The Briar And The Rose

There’s an old Vaudeville joke that goes; “If at first you don’t suc-ceed, keep on sucking until you do suck seeds”. 

When someone else imposes their will on your life, it sucks.  You might yearn to be yourself, but at school, on the job, at the club, in church or in your family, there are people in authority who tell you to do the “right thing” and, worst of all, tell you how to do it.  You might decide that your path to success depends on following someone else’s rules, even though it makes you miserable.

Do you suffer in silence, or do you risk offending others by choosing your own rules and guardrails?  Peter Evans is a dangerous heretic!  That’s what some people will tell you.  Some would paint him, with all due respect, as a rebellious badass.  His anthem for change, “Be Respectful” outrageously challenges familiar definitions of civility.

Peter credits his autistic son, Jamie, for inspiring him to write this song.  Now an adult living independently, Jamie steadfastly refused to follow rules as a child, even though he sought the approval of others.  He grew to define his own form of success and his unique sense of what is the “right thing”.  


Credits: 
Peter Evans, vocals, guitar & percussion, co-writer
Vanessa Silberman, Producer, mixing, programming & mastering, co-writer
Drew Nugent, voices, horns & shouts
Baird Standish, Mandolin, electric guitar & shouts
Jim Stager, bass & shouts
John Senior, engineering
Nancy Senior, assistant engineering & shouts
Decker Patterson, assistant engineering & shouts

Recorded at Elm Street Studios, Conshohocken, PA on August 5, 2024

Be Respectful

Got to hide your love away

1000 years ago

You really got a hold on me

Strawberry Fields 4 ever

Original song written and composed by Eli Autry

You're My Church

East Coast Collective

Global warming in Northern Maine cuts both ways.  Winters there can be brutal, so warmer is good, but care for the land is sacred because the land has been the source of people’s livelihoods for so long.  Timber, dairy farming and potatoes drive the economy in Aroostook County along Route One.  These industries all have carbon footprints, which add to the greenhouse effect.  

And speaking of greenhouses, the hottest cottage industry is growing pot now that it has become legal to do so in Maine.  When it is too cold to tend potatoes, you can always look in on your hydroponics! Apparently, the proceeds can help to save the farm and to ease the farmers’ aches and pains.

Since the end of World War II, more and more Maine potatoes have been processed, instead of eaten fresh from farm to table as they were before our freezers started to resemble small closets.  So the question becomes how to keep up the production of these commodities while mitigating the environmental impacts of the harvest.  How will the spuds run to get to your table asap, unprocessed and fresh?  And will consumers be willing to give up their tater tots and frozen fries to help save the planet?

SPUD RUN

Peter Evans, a jazz/blues/folk artist from metropolitan Philadelphia, has a lifetime history as a musician, studying guitar and voice initially with Philadelphia Folksong Society co-founder George Britton in the 1960’s.  Peter has maintained his love of the music as an a cappella singer for the past 40 years, including performing with the Yale Whiffenpoofs, for whom he served as musical director.  

Peter’s songwriting has recently been informed by a project he started in March, 2018 on US Route 1, the first Interstate highway in the United States.  Ever since his days at Yale, he’s wanted to take pictures on Route 1, but that impetus has evolved into a nascent website, Route1Views.com, a geo-specific, interactive social website, celebrating the people who have lived and worked along the road.  “We are more divided as a country now than at any other point in my lifetime”, says Evans.  “Perhaps with the exception of 1968.  If in some small way Route1Views helps us to realize how much we share and how we are connected, then all of the effort will have been worth it.”

Be Respectful

Peter A. Evans

Related tracks