Enter Peter Erskine

photo by Elaine Johnson

One day in August as I worked on an arrangement of a new song I muttered to myself,  “I need drums on this song.”  I joked back. “Well Peg, just call Peter Erskine”.
I knew Peter had played on Joni’s 2000 release. Of course, the chances of any contact with this Grammy Award-winning drummer were about one million to one. I sent him a query just in case.

Lo and behold not seventy-two hours later. “Sure, send me some music.” writes Peter Erskine.
So I sent a demo to which he responded saying, “I like the tune. I can hear drums on it .”

Peter recorded a pristine drum track, brought in a few of his virtuoso friends/colleagues, and produced the entire cut. They included Alan Pasqua who is the former keyboardist in one of Bob Dylan’s early outfits. Coung Vu who has toured with Pat Metheny played trumpet and on bass is Peter’s nephew Damian Erskine.

Moving on to other projects the maestro introduced me to the esteemed multi-instrumentalist Jeff Pevar. Jeff was in the Ray Charles Band for three years, toured with Ricki Lee Jones, David Crosby, and others.

Jeff produced and co-produced most of the tunes on this release. His performances are a mainstay of this music. Hear him on keys, drums, bass, guitars and more.