Peter Himmelman’s music goes right to the soul. His new book, “Suspended by No String: A Songwriter’s Reflections on Faith, Aliveness, and Wonder” (Regalo Press), which is a collection of touching, relatable and inspiring essays, does just the same.
Himmelman, an Emmy-nominated musician who has performed with legends including Gregg Allman, Joe Cocker and Elvis Costello, has written a series of meditative personal essays and poems that make the reader reflect on the big questions: What is the meaning of life? What matters the most in this world? And how do faith and spirituality play into it all?
“This collection of stories and reflections is a lot like the many records I’ve released over the course of 35 years,” he writes. “I didn’t write my songs to achieve any specific outcome, but as I look back at the bulk of them, it occurs to me that I might have unwittingly conjured them up as prayers — prayers of love, prayers of remembrance, prayers to ward off loneliness, prayers to awaken hope, and prayers to ease the pain of knowing that some answers will never be found.”
“I might have unwittingly conjured them up as prayers — prayers of love, prayers of remembrance, prayers to ward off loneliness, prayers to awaken hope, and prayers to ease the pain of knowing that some answers will never be found.”
“Suspended by No String” is broken up into three parts: “Astonishments,” a catalogue of experiences that Himmelman says have “moved me to such a degree that they have reframed my conception of the world”; “Shadows,” which “examines the pain that hides in a sealed vault inside my storehouse of memories”; and “Teachers,” where he highlights the people who have taught him the most profound life lessons over the years.
In one essay, “Last Thoughts,” Himmelman writes, “At the end of the road, you won’t be thinking of,” and then lists things like awards, stocks, bonds, taxes, social media, politics, applause, winning and losing. He concludes, “You will think about the people you have loved and the ways their love made you feel.”
Photo by Stephen Serio
“Saga of the Miraculous Talking Bear” is about how Himmelman’s friend encouraged him to go and see some psychics, which he didn’t believe in. But then, they saw right through him and knew why he was in distress. “The reason we’ve been so concerned about you is that we believe music is more important to you than you may be aware,” the psychics told him. “It forms your very essence, and by working as single-mindedly as you have to get a record deal, and by making the kind of pop music you’ve been making with your band, you’ve been cheapening and compromising your integrity. You’ve been, in a sense, unfaithful to your muse.”
After this fateful meeting, Himmelman decided that he should release a song he wrote about his late father and make an entire album dedicated to him. “The recording featured the song I’d written for my dad, and it eventually became my debut album, ‘This Father’s Day,’ for Island Records,” he writes. “Its release was a powerful catalyst for me. It took me from the place where I had been, locked up in pain and confusion, to some other, hopeful place.”
In an interview with The Journal, Himmelman said, “This book was not a need, but a desire. I feel much better about myself and the world at large when I’m involved in a creative endeavor.”
The Shabbat-observant musician lives in Los Angeles and tours extensively. He is a proud baal teshuva, a Jew who returned to his faith as an adult.
“I was 26, my dad just died, and I understood there was a creative force in the world,” he said. “A record producer friend of mine took me to a religious Jew in Brooklyn, and he talked to me about seeing the mundane world as utterly miraculous. It felt like I wasn’t hearing something new. I was hearing something that was latent inside of me.”
Both “Suspended by No String” and Himmelman’s music are very innately Jewish, and he’s been writing nonstop on his Substack about Israel and Judaism since Oct. 7. He had planned to go to Israel and play music in hospitals and on army bases this year, but his flight was canceled. He wants to go back to the country he loves this fall and isn’t worried about the danger it poses; he already experienced that during the Second Intifada.
“When my kids were in diapers, my wife and I took them to Israel in the early 2000s, during the Sbarro pizza bombing,” Himmelman said. “It seemed like we were the only Americans in Jerusalem at the time. I always looked back and wondered, ‘What were we doing?’ After Oct. 7, I realized exactly what we were doing: We were showing solidarity. I needed to be there with my people, with my family.”
In addition to performing and writing, Himmelman composed songs for TV shows like “Judging Amy” and “Bones,” earning Emmy nominations for his work. He is also the founder of Big Muse, which collaborates with companies such as Gap Inc., Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s to help leaders and employees unleash their inner creativity. One of his goals in writing “Suspended by No String” is to inspire readers to be creative as well.
Part of his own creative process was writing his latest work for a small audience – and now, he hopes that his message resonates with everyone. “I wrote this book just as I write my songs: For myself, or for one or two other people,” he said. “They are personal to me, and I believe in the Talmudic dictum, ‘Words that come from the heart, enter the heart.’ The likelihood of this being universal is very high.”
Peter Himmelman will be in conversation with David Sacks about his new book at the Happy Minyan on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. Space is limited; register at happyminyan.org/event/peter-himmelman.
