Andrew Peterson

[guitarist21]

Anyone heard of him? He's a great acoustic guitarist who I saw in concert two days ago. He's a "Christian" artist but I would recommend him solely on the basis of his (and this other guy that played with him's) amazing guitar work. He's a great fingerpicker and that to me is always impressive in concert.

 

During the concert he talked about how he didn't like country music, but that not all of it was bad. That's kind of how I feel about Christian music. It gets a little repetitive, IMO, in terms of lyrical content but more in terms of chord changes. You always want the most inspirational chord changes and you get stuck with I-V-vi-IV. But Andrew Peterson mixed his I-V-vi-IV progressions with some humor (he wrote a song called "Matthew's Begats," which is the very boring first chapter of Matthew, the geneology of Jesus) and the occasional commentary on life (he wrote a song from the point of view of a penny, called "Loose Change"), making this concert a very fresh take on Christian music.

 

If he's playing a show anywhere near you (he's in Collegedale, Tennessee next weekend, I believe) I highly recommend you check him out.

 

Ellen

 

P.S. I've checked out some of his recordings (a friend has let me borrow his collection) but he's much better live, as so many folks are.

[guitarist21]

Bump? Anyone else heard of him? Here's a video?

 

 

 

That is a video to his "Loose Change" song I mentioned.

 

Ellen

[spokenward]

Thanks for the link! I followed it earlier and I found a song that I thought was really good. So good that I thought I might be overreacting.

 

But I don't think that I am. The link on the main page (it's Flash so I can't link it ) http://www.andrew-peterson.com/ [follow the Open Player link] to Queen of Iowa. It is a thoughtful and convincing lyric, and he places you somewhere. That's a nice piece of work.

[guitarist21]

He played Queen of Iowa at the show I went to. He told the story behind it and I can't possibly make it as heart-wrenching as he did... but it is about a woman who was dying of AIDS and loved his music so he wrote that song for her. He's really cool.

 

Ellen

[Hamhand]

Ellen, that is real special. Kinda like you, thanks for sharing.

[guitarist21]

Ellen, that is real special. Kinda like you, thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks, haha.

 

Apparently he's not as well known as I thought he'd be . Seems like no one's heard of him. Well that's okay, but if you hear of him playing a show around you I highly recommend you try to get out there. He's something else.

 

Ellen

[seven7]

I'm a long time fan of Andrew's music. In fact, he is right at the top of my all time favorites. He is an excellent writer. I've seen him live twice. He's a very cool guy. I also agree that he always has very good supporting musicians with him. I think the best he ever had with him was a guy named Gabe Scott. That guy can play pretty much any instrument and play it very well. Last I heard, Gabe was playing with Bebo Norman now. The others are good too though.

Andrew's not REALLY well known, but he does have a core following and tends to pick up quite a few new fans along the way. He does support a family (wife and 3 kids) and make a living out of it.