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Staff file photo by Skip Lawrence
Don Mulkerin, an investigator at the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office, is combining his love of writing and music in a book about his friend, Joe Grushecky. |
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Find Don Mulkerin in a courtroom and the former police officer is straight-faced, all business, as he waits for a verdict to be returned or a punishment to be imposed.Find him outside the courtroom and ask him about Pittsburgh rocker Joe Grushecky, and his face breaks into a broad smile. A former police officer for the Frederick County Sheriff's Office and the Frederick Police Department, Mulkerin gave up his badge in 1992 when he took a job as an investigator with the state's attorney's office. No longer carrying a weapon and making arrests, Mulkerin still deals with crime and violence. To escape the stress of his work, Mulkerin turns to two passions of his -- writing and music, particularly that of Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers. "I go to crime scenes and murders," said Mulkerin, 46, of Middletown. "I see the worst of the worst." Music "is a good release," said the unofficial historian of Grushecky's Houserockers, a Pittsburgh-based band with close ties to the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen has produced and played backup on some of Grushecky's songs, and Grushecky has co-written songs with Springsteen. Mulkerin "had some beers" with Springsteen during one of the Houserockers' performances. Mulkerin's past writings about Grushecky have not gone unnoticed. Some of his writings and videos he's filmed of the band were used in "A Good Life: The Joe Grushecky Story," a documentary released nationwide last week. His latest compact disc is due to be released Saturday. "I'll be there," Mulkerin said of the CD launch party set for Pittsburgh. Mulkerin still has work to do to spread the word about Grushecky, 59, his friend since the 1980s. He's writing a book about his friend, who pursues his music while earning a living as a special education teacher. "Joe never made it big," Mulkerin said, adding that he hopes the documentary could change that. The Houserockers have opened for Bob Dylan and the J. Geils Band, among others. Mulkerin knows he and Grushecky will be friends for life. Getting to meet Springsteen was a plus. "I'll be talking to Joe for the book, and he's getting a text (message) from Bruce Springsteen," Mulkerin said. "It's kind of cool," he said. "It's definitely a far cry from investigating homicides and all that stuff."
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