Grant Peeples – Pawnshop

by Janet Goodman

When was the last time you made a purchase on the honor system?  Americana artist Grant Peeples encourages visitors to his website to order his new Gatorbone Records release “Pawnshop”, receive it, THEN pay for it, which is his curious new business experiment and hopeful way of engaging his fans.

This rugged-voiced north Floridian also trusts us with his unapologetically brooding view of the world, as well as his dark humor.  After spending 11 years on a remote Nicaraguan island, ex-ex-patriot Peeples has come home with a boatload to say about our changing American communities.

All but one of the 11 tracks on the album are self-penned (there are additional hidden tracks which are FCC compliant versions of tracks 1 and 2) and are reminiscent of lyric social commentaries by Bob Dylan and John Prine.  Peeples is really a guitar-slinging poet and his worn delivery makes us hang onto his every word.  He growls his disappointment with modern bards in “I Know Why the Poets Drink and Smoke”: “…I can’t stand them begging for acceptance/When it’s forgiveness they should want/And me, I still like to feel a little pain when I bleed/ And see every bone that’s broke/And taste some righteous anger in my mouth/When I’m all fresh out of hope”.  In “There’s a Bluebird in My Heart”, he touchingly explains why he’s likely to write sad songs: “All his songs have sad melody/But he wants me to set him free/And I can’t do that right now/There’s a bluebird in my heart/And I just can’t let him out”. 

Pawnshops are the back drops of two powerful songs.  In the title track “Pawnshop”, a spare piano production connects with our emotions, as does Peeples’ early Tom Waits-esque, part recitation, part sung delivery of his vividly landscaped lyrics, “Where gold chains and deadly weapons/Sad guitars and family jewels/Lie in wait behind glass counters/Upon the fates of other fools”.  The reality of economic hard times is brought to the surface via poignant lyrics and pedal steel in ¾ time in “The Saddest Thing”: “It’s the saddest thing I ever seen/This couple and their wedding rings/A pawnshop floor’s a nasty thing/For tears to have to find a place to fall”. 

Stand-out track is “The Hanging”; it’s a stunning 19th century vignette of a community gathered around the gallows with, “…cotton candy, crucifixes and American flags”.  Peeples’ story rings true, from his church bell intro, to the drone of an accordion, to his chorus featuring a female vocalist singing, “I’m not crying over him; I’m crying over us”.

To get his CD on the honor system, go to www.grantpeeples.com