May 5
$14.00

Pierce Pettis has been hailed as one of the “most vital and critically acclaimed folk stars of recent years” by Performing Songwriter magazine. “My motive — that is, if I have a motive,” muses the songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist “is to write songs that connect people to themselves and to each other. I’m no sage: the best thing I can do is remind us all of what we already know.”

As a native of DeKalb County, Alabama, the images of the South in social transition had a powerful impact on Pettis as he grew up. The driving sounds of the British invasion in the sixties first inspired Pierce to pick up the guitar, but his college-aged sister’s folk music records were equally resonant. Writing songs as soon as he got his first six-string, Pierce’s influences converged into a pliable sound that drew from rock, folk, country, and R&B, informed by a spiritual yearning and a poet’s eye for detail. One of his earliest professional experiences was as a young staff writer in Muscle Shoals, Alabama when the small, dry southern town was emerging as one of the nation’s leading recording centers. From there, he emerged as a performer in his own right, recording a trio of acclaimed albums for Windham Hill Records, having his songs cut by such artists as Garth Brooks, Joan Baez, Art Garfunkel, and Claire Lynch, and garnering a devoted following that continues to span generations and musical boundaries. Over the course of three albums for Nashville-based indie Compass Records — “Making Light of It” (1996), “Everything Matters” (1999) and “State of Grace” (2001) — Pettis has continued to refine his unique musical and lyrical sensibility.

Pierce’s newest album, “Great Big World,” is perhaps his most evocative and powerful to date, the result of over two years of writing, recording, and song selection. The individual songs interact beautifully within the landscape implied by the title, illuminating the tension between Pettis’ two primary fascinations. “I often say I have only two themes in my writing: alienation and grace,” he explains. “All the songs on this album explore these themes, on different levels.” These themes are ushered in by the opening track, Mark Heard’s “Another Day in Limbo.” Each of Pettis’ albums since 1993’s “Chase the Buffalo” has opened with a song from the late spiritual troubadour, for many reasons. “You can say it’s a tribute to him and his influence on my writing,” says Pierce, “which it is. But equally important is that his songs are great jumping off points. They set the attitude and pace, and introduce some of the bigger themes that my songs function within.” What follows is an exquisitely balanced sequence of Pettis compositions and collaborations, carefully selected by Pierce and producer Garry West from Pettis’ vast catalog. The emotional and thematic fulcrum of the album is the disarming title track, co-written with renowned singer/songwriter David Wilcox. It’s a song rooted in a Wilcox family ritual. “It’s kind of like a lullaby,” explains Pierce. “He would tuck his son in at night and say ‘It’s a great big world, it’s a great big world — and a great big love for you.’ Children are afraid at night, but by doing this litany — this benediction — he comforted his son. It really got to the point of what I am trying to say with this album and the duality of alienation and grace. The world is big. It’s scary. Alienation is a natural response, it’s one way of dealing with it, but we’ve to remember that as big as the hurt is, love and grace is bigger. Everything on the album fits under this, and in a way, so does everything in life.”

Reggie Barrett photograph