Grant Peeples was born in Florida but sees America from the perspective of an outsider after living for over a decade on a small island off the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua.
For his 6th album there are no electric instruments although it doesn't really strike you as an 'unplugged record'. This probably due to the fact that there is such a diversity of backing players e.g. on dobro, violin, trumpet and clarinet.
The dozen tracks are bookended by two poems: My Advice For Pilgrims and A Company Of Treasons. The first launches a challenge to the listener to "smash your idols against the rocks".
In calling his publishing company 'Leftneck Music' Peeples makes no secret of his political leanings. If you have any doubts, he likens a diner to a labour camp on Breakfast In The Gulag and just in case you have still missed the point, the page on the lyric sheet for this song is adorned with a hammer and sickle.
The radical stance continues on Shine, Republic, Shine as the singer takes on the role of a self-appointed spokesman for the enslaved and rails against ignorance: "Bitter is the taste of truth, when blinded by things you can't see", he sings.
In a similar vein, US military policy is questioned in If The Truce Holds which poses the rhetorical question: "If the truce holds, will the blood loss have been worth it?"
Peeples enters domestic territory for Basement Of Her Heart, the sad tale of a women clinging to the memory of her abusive ex-partners. The issue of sexual violence is also the subject of Love Is A Sad Disguise.
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The motif of love as a battleground continues in If I ...., a poignant song of the imagined consequences of a one night stand by Amanda Shires. This is one of two covers, the other being Jack Black's idiosyncratic take on romantic encounters - Love Interruption.
The closing poem, and title track, maintains the provocative opinionated stance to the end with the arresting confession: "Ever since I was a kid all I wanted to be when I grew up was a traitor".
This album is noteworthy as a piece of defiant polemic and makes the case that fence sitting is not an option when it comes to the political and social issues cited.
However, even if you belong to the choir Peeples is preaching to, the high and mighty didactic tone tends to become over emphatic and patronising and thus acts to the detriment of the music.
Grant Peeples' website
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