Peter Karp

Many artists get sabotaged by rave reviews that compare them to legendary performers they'll never have the chance of surpassing. How many singer/songwriters once called the next Dylan have faded into obscurity, or found their struggle to present their own unique music hampered by the unrealistic expectations such comparisons cause? All that said, singer, bluesman, folkie, and songwriter Peter Karp should be a lot better known than he is. It's tempting to say he combines John Prine's wordplay, Joe Ely's rocking instincts, Billy Joe Shaver's fatalistic outlook, Tim McGraw's good looks, and an expressive tenor that combines the fire of a young Steve Earle and the lazy drawl of Mose Allison, but that wouldn't be right. Karp is his own man, an artist who blends roots music styles into something that combines and transcends blues, country, rock, honky tonk, R&B, swamp, swing, and jazz. He may record for Blind Pig, a San Francisco-based blues logo, but he's no more blues than he is country. He personifies the amorphous Americana movement, freely shifting styles to keep listeners guessing, and dancing too. His lyrics combine working-class angst with college-educated insight, and a deadly sense of humor that keeps things from getting too dark. The 12 tunes on this album are all winners, each full of their own singular charm, even though they can easily fit into familiar industry pigeonholes. "I Ain't Deep" is a nasty blues-rock tune given a '40s swing feel by Popa Chubby's slide guitar work and the hook is a real winner -- "I ain't deep, baby; I'm just down." On the country rocker "Rubber Bands and Wire," Karp introduces several dissolute characters in an effort to win back his lady love, implicitly telling her, "Hey, compared to these guys I ain't so bad." His off-hand desperation and the surrealistic humor of the lyrics give the tune an unexpected twist. "Goodbye Baby" hinges on a cleaver turn of phrase -- "I can live with mine, but not your lies." It's a kiss-off song so full of self-depreciating humor that it makes breaking up sound easy to do. The song smokes along on a Waylon Jennings' stomp accented by Karp's sizzling harmonica work. Karp's B-3 gives the fatalistic "Runnin'" a jaunty sanctified feel; self-destruction seldom sounds this appealing. He follows it with "The Grave," a spooky slide guitar workout that advises people to keep their darkest secrets to themselves, no matter what friends and lovers say. He sounds like an old sad soul as he meditates on mortality and life's compromises. Every tune is arranged to give maximum effect to Karp's vocals. His lithe tenor is playful, macho, insouciant, innocent, and worldly, telling jokes that make you wince when you laugh. The backing musicians are all top-notch and every track smokes with understated virtuosity. So why isn't this guy a star?

- J. Poet -

Journalist and contributing editor at Pulse, Native Peoples, Grammy.com, Rhythm and SF Gate, and has contributed regularly to E!online, Drum, Folk Roots, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times Syndicate, Wired, Performing Songwriter, Boston Phoenix, Earwax, Gallery of Sound and Stereotype. - AllMusic Guide

"Karp's a great writer and performer whose songs are driven by verbal word play and insights into the human experiencelike James Taylor and Bob Dylan, Karp embodies Americana music" - USA TODAY

Karpe Diem

Peter Karp is a multi-talented singer-songwriter who is comfortable playing both Blues and Country-styled Rock. He is not part of the "New Country" scene, but a throwback as his influences include Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Van Morrison, and The Band. Karp was raised in New Jersey and today spends his time there or in Nashville.

The new album, Shadows and Cracks, opens with "Goodbye Baby." ("I finally woke up on the wrong side of your dreams.") It's a good song, but it sounds like one by Dave Alvin and I still get the songs confused. On this track Karp plays guitar, B-3 organ, and harmonica. "Air, Fuel and Fire" has a distinguishing riff and comes across as Rockabilly with Dave Malachowski lighting it up on guitar. Although not credited in the notes, I believe the harpist on this track is Dennis Gruenling, who is also utilized elsewhere. "All I Really Want" is a very good song and it rolls along nicely.

