noticed not from trying to kick doors down, but from being myself.”
He put out a country album in 2010 called “Wide Open Road” that he said had some well-received songs but failed to get him a record deal. So he went back to the music that got him started.
“I was missing rock. I missed what I loved singing the most,” he said.
There were setbacks as Cole worked to get his rock career on track. He said he turned to alcohol after his grandfather, with whom he was close, died in 2014 but after about a year — a time he described as having “crawled into my own little hole” — a conversation with musician Jim Peterik helped turn his life around.
Peterik, founder of the band Survivor and co-writer of the hit song “Eye of the Tiger,” encouraged him to get back to writing music.
“He told me, ‘You have a voice that needs to be heard,'” Cole said.
Songwriter Marc Scherer said he urged Cole to seek out a record deal after seeing him work with Peterik, who produced four of the songs on the new album.
“I was very impressed with what Bryan had accomplished as a solo artist. He has great originals, great vocals and is a very talented guitarist,” Scherer said.
With renewed enthusiasm, Cole signed with Melodic Rock and released “Sands of Time” in November.
“He's a unique blend. A very strong tenor with huge range, and his guitar becomes another voice to go with his great songs,” Scherer said. “He's the total package.”
Samson X Horne is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-871-2325 or shorne@tribweb.com.
