About | Back Creek | New Jersey USA

Meet Back Creek

"If you pour some music on whatever's wrong, it'll sure help out."

Back Creek was born in 1989, when Tom and Dave met and started jamming in a dorm room at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. One night they played an open mic night at a bar called Rosie O’Grady’s. When they finished their set, the owner came up and sang a few songs with them. After the last note, he turned and asked them if they wanted to play there weekly.

They jumped at the opportunity and cut their teeth there for the next year, playing every Wednesday night. After that, the band played every nook and cranny in West Chester., PA and they have been writing and performing music ever since.

Upon moving home base to Woolwich Township, NJ in 1999, the band found a home at The Old Swedes Inn and began a residency that lasted ten years and six CD releases. The band has just finished work on their seventh studio production entitled “Take It Back.”

Tom Chirip

My older brother had a band called The Golden Era that rehearsed before shows in our basement.

One day in 4th grade I got called to the principal's office. I thought I was in trouble, but as I sat down he said ”I hear your brother has a band. Would you ask him if they want to play our dance?” So at age 9 I had booked and promoted my first show and helped them load in and got to go back stage. The power of rock 'n roll was right there and I was hooked. It also introduced me to hearing protection.

I bought my first drum-set at 14 and taught myself to play. After meeting Dave “The Hossman” Walsh in college, I switched to guitar and found I liked writing songs much better than playing covers.

Dave Walsh

Dave, known to those who've known him longest as Hoss, is by far the tallest member of the band!

He takes the occasional guitar solo and sings quite a bit as well. He and Tom have been singing and playing together since the late 1980s, back in the days when vou could still hear guitars on the radio.

Ian Peek

lan is a bassist. He is also a builder of Legos, baker of bread, and in his spare time, dabbles in engineering. He also enjoys eating food!

Mark Alexander

Mark came from a family that ate a lot of ice cream and listened to a lot of music on the radio. At about the age of 10 he began bringing the empty ice cream containers into his basement to play along to the drum solo in the song “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly.

Now, the containers have been traded in for real drums but he still listens to a lot of music on the radio, plays his drums in his basement and eats a lot of ice cream!