Other highlights include the song "Dirty Weather" and the title track "Shadows and Cracks," both of which are produced by Popa Chubby. The John Prine-influenced "Rubber Bands and Wire" is my favorite on this album for it is the most melodic. Karp might be the best songwriting talent to emerge since Steve Earle; just listen to "The Lament." This song features ex-The Band member Garth Hudson on the Hammond B-3 and it is a great performance. "The Grave" is Karp alone on acoustic and slide guitars and it is the album's only real Blues tune. On "Strange Groove," Karp plays piano and the band gets funky.

Karp's voice, although friendly, lacks range and I believe he could utilize a harmony singer to accentuate some of his melodies. When performing live he usually includes a lot more Blues as he is truly multi-dimensional. This album should, however, establish Peter Karp as a major songwriting talent.

Richard Ludmerer is a contributing editor at BluesWax - Blues Wax

Calgary Herald

Friday, August 31, 2007
Terry David Mulligan's

CD of the Week
Band: Peter Karp
CD: Shadows and Cracks
Label: Blind Pig

"I'm one lucky guy. I get to listen to music for a living. And when I discover a gem I get to pass it on to the audience. The latest rare find is Shadows and Cracks by Peter Karp. It has shadings of J.J. Cale, Lyle Lovett and, best of all, John Prine and Bob Dylan. There's flavours of honky tonk, country, blues, folk and deep, deep roots. It tells stories of blue-collar people and places, empty bottles and lipstick traces. He mines the same ground as John Hiatt, Jackson Browne, Tom Waits. By the time he was eight, Karp had seen and heard James Brown, The Beatles, Stones, Temptations and the Four Tops. Now that's a musical education.

After being on the road most of his life he's become a stunningly gifted songwriter. The sexy slow shuffle of "Dirty Weather" has references to Homer and Kipling. "The Grave" is blues stripped bare. "Strange Groove" has rolling riffs and talking lyrics like "she said she'd rather flirt with death than me." I don't know what you're doing this week, but I'm looking for his older CDs."

Host of Mulligan Stew on CKUA
Saturday afternoons, 5-7 pm

T.D.M., the "Dick Clark" of Canadian broadcasting, has been a fixture on the national music scene for decades, having gained wide exposure through his TV work on MuchMusic and Bravo!, as well as his key role alongside Jodie Foster in 1988's The Accused.
© The Calgary Herald 2007 - Calgary Herald

Runaway Pete. An always moving Peter Karp still connects with his audience. ' If you're doing stuff and you're full of shit, they let you know.'


LOW PROFILE, HIGH IDEALS
BY OLIVIA SMITH

Don't know Peter Karp? That's exactly what he wants.

"I work very hard at being obscure," kids the singer-songwriter in his slow Southern drawl.

But that hasn't always been his way. When Karp was young, he was on the verge of success with a blues-punk band called They Came From Houses. "We got kind of hot in New York City," he remembers. "I quit because I didn't like what I was doing ... it was all about money."

So Karp hit the road. He spent the decade between his early 20s and early 30s traveling around the world, getting married and having a couple of kids. "I think I opened myself up a lot. I really experienced life. I found me."

Karp's road eventually led him back to music. He began performing at bars and writing again.

The songs on his new rootsy Americana blues album from Blind Pig Records, "Shadows and Cracks" tell stories and jokes. It's a collection of boot-stompin', energetic tunes. Karp sings of everyday life and extraordinary characters. His music is lyrically driven, each track is descriptive and chock-full of imagery. "My philosophy," he says, "is if I can say the lyrics and you're not laughing or crying or enjoying it, then a beat and a melody ain't going to do anything for it."

"A lot of what I write about is autobiographical," he continues. "I think, in general, inspiration comes from people and stories. You listen and you hear things. Life is always so full of idiosyncrasies and yet everybody wants to put their life in order. But there's no such thing. It's like the weather."

Karp has certainly embraced the disorder of his own life. His home base is Nashville, but Karp's tour calendar boasts more than 250 dates a year. He makes it to most shows in a little RV. Meeting people along the way, says Karp, keeps him "very, very close to the fabric of everyday life and I love that a lot. It's inspiring. If you're doing stuff and you're full of shit, they let you know."

