Description
Skin and Wind is the eleventh vocal studio album by the American singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and producer Charlie Peacock, independently released by Peacock in January 2021. Produced and written by Charlie Peacock.
Shall we count the hits and hats of Charlie Peacock? Keyboardist for New Wave band Vector. Accomplished solo artist. Producer of the best albums by Margaret Becker, Sarah Masen, and Michelle Tumes. Writer of Amy Grant’s massive crossover pop hit «Every Heartbeat». Seminary student. Founder of the creativity incubator Art House. Director of a university music department. For a while, there wasn’t time to make new music of his own, but recent years have found Peacock busy with projects from Americana to free jazz. This time around, he delves into 70s singer/songwriter territory, playing most of the instruments himself (keys, guitars, percussion) with aid from friends and family like Sam Ashworth, Ruby Amanfu, and Matt Slocum. He’s clearly enjoying making art for the sake of art rather than the industry rat race. “A man of quiet demeanor, no more lust for spinning plates.” These mostly mellow songs showcase his knack for addressing deep thoughts in pithy verse. The title track ponders the Christian’s nature as spirit and flesh. «The Captain» finds him grappling with the realities and weaknesses of his aging body. “My heart is full, my mind is quick…. I’m the captain of a ship that’s going down.” You and me both! [Robert Berman, Worship Musician Magazine, February 2021]
Unless you’re someone who studies the small print credits list when you pick up a new album, you likely have never heard of Charlie Peacock, the producer of The Civil Wars’ 2011 debut, Barton Hollow, which picked up two Grammy’s for Best Folk and Best Country Duo Performance. Peacock’s producing credits include Chris Cornell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and The Lone Bellow, and he’s written hit songs with and/or recorded by The Civil Wars, Amy Grant, Switchfoot, but some of us have been following his solo career as a solo recording artist since his great 1984 debut, Lie Down In The Grass, for the indie rock label Exit Records, with distribution on A&M. For context, when I first heard the title track from his newest release, I pulled the prized 3-disc box of Peacock’s 80’s work, West Coast Diaries, out to refresh my memory of his performances of sophisticated alternative pop sounds, the strong durable melodies, and soulful performances on tracks like «This Is How the Work Gets Done», «Big Man’s Hat», and «Whole Lot Different» and was not disappointed.
Skin And Wind is yet another 10-song collection of mature, 60’s and 70’s influenced pop served up by an artist with decades of studio mastery and music business experience. Peacock has made 4 instrumental jazz albums emphasizing his piano skills, and you can always feel that artful sensibility in his sophisticated pop songs, and here he leans toward the full-rock band glossy production, and his vocals recall the tone and cadence of Paul Simon. Guitars and keys blend artfully, and the production allows for everything to shine at the appropriate moment, each track developed to emphasize Peacock’s vocal melodies, including the Beatlesque orchestration of «24 Hour Parade».
The lyrics, like those of the title track’s take on the richness of the human experience, the blending of our physical beings and breath and the soulfulness that comes with conscious thought, although «Skin And Wind Are A Mind Bend» says it in more elegant poetry, suggest a more sophisticated view of life and love. «Is There Anything» expresses a mature and enduring love relationship – “I’ll wrap my heart around you baby, you wrap your heart around me too, let’s be the answer to the question, is there anything that love cannot do” – while «Never Be Another One» has a grittier guitar sound as it celebrates a level of commitment that leaves “a devil in a blue dress” waiting. There’s an underlying spirituality that never preaches, but delights in the greater mystery in «Call It Destiny», and an understanding that life can get complicated so «Waiting Is The Plan» is a reminder to “keep the fire burning.” And given all that we know of life’s ups and downs, you’re often going to need to «Sing It Blue», even as you acknowledge that it’s «Faith, Hope & Love» that you “really need.”
Like Peacock’s early work in the Sacramento area, hanging with bands like The 77’s, Vector, and Bourgeois Tagg, revealed a soulful artist with the kind of potential that has kept him productive now 5 decades later. Skin And Wind is another in a long line of smart, creative efforts, a mature pop song collection that takes on the rich tapestry of existence and is wise enough to not try and fold it into a simplistic cliché. The digital version is available on all the major streaming/purchasing outlets, while the proceeds from the CD version pressed by UTR Media benefit the Nashville Rescue Mission. [Brian Q. Newcomb, The Fire Note, February 3, 2021]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/skin-and-wind/1550061876)
CD tracklist:
01. Skin and Wind is a Mind Bend – 3:08
02. Call It Destiny – 2:57
03. Sing It Blue – 3:43
04. Waiting is the Plan – 3:20
05. Even When You’re Not – 3:59
06. Is There Anything – 3:19
07. Never Be Another One – 3:10
08. 24 Hour Parade – 3:45
09. The Captain – 4:27
10. Faith, Hope & Love – 4:22
Note: Release on all streaming and digital music platforms on January 15, and that same day limited run of physical CD.
Skin and Wind is a Mind Bend
The metaphor and simile of wind and water have been front and center for the poetic/artistic mind since the spark of time and human reflection. The wind you cannot see, only the effect of. The water, tasteless in purity, essential to all of life. Linear in movement, infinite in function.
And then there is skin. A sheath of magic holding us together, bearing the consequence of sun, wind, and water, telling the story of our way with the world and the world with us. Skin as mundane, myth, and revelation. Skin as the beloved community.
There’s skin in arousal and empathy, warmth and generosity, and the faith-forming mystery of an idea like Emmanuel, God With Us, the God of skin. God standing before us, behind us, beside us left and right, above, and below.
This skin-God eats, sleeps, and cries history-making tears. The skin-God comes to earth to reveal essential, transformative, grace-centric plans for eternal community. Everything with skin is invited to dwell within this new and unusual hometown.
Put skin together with wind, and all manner of Spirit, mystery, and motion come clean. And if you dare feel it, in part or total, there is a mind bend on offer. The skin God has a name. The untitled wind of Spirit has a name. The two, a family with the One whom some call Abba, Father, supreme over stardust and genome.
If life is seeing where the water goes when it goes, then it’s worth asking what my own flow knows about getting wet. For I am convinced there is a dispensation from every corner of the world, a pounding storm of rightness rain and well-spoken wind.
Where’s the sunup, sundown in all of this? Oh it’s there. I come from a place where the summer sun stays aloft till almost nine. What time is it now?
It is time to listen, time to follow, time to not tread lightly. Every night we pray and walk the floor. In a vision, we see a hammer and a helping hand, to break the chain, heal the land, and for rain and sun upon good seed, every one of them a hope, every one of them a need.
– Charlie Peacock, December 11, 2020 [charliepeacock.substack.com]
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