WANT TO GO?

The Peter Mayer Group

WHERE: Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1600 Kanawha Blvd.E.

WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday March 24

TICKETS: Free admission (offerings)

INFO: www.petermayer.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Jimmy Buffett, the iconic, undisputed mayor of "Margaritaville," once said, "There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning." The line is open to some interpretation, but Buffett's guitar player, Pete Mayer, a singer/songwriter with a dozen albums of his own, knows where the line is and doesn't worry so much about crossing it.

Mayer crosses that line and many others as often as he can. He and his brother, Jim, tour with Buffett in the summers as part of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band. They also sometimes join up with guitarist Vince Varvel and Coral Reefer Band drummer Roger Guth to play out the rest of the year.

Sometimes, they tour as a rock show. Other times, they play faith music. Sometimes they're doing both.

Wednesday night, Mayer and his band will play music of faith at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Charleston. Mayer says it's possible to have your cake (or in his case, your cheeseburger) and eat it, too.

"I was born a minister's son in a Lutheran missionary family," he said. "I also like to rock n' roll, and I love the folk scene. I love turning to see the whole view. To me, spirituality is a natural part of all of that."

Mayer got started along these dual paths years ago. A little more than 20 years ago, he and his brother had their own band, called PM. They had a record contract, released a single, but then the record company reorganized and Mayer and his brother lost their record deal.

Eliot Scheiner, their record producer, was working on an album with Jimmy Buffett and told them that Buffett was looking for some people to play on the record. They worked on the record, and Buffett began introducing them as his new band. Informally, they were press-ganged into service.

Mayer got into spiritual music about 10 years ago, after he'd moved and changed churches. The pastor of the church called him out on his musical connections.

He said, "Hey, you're here and you can play music. You play with Buffett, why don't you play for us?"

It became a ministry. Mayer wrote songs and played for the church he attended in Nashville. It wasn't every weekend. Sometimes that thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning was a separation created by geographical distance. It was hard to get to church back home when he was on tour, but he played for the church whenever he could.

"After about a year," Mayer said, "I had enough songs for an album."

Before he knew it, other churches were asking him to come play. They wanted him to come play at the Lutheran Men's Convention.

Mayer says he never felt like his spiritual music was ever at odds with the good-time party music he played with Buffett or his own brand of rock and folk.

"It felt right and natural," he said. "At some point, you just do what you do and do it the way you do it, and whatever people comment is fine."

Playing religious music isn't at cross-purposes with playing as a member of the Coral Reefer Band.

"The people who play with Jimmy have a little bit of a rebel spirit," he said. "They're comfortable in those quickly changing waters."

Mayer said his message is rooted in the Christian faith, but it stresses inclusion, acceptance and hope. It reaches out and, while he plays religious-based music, he doesn't see himself as part of the religious-music establishment. Even though he lives in Nashville, one of the contemporary Christian music hubs, he says he hasn't reached out to that particular scene. He likes doing things his way and would rather define his faith on his own terms than as part of a company.

"This is how I express it," he said.

Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.