With colored lights glaring, Larry Griffin uses his mellow but impassioned voice to drown out the zoom of NASCAR on the oversized TV screen.

Unlike most performers carving a path on the local scene, music is a career for Griffin instead of a hobby. With the help of York-based band Gryphon, lead singer and 12-string guitarist Griffin breathes new life into a batch of previously penned classic rock songs a few times per month.

But Griffin says, "Personally, I can't afford to play with the band full-time. Bands are making about the same as they made in the early '70s." Despite limited earnings with Gryphon, which formed as a classic rock band three years ago, Griffin says his solo acoustic route is much more profitable. In 1998, Griffin released Acoustic Dreams, his first solo endeavor.

If he had his choice, however, Griffin contends he would play more frequently with Gryphon. "It's much more fun playing with the band," Griffin says. "We get to rock out and have a good time." Griffin says working with the band allows him to perform some heavier 1970s music like Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors, and Pink Floyd.

While singing in his acoustic shows, Griffin says his set list shifts slightly to more subdued covers by musicians such as Neil Young and James Taylor. He says the overall performance is more laid-back. "Acoustically, my heart really likes the mellow stuff," Griffin says. "That kind of music comes from the heart. When I play, it comes from my heart as well because I feel it."

Bassist Rod Goelz, who joined the band in May, says music is also his "9 to 5" job. He quips that he plays in about 50 different bands in addition to teaching guitar and bass to earn a living.

Goelz says he began playing guitar in fourth grade. As a high school student, Goelz played in a handful of garage bands. And as a teacher for a dozen years, he says his focus has since shifted more in that direction. "That's my way of keeping it a profession," Goelz says of instruction. "The teaching thing has helped me to do it [full-time]." The band chemistry is apparent throughout the show as Griffin leaves his microphone stand behind during non-vocal interludes and pays each band member a brief, but personal musical visit.

Although Griffin has several decades worth of musical experience under his belt, he displays a modest and humble approach to performing. As Griffin sings, he steps back slightly from the microphone, which rests atop a stand adorned with an American flag. His long, brown hair is tied back and a pair of round, wire-rimmed glasses reveal Griffin's closed eyes as he croons about the days of old depicted in the sounds of Tom Petty and band originals. "I'm a performer," Griffin says. "I consider myself a performer before a musician because I love to play ... and always have."

The chaotic-sounding guitar mastery perfected by lead guitarist Bill Harden effectively balances out Griffin's soft harmonies. Harden says his love for guitar-playing was born 10 years ago. "I've been a guitar addict since I was 15 years old," Harden says. "I like playing all kinds of music - classical, country, Ozzy, whatever." He adds that he is trying his hand at various types of instruments as well and occasionally splices in harmonica and mandolin melodies during performances.

Griffin's son, Josh, who sings back-up and plays keyboard for Gryphon, seems to be following in his father's well-treaded footsteps. Josh says he joined the band about one year ago and jokes that he's stuck now, since Griffin is his father.

According to Josh, stints in the high school marching band were the extent of his musical training. "I've always loved music," he says. "I finally decided that I wanted to be a part of it, so he taught me how to sing."

Drummer extraordinaire Charlie Baker, who has played drums for over three decades, has been a part of the band since its start. Griffin says the band is looking to record tracks for its first release, Electric Nightmares, in the coming months, with a release date tentatively set for early 2003. (For updates and other information, check the Web site at www.members.tripod.com/Sagebrushent.)

He says the release will be a marked difference from his solo album, which was comprised of generational songs Griffin wrote since the mid-1970s. "This is going to be more of an electric thing," Griffin says. "(It will have) a little more rockin' stuff."

While Griffin contends he does most of the songwriting, he says bandmates write their individual parts. "Everybody pretty much adds their own personality into the song," Griffin says. "We let the song become what it's going to become."

Griffin describes the band formation in spring 1999 and the beginnings of his solo act in 1998 as sort of a rebirth after a 20-year professional music hiatus. "A friend of mine gave me a swift kick in the ass that I really needed and said, 'You need to be playing again,'" Griffin says of his return. "I never really thought about performing again after all those years ... I didn't even know there was a market."

During his high school days in the 1960s, Griffin says he began performing in skating rinks and later played with a college concert band in the early 1970s in the Midwest. "I was basically a lead singer who didn't play guitar," Griffin says of his early days. "We opened for Styx, but that was a long time ago."

By 1978, Griffin gave up music altogether. He says his children were coming along and he was a printer by trade. "That's when I picked up the acoustic guitar and started playing for my own personal pleasure," Griffin says. "I learned all these songs from the '70s and played in the living room in front of the fireplace for the family." Between printing jobs in 1998, Griffin says his friend convinced him to give music another try. Griffin says he owes a lot to his friend, who is a fellow musician. His friend introduced him to local bar owners and helped to connect him in the local music network. "I've met some of the best people I ever met in my life," Griffin says. "There's so many good musicians in this area ... word of mouth is a wonderful thing."

Now, Griffin says he doesn't have any high expectations as he rounds out four years back in the musical arena. "I'm 50 years old and I don't have any delusions of grandeur or dreams of becoming a rock star," Griffin contends. "I had those when I was 25 years old." For Griffin, it doesn't matter if hundreds of people or a handful attend his shows. "If those three people are listening and support what I'm doing then that makes it all worthwhile," Griffin says. "I'm living my dream right now."