And though Karp's path to musical success has been more a meandering trail than an expressway, that's the way he wants it. Karp's connecting with audiences on his own terms. "There's music that makes you want to dance, and music that makes you want to have sex ... some of it's more soulful and some of it's more articulate. In the end, it's all about communication. And that's it."

This trip to Newport will just include a gig at the Blues Cafe - the troubadour will hit the stage Tuesday, Aug. 14. But predictably, the evasive bluesman would be open to a different set of circumstances. Next time it could be a different scene altogether.

"Hey, I could see myself on a yacht with an ascot and a mint julep calling out to my minions, 'Write me songs quickly! I need genius! Now!'" he imagines.

Don't know, Peter Karp. - Newport Mercury News

Today Karp has emerged as one of the finest storytellers and entertainers - as well as players in blues ranks, someone anxious to spotlight the music's communicative abilities more than just bluster through the guitar solos or rework vintage Delta tunes. - Nashville City Paper

Peter Karp has been around for a while, but Shadows and Cracks is his first nationally distributed album. It's easy to see what drew the attention of former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor (who jointed Karp on one of his earlier albums and tours) and songwriting great John Prine's Oh Boy label (which landed Karp's two previous studio sets and sold them thru the company store. Both are worth seeking out.)

"I understand doubletalk and rabble, cliche and psycho babble, the New York Times and Camus; but Ophelia, I'll never understand you," Karp sings over the grinding R&B grooves of "I understand." In other words, this is a sharp and colorful writer who works on several level: He can drop literary references on you, but he makes sure to keep the songs grounded in real emotion. The same goes for the music, a roadhouse-worthy stew of blues, country, rock and soul. If "The Lament" recalls the Band, well, that's because Garth Hudson is the one adding his signature swirling organ sounds to the mix.
- Philadelphia Inquirer

Some music makes you feel good. Some makes you feel bad, which in turn makes you feel good or at least provides company to your misery. It can make you feel cool, sexy, bad, or hardcore, but it seldom makes you feel smarter. Peter Karp's Shadows and Cracks is one of those rare records.

Shadows and Cracks is rare on numerous levels. The album is distributed by Blind Pig – an independent blues label – but this is no hard-boiled blues record. Karp doesn't possess incendiary guitar chops like Nick Moss or Stevie Ray Vaughan and his voice doesn't pierce skin or bone, but that doesn't mean he comes to the album unarmed. Other artists ride their virtuosity to fame and fortune. Karp is a virtuoso of a different sort, relying on a stack of songs rather than Marshall stacks.

He's created a singer/songwriter record – a rarity in the blues world -- adorned with traditional elements, but these songs aren't limited to standard 12-bar blues structures or 1-4-5 chord progressions. He blends hints of folk, Americana, honky tonk, blues, and country.

Karp's voice, -- at times reminiscent of Everclear's Art Alexakis -- his everyman delivery, and the restraint he shows in not marrying himself to one style allows him to shift from the shuffling "Dirty Weather" to the swingin' "Rubber Bands and Wire" without losing the listener. "The Grave" borrows heavily from the Stones' cover of "Prodigal Son" from Beggars Banquet and "Air, Fuel, and Fire" blends Chuck Berry and honky tonk. That so many influences and references can exist together on one album is a testament to Karp's abilities as a writer and craftsman.

TV and film have made blue collar life a punchline and country music has turned it into a cartoon, but Karp paints a different picture of blue collar people and blue collar living. The people he sings about aren't filled with the passion for dumbness celebrated and exhibited by certain comedians. They aren't awash in sophistication but they're not bereft of it, either. They find joy in the simple things but they're not simpletons. His great strength is his ability to relate to these ordinary people and situations with wit and humor without talking down to anyone.

"An old fool once cried to me,
'You got fat in them books of facts.'
Wild-eyed he whispered to me,
'All you need to know is in between the
shadows and the cracks.'"

I don't know how you shoehorn a John Hiatt, Jackson Browne, Tom Waits, or Bob Dylan into a specific genre and neither does anyone else. The label is irrelevant because those guys sell records not because they appeal to a certain demographic or fan base but because they write great songs. Karp may not have risen to those heights – yet – but fans of those legends will recognize a kindred spirit when they hear it. - New Jersey Star Ledger