VANESSA PETERS
Foxhole Prayers
Texas-based Vanessa Peters was a literature major in college
who once entertained the idea of becoming a short story writer. Instead she
opted for a career in music, but it her songs are short stories in their own
right. Foxhole Prayers took shape
when she was re-reading The Great Gatsby
and realized that we seem to reliving Fitzgerald's era with–in her words–"Trump
as some sort of PT Barnum-meets-Warren G. Harding character."
Peters mixes fear and pain with hope. On the title track,
sirens swell and cacophony rises before giving way to echo effects that frame Peters'
vocals. There's a lot going on in this song. A sample lyric: we're all just children hurried out of
school/holding hands and told to keep our heads low/and all of this just makes
me weary/the woman in the backseat screaming/yes sir yes is yes sir/can't
anybody hear me? It is at once a beautiful song–which is true of anything
that comes out of her mouth–but also one that makes the hair rise on the back
of your neck. And she sure doesn't believe that Trump will save us from any of
this. On "Carnival Barker" she sings: but there was this carnival barker we were all warned
about/they told us to steer clear of him when he came to our town/you'll get a
circus, history told us, if you vote for a clown/but the grifters pitched their
tents and the good word got drowned out… This song
also showcases how well Peters works with a band. She commands the stage like a
young Emmylou. Peters isn't letting anyone off the hook for what went wrong.
Check out "Just One of Them." Her observation: and this ragged dream is full of holes poked through/and the threads
left behind don't hang true/and I’m deafened by my silence in the face of so
much need/I thought I was an honest man but truth be told/I'm just one of them.
Well, damn, that's just good songwriting–the kind that impresses and makes you
cringe at the same time.
Not all is hopeless. On
"Fight" Peters sinks low but rises to tell us, get out there and fight girl, don't be afraid to bleed crawl back
towards the light. Peters also takes time to realize that she's
"Lucky" and has things that go beyond money and running races that
don't matter. That message is made even more poignantly in "Get Started," another one in which she really works the band–Frederico Ciancabilla
(lead guitar), Andrea Colicchia (bass), John Dufilho (percussion), Rip Rowan
(keys)–on a piece that's on the pop side of folk rock. This one is serious, but
with plus side possibilities.
Still, Peters frets over the "Trolls," their
"poisoned darts" and the "wizard (who) sold us out." She wants us to wake up "Before It
falls Apart." Good stuff from a singer/songwriter unafraid to speak truth
to power or to critique her own actions.
Rob Weir
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