Pierce Pettis
Encyclopedia
Biography
A former staff writer for PolyGram Publishing in NashvilleNashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, Pettis' musical career was started in 1979 when Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
covered one of his songs, "Song at the End of the Movie", on her album Honest Lullaby. Following that release, Pettis became heavily involved in the "Fast Folk movement" in New York in the 1980s alongside artists such as Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
and Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
.
In 1984, Pettis released his first independent solo album, Moments. Signing with High Street Records
High Street Records
High Street Records was a subsidiary label of Windham Hill Records from about 1990 to 1997. Notable acts who recorded for the label include John Gorka, Pierce Pettis, Patty Larkin, The Subdudes, and Dots Will Echo...
in 1989, he made three albums with them: While the Serpent Lies Sleeping in 1989; Tinseltown, produced by Mark Heard
Mark Heard
John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
in 1991; and Chase the Buffalo, produced by David Miner
David Miner (musician)
David Miner , sometimes credited as David Minor, is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as a member of Grace Slick's The Great Society in the 1960s. He actually co-founded The Great Society along with Jerry, Darby, and Grace Slick as well as Bard Du Pont, in the sense...
in 1993. None of these releases made Pettis a household name, but his music became extremely popular with other artists. The production on While the Serpent Lies Sleeping is erratic, apparently trying to balance a folk-rock sound with Pierce's mostly introspective and introverted lyrics. Pettis and producer Doug Jansen Smith argued often over the production, and did not work with each other subsequently. Mark Heard
Mark Heard
John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
, Pettis's own choice as producer for Tinseltown gave that album a more straightforward folk sound, with the occasional touch of bluegrass or rock. The lyrics are also more provocative, and include not a few tracks which are basically protest songs. Heard and Pettis became close friends, and after Heard's untimely death in 1992, Pettis made a decision to include a Mark Heard song on every subsequent album of his own until Heard's songwriting abilities gained greater attention, a practice Pettis continues to this day. Chase the Buffalo, undoubtedly the most lyrically rich album of the High Street years, established Pettis firmly as a "songwriter's songwriter" and further developed the solid folk atmosphere of the previous album, adding more prominent bass and percussion instruments and starting to move away from keyboard sounds. Lyrically the album struck a fine balance between songs looking inward and looking outward.
When Pettis's contract with High Street ended, he signed with Compass Records
Compass Records
Compass Records is a Nashville-based independent record label founded in 1995 by musicians Garry West and Alison Brown. Currently home to nearly 100 folk, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz, and new acoustic artists, the label releases about 20 records a year...
, where he has remained since. 1996 saw his first release with them, Making Light of It, a low-key collection of songs, the majority returning to an introspective demeanor and tone, produced by David Miner
David Miner (musician)
David Miner , sometimes credited as David Minor, is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as a member of Grace Slick's The Great Society in the 1960s. He actually co-founded The Great Society along with Jerry, Darby, and Grace Slick as well as Bard Du Pont, in the sense...
(T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
), and featuring Derri Daugherty
Derri Daugherty
Derri Daugherty is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for band The Choir....
and Steve Hindalong
Steve Hindalong
Steve Hindalong is an American drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer best known for his work with the alternative rock band The Choir...
of The Choir. Musically, "roots folk" would not be a bad description, though the tone is not old-timey in any way. Everything Matters followed in 1998, with an increased tempo overall and a few regionally oriented songs that explored and celebrated Southern cities and personalities. The music of this record was a delicate and successful blend of a more sparse "roots folk" sound backed by solid bass and percussion and produced by Grammy award winning artist Gordon Kennedy
Gordon Kennedy (musician)
Gordon Kennedy is a multi Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer, world-class guitarist and visionary at the forefront of Nashville’s music community....
(best known for co-writing Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
's "Change the World"). 2001 saw Pettis's most regionally-oriented album, State of Grace released, with a fuller, more straightforwardly folk tone and atmosphere. Most recently, 2004's Great Big World record saw Pettis collaborating with a number of other songwriters for the majority of the tracks, with a still-present regional tendency, and similar sound musically to the previous album. The album's cover art was painted by the southern folk artist Terry Cannon. Great Big World featured musicians like Kenny Malone
Kenny Malone
Kenny Malone is an American drummer/percussionist from Nashville, Tennessee. He has been, since the 1970s, and continues to be a prominent session musician in folk, country and many other acoustic-based genres.-References:...
on percussion and bassist Danny Thompson
Danny Thompson
Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist and businessman...
of Pentangle
Pentangle (band)
Pentangle are a British folk rock band with some folk jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version has been active since the early 1980s...
fame.
Pettis's songs have been covered by artists like Dar Williams
Dar Williams
Dar Williams is an American singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk.She is a frequent performer at folk festivals and has toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, The Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis.-Biography:Williams was born...
("Family" on Mortal City), Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
("You Move Me" on Sevens), Dion & the Belmonts, Sara Groves
Sara Groves
Sara Groves is an American Contemporary Christian singer, record producer, and author....
, Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
and others. Pettis himself has covered one of Mark Heard
Mark Heard
John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
's songs on every album since 1993. These are: "Nod Over Coffee" on Chase the Buffalo; "Satellite Sky" on Making Light of It; "Tip of My Tongue" on Everything Matters, "Rise from the Ruins" on State of Grace; and "Another Day in Limbo" on Great Big World. Pettis's cover of "Nod Over Coffee" also appeared on a 1994 tribute album to Heard entitled Strong Hand of Love.
Discography
- Moments (Small World, 1984)
- While the Serpent Lies Sleeping (Small World, 1988, original release)
- While the Serpent Lies Sleeping (High Street, 25 September 1989, full release)
- Tinseltown (High Street, 18 June 1991)
- Chase the Buffalo (High Street, 13 July 1993)
- Making Light of It (Compass, 8 October 1996)
- Everything Matters (Compass, 16 June 1998)
- State of Grace (Compass, 10 July 2001)
- Great Big World (Compass, 3 August 2004)
- That Kind of Love (Compass, 27 January 2009)
Compilations
- Legacy: A Collection of New Folk MusicLegacy: A Collection of New Folk Music- Legacy II: A Collection of Singer-songwriters :The second volume was released several years after the first. As Will Ackerman's liner notes explain:...
(Windham Hill, 1989) - A Winter's Solstice, Vol. III (Windham Hill, 1990)
- featuring "In the Bleak Midwinter"
- Strong Hand of LoveStrong Hand of LoveStrong Hand of Love: A Tribute to Mark Heard is a compilation of songs by various artists in tribute to songwriter, Mark Heard.Recorded and released in 1994, after Heard's death in 1992. Proceeds benefit the Heard Family Fund....
, tribute to Mark HeardMark HeardJohn Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
, 1994- featuring "Nod Over Coffee"
- Orphans of GodOrphans of GodOrphans of God is a 2 CD compilation of songs performed by various artists in tribute to songwriter Mark Heard.Recorded and released after Heard's death in 1992, proceeds benefit the Heard Family Fund....
, tribute to Mark HeardMark HeardJohn Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
, 1996- featuring "Nod Over Coffee"
- Aliens and Strangers (Silent Planet, 2000)
- featuring "Kingdom Come"
- Beat (Silent Planet, 2001
- featuring "Absalom, Absalom"