Peter Bruntnell is a British singer–songwriter

Singer–songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 born in Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

Biography

Bruntnell's family is originally from Wales; His family moved to New Zealand when his father, Owen Bruntnell, was sent to work at the British High Commission in Wellington for four years. They returned to the UK when Bruntnell was a year old, and settled in Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...

. His great great uncle was Australian politician Albert Bruntnell

Albert Bruntnell

Albert Bruntnell was an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1906 until his death and held a number of ministerial positions in the Government of New South Wales...

 who emigrated from Wales in 1888. Bruntnell also lived in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 for a time. In the early 1990s, Bruntnell returned to the UK and formed the band Milkwood, although he soon reverted to solo work and recordings with Matt Backer and Felix Harper as the Peter Bruntnell Combination. He was signed by Almo Sounds

Almo Sounds

Almo Sounds is a record label which was started in 1994 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss after they sold A&M Records to PolyGram. The intent of the label was to recreate the initial concept of A&M Records as a small, "boutique" label....

, who issued his debut album, Cannibal, in 1995. He recorded a second album for Almo, Camelot in Smithereens (1997), before moving to the Slow River label for his 1999 album Normal for Bridgwater. The album was highly recommended by VH1

VH1

VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

's Bill Flanagan and by Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

s John Luerssen, and helped to establish Bruntnell with American audiences. The album was recorded with the help of musicians from Son Volt

Son Volt

Son Volt is an alternative country group formed by Jay Farrar in 1994 after the breakup of the band Uncle Tupelo.-History:The group formed after Farrar met Jim and Dave Boquist during the final Uncle Tupelo tour. Together with former Uncle Tupelo drummer Mike Heidorn, the band rehearsed and...

, a band with whom he has toured regularly in the United States.

Peter is married to Tanya Chesworth. They have three children - Molly, Ralph and Jake.

Musical style

Bruntnell's music is often referred to as Americana

Americana (music)

Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...

, although it has also been described as country rock

Country rock

Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...

 and alternative country

Alternative country

Alternative country is a loosely defined sub-genre of country music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream or pop country music...

.

Albums

• Cannibal (1995), Almo Sounds - The Peter Bruntnell Combination
• Camelot in Smithereens (1997), Almo Sounds
• Normal for Bridgwater (1999), Slow River
• Ends of the Earth (2002), Black Porch - The Peter Bruntnell Combination
• Played Out (2004), Loose Music/Vinyl Junkie
• Ghost in a Spitfire (2005), Loose Music/Vinyl Junkie
• Peter and the Murder of Crows (2008), Loose Music
• Black Mountain U.F.O. (2011), Manhaton Records

Singles

• "I Will, I Won't" (1995), Almo Sounds - The Peter Bruntnell Combination
• "Astronaut" (1996), Almo Sounds - The Peter Bruntnell Combination
• "Have You Seen That Girl Again" (1997), Almo Sounds
• "Camelot in Smithereens" (1997), Almo Sounds
• "Saturday Sam" (1997), Almo Sounds
• "By the Time My Head Gets to Phoenix" (1999), Slow River

External links

• Official Peter Bruntnell website