Pierce Pettis

Item: Making Light of It
Author: Chris Parks

Making Light of It

(1996)

Reviewed by Chris Parks

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Label Compass RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth1996

acoustic folk singer-songwriter

These days I'm noticing things
The smell of the rain
The wind in the trees when it gets moving Seems to say
That I'm not alone And Someday,
Love's gonna carry me home.

Pierce Pettis's latest album, Making Light of It, is a mixture of humor and seriousness, acoustic and electric, personal and universal, served up with capable musicianship and David Miner's good production instincts.

The theme of the album seems to be having a renewed appreciation for important, basic things too often taken for granted, and looking beneath the surface of the familiar. Over the course of the album, Pierce looks at his own life with fresh eyes and sees wonders he took for granted in his family and situation. Notable examples are the songs "Affectionate Girl" and "Love's Gonna Carry Me Home." In the latter he pays tribute to the "Amazing grace, big surprise [that] hits you right between the eyes/ hits you hard like a small flat stone/ slays your giants and leads you home."

The discoveries extend to the wider world. "Miriam" looks past the baggage two thousand years of Christendom adds to the Christmas story and finds in the story something amazing. The music is haunting too, incorporating a 15th century Stabat mater (a hymn about Mary's sorrow at the Crucifixion), tying together Easter and Christmas, the death and the birth of the Savior. "Absalom, Absalom" paints the picture of King David grieving at the death of his rebellious son and recalling his own failures as a King and a father: "All the vanity, cruel arrogance and greed/ oh Absalom, you learned it all from me." "Satellite Sky," a tribute to and a cover of a song by Mark Heard, is a lament for the loss of innocence: "Where are the far-away kingdoms of dreams?/ We've been to the moon and there's trouble at home./ They vanished in the mist with Saint Nicholas in the ghettos and war zones..."

These rediscoveries have come at a cost. In "My Life of Crime," he sings of how his choice of a musician's life contributed to the breakup of his marriage. In "Hold on to That Heart," Pierce explores the numbness which human beings use as a protection against being hurt by the hard knocks life sometimes dishes out. The solution is to "hold on to that heart...and [not] let it go." "You Move Me" (from which the album's title comes) is a testimony to the necessity of not living in fear, and to the power of grace to move us beyond our fears.

But this is neither a self-absorbed album nor a self-pitying one. Even when singing about lost loves and the messiness of life, Pierce's wry sense of humor comes through, notably "My Life of Crime" and "No Big Deal" (a song he describes in concert as a love song "obviously written by a guy," with its chorus "It's really no big deal the way I love you...")

Backing Pierce's capable vocal and guitar work are Derri Daugherty (electric guitars) and Steve Hindalong (drums) of The Choir, both of whom demonstrate a side of their musicianship you don't often hear in their own work. Daugherty's guitar work blends in nicely in the folk-rock songs on the album, not calling attention to itself or taking away from Pierce's own considerable skills. Hindalong's drum and percussion work is scaled back to fit the folk rock style, but is still recognizably his. David Miner (bass, backing vocals) and Kate Miner, Michele Costik and Sally Baris (backing vocals) round out the supporting cast.

Pierce's previous albums largely featured his own talents as a songwriter, but half of the songs on Making Light of It were co-written, not counting the Mark Heard Cover. Co-writers include Gordon Kennedy, Sally Baris, Dana Cooper, Tom Howard, and JL Wallace . One of the songs Pierce wrote himself is "Granddaddy Blew the Whistle," an engaging instrumental look back at his childhood.

David Miner does another good job of producing, as he did on Pierce's previous album, Chase the Buffalo. The production here is very straightforward and intimate, letting the singers and players hearts and souls come directly through.

The necessity of not taking the important things and people in our lives for granted is something of which everyone needs to be reminded; fans of folk music capably played and lyrics that get beneath the surface of things will enjoy this reminder.