{"id":486,"date":"2013-07-06T21:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-06T21:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/216.71.127.204\/wordpress\/?p=486"},"modified":"2015-10-08T17:14:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T17:14:08","slug":"kpft-benefit-w-grant-peeples-matt-harlan-anderson-fair-houston-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2013\/07\/06\/kpft-benefit-w-grant-peeples-matt-harlan-anderson-fair-houston-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"KPFT Benefit w\/ Grant Peeples & Matt Harlan – Anderson Fair – Houston, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Written by James Killen <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jul 06, 2013 at 09:00 PM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Image\"I\u2019ve been hearing songs by Grant Peeples for several years now on KPFT and always found him unabashedly direct in getting across his social observations. It\u2019s a quality in song writing that you don\u2019t hear often these days and certainly not in the top forty. I heard that he and Matt Harlan, whom I haven\u2019t gotten out to see often enough lately, were doing a benefit for my favorite local radio station, KPFT. Peeples, Harlan and KPFT were three strikes and I was \u201cin\u201d for the Saturday night show.<\/p>\n

Organizing and hosting the show for the evening were KPFT personalities, Larry Winter of the \u201cSpare Change\u201d show and Wally James of the \u201cProgressive Forum\u201d and featured free speech as a theme on the Independence Day weekend. The effort was a success as there were more people in Anderson Fair than there were places to sit.<\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s music started out with Matt playing the first song that he wrote when he moved to Houston, \u201cWaiting for Godot\u201d, which is possibly my favorite Matt Harlan song. Matt\u2019s second song was so new that he hadn\u2019t named it yet, but it was inspired by the old Warren Zevon song, \u201cMohamed\u2019s Radio\u201d. His commentary was that for someone to have written a song that mentions Mohamed today would risk condemnation from all sides. For Matt such social commentary is here to fore uncharacteristic. I happened to have loved the tune.<\/p>\n

Harlan told the story behind writing \u201cOver the Bridge\u201d before playing it. He had been working all day at the Astrodome, helping the folks that had fled Katrina from New Orleans. When he came home that evening he heard someone talking about what a great effort Houston was putting out for these folks and that staying in the dome was probably better than what they were used to normally in New Orleans. The statement struck Matt the wrong way and inspired him to write the song. Just knowing where his head was at, brought many of this song\u2019s lyrics to light for me. \u201cRavin Hotel\u201d followed with its account of the darker side of a musician\u2019s road life.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Matt\u2019s still blushing bride, Rachel Jones, joined him on stage as harmony vocalist on \u201cDarker Shade of Gray\u201d, \u201cSlow Moving Train\u201d, and \u201cThe Ring\u201d. Matt\u2019s early birthday present to Rachel was a song of her own in which she sang the lead. It was a song for her and about her and sounded like freedom and beautiful revelation and she sang it beautifully.<\/p>\n

The set ended with \u201cBow and Be Simple\u201d and \u201cOld Allen Road\u201d. Someone correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but I counted 5 of the 11 songs played in the set as not currently being included on a commercially available CD. How about it, Matt, is there a new one in the works?<\/p>\n

Grant Peeples took the stage, accompanied by bassist Erik Alvar after a short break. He started his set out by reading one of his poems, called \u201cHigh Octane Generation\u201d, bemoaning the lack of engagement we have with our cars today since we can\u2019t fix anything without a computer diagnosis. \u201cWe didn\u2019t need a check engine light, because we checked our engines every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

His next four songs, \u201cSearching for a Sign\u201d, \u201cPatriot Act\u201d, \u201cJesus Was a Revolutionary\u201d, and \u201cGrant\u2019s Talking Blues\u201d, spoke of anarchy and a return to a life that is real and free from the commercial fantasy land that we have been lulled into. Grant Peeples had bought property on an isolated island off of the coast of Nicaragua in 1995 and returned to the U.S. in 2006 to find a country, whose populace had been divided by contrived controversy and antagonism. At the age of 50 he began his music career in earnest to stir folks up and try to right the ship.<\/p>\n

I was transfixed by what he was singing, but the sarcasm and cynicism was getting a little heavy and that\u2019s when he let us up with \u201cThat Kind of Woman\u201d about a romantic encounter. He also let us have a peek into his rural Florida upbringing with \u201cMy People Come From the Dirt\u201d. Throughout the show, Erik Alvar was tearing it up on stand-up bass, both bowing and plucking the strings.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Houston native, Katie Mann joined him on stage for a cover of Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cThings Have Changed\u201d. She really belted it out on \u201cThe Hanging\u201d showing real vocal talent on that condemnation of the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Matt Harlan returned to the stage to sing the part of Grant\u2019s \u201canti-muse\u201d on \u201cYou\u2019re a Slave to Your Imagination\u201d, a song depicting his internal argument as to whether or not to continue in the music business. Harlan laid down some really nice acoustic lead licks on that one as well.<\/p>\n

The mood lightened up immensely as the set wound down and Grant sang \u201cGay and Lesbian Sons and Daughters of the Southern Confederacy\u201d and offered his tongue in cheek submission for new state song of Florida, \u201cSunshine State\u201d. The expected encore was a sing-along of the irreverent hymn-like \u201cHigh Fructose Corn Syrup\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the intent was to celebrate free speech at this benefit we certainly had an example to point to in Grant Peeples. His songs, while often humorous and witty, were also disturbing\u2026and that\u2019s a big part of the reason that I liked them. All too often we find ourselves, becoming \u201ccomfortably numb\u201d and it takes someone like Grant to disturb us, get us to thinking, and looking at things from another perspective. We don\u2019t even have to agree with what he says, but we should form opinions based on all of the facts and do what we can to shape our world, accordingly. It\u2019s good to have a gadfly on stage every now and again and I\u2019d make the effort to see Grant the next time he\u2019s through.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen Jul 06, 2013 at 09:00 PM I\u2019ve been hearing songs by Grant Peeples for several years now on KPFT and always found him unabashedly direct in getting across his social observations. It\u2019s a quality in song writing that you don\u2019t hear often these days and certainly not in the top forty…. <\/p>\n

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