Music

The Players
Sunshine State – Grant Peeples: vocal and resonator guitar. Kelly Goddard, Kim Thomas, Ruth Nickens, and Scott Buchanan: vocals. Mike Stone: drums. Jeff Davis: bass. Scott Buchanan: banjo. Kim
Thomas: mandolin. Danny Goddard: piano, kazoo. Kris Kolp:harmonica.

Little Island – Grant Peeples: vocal. Lis Williamson and Sarah Mac: vocals. Brett Crook: drums. Jeff Davis: bass. Joe Goldberg: baritone sax. Reo Morris and Abbie Rehard: percussion. Danny
Goddard: guitar, B3, nuts.

The Ledger – Grant Peeples: vocal. Danny Goddard: B3

Slouching Towards Bethlehem – Grant Peeples: vocal. Maddy Walsh: vocal. Danny Goddard: Rhodes piano, B3 and electric guitar. Joe Goldberg: baritone sax. Brett Crook: drums. Brian Hall: bass.

Some Times – Grant Peeples: vocal and guitar. Lis Williamson:vocal. Danny Goddard: acoustic and electric guitars. Reo Morris: drums. Kayla Williams: viola. Brian Hall: double bass.

Sins of the Fathers – Grant Peeples: vocal. Sarah Mac, Lis Williamson and Kris Kolp: vocals. Michael Bakan: drums. Brian
Hall: bass. Joe Goldberg: sax. Tarre Nelson: French horn. Danny Goddard: electric guitar, percussion.

Something Else – Grant Peeples: vocal. Danny Goddard: acoustic and electric guitars and percussion. Tarre Nelson: French horn. Joe Goldberg: baritone sax.

Right This Time – Grant Peeples: vocal. Danny Goddard: steel guitar, percussion, electric guitars, acoustic guitar.

An Artist Looks at 80 – Grant Peeples: guitar and vocal.

Code to Live By – Grant Peeples: vocal. Therese Whichello: vocal. David Berry: piano. Joe Goldberg: baritone sax. Dane Harter: double bass. Nygel Anderson: drums.

The Record

Seven years ago my friend Andy Thomas told me that if I ever needed help making a record, he would be willing to underwrite one. I made two others before calling him and asking if the offer still stood. He said absolutely and pulled out his checkbook and we got started.

People who are willing to give artists a lot of money to produce things without any prospect of return—other than to see or hear what gets created—do it for different reasons. Andy told me he did it because: “I wanted more people to hear what you do and I wanted to take some pressure off you so that you could make that happen.”

It took over a year to finish, but here is Code to Live By, my fourteenth record:

1. Sunshine State: This is a song from my first album, long out of print, called Sunshine State, which we recorded live with a jug band;
2. Little Island: This is a song I wrote to my former wife, Cathy. It’s a retrospective of the life we shared during ten years on Little Corn Island, Nicaragua.
3. The Ledger: This is a fire-breathing spoken word piece that I built from a simple essay I read on Substack by the writer Jared Sexton;
4. Some Times: A Mary Gauthier/Vince Gill song I heard debuted by Mary at a festival. I asked for permission to record it before they had…and was given it.
5. Slouching Towards Bethlehem: An Eliza Gilkyson song. A nod to William Butler Yeats and Joan Didion. It’s been around for over fifteen years and seems more relevant today than ever;
6. Sins of the Fathers: A song I began writing almost forty years ago during the Palestinian Intifada, but needed, I’m afraid, another hundred thousand or so souls to be killed before it all came into focus and I could get it finished;
7. Something Else: a love song I’m not going to talk about or answer questions about;
8. Right This Time: A Danny Goddard song that’s an allegory to striking a match and burning down the house. He plays six instruments on it.
9. An Artist Looks at 80: A tune I do solo, just me and guitar, that’s a tribute to the great Tallahassee artist, Jimmy Roche, which I wrote for him on his 80th birthday;
10. Code to Live By: And then there’s the title cut, which I guess you’d call is a self-reflection, an explanation, maybe, of and how I’m built. Or at least how I think I’m built. Regardless, we brought in an FSU jazz quartet and cut it live.

I have no illusions about how high this ball is going to bounce. At this point in my life there are no songs I can write or records I can make that are going to change the arch of my career. Which is liberating. And this record, I feel, reflects that liberation. It wasn’t made with an eye on anything. We made it with our eyes closed.

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