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All Music Guide:
Charlie Peacock is a musician whose career stubbornly defies simple categorization. He's recorded material that encompasses rock, pop, R&B, country, gospel, Americana, and jazz. He's a singer, an instrumentalist, a songwriter, a published author, and, though he's released more than a dozen albums under his own name, to many he's best known as a Grammy Award-winning, multi-genre record producer.
Charles William Ashworth was born on August 10, 1956 in Yuba City in Northern California, about 40 miles north of Sacramento. Ashworth's father was an educator and musician who played the trumpet and had a taste for jazz. Ashworth inherited his father's love of music, and after immersing himself in the sounds of progressive jazz artists (John Coltrane was a particular favorite), he began studying music theory with his father, and became skilled at the keyboard and the trumpet. In 1977, he left California State University in Sacramento to follow a career in music. He joined a band called the Runners, and a year later he took the stage name Charlie Peacock, borrowing the last name of jazz bassist Gary Peacock.
He began establishing that name on the Northern California music scene, dipping his toes into new wave-influenced pop as well as jazz. Songwriter Steve Holsapple and Sal Valentino of the Beau Brummels are generally credited with discovering Peacock and introducing him to the record business. In 1984, he scored a record deal with Exit Records, a label distributed by A&M, the label he had previously recorded demos for in 1980 with producer David Kahne. His debut album, Lie Down in the Grass, received positive reviews for its eclectic sound and thoughtful, challenging lyrics. On tour he opened for acts such as General Public, the Fixx, Let's Active, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. However, the album's sales were disappointing, and Peacock left A&M to sign with Island, which released his self-titled sophomore effort in 1986.
Peacock's deal with the label was short-lived, and his next three albums were collections of demos and rough tapes titled The West Coast Diaries. Later, the series would be released on Sparrow Records/EMI, a Christian music label (though Peacock has never identified himself as a "Christian artist") that would become his recording home for most of the next decade. His next proper album, 1990's Grammy-nominated The Secret of Time, found him exploring a number of lyrical and songwriting influences, and 1991's Love Life was a bold effort to fuse themes of spiritual, romantic, and physical love. By this time, Peacock was enjoying a fruitful second career as a songwriter, composing tunes in a variety of genres for dc Talk, Margaret Becker, Philip Bailey, Out of the Grey, and Bourgeois Tagg. His songwriting career hit a new level in 1991, when "Every Heartbeat," a tune he wrote for Amy Grant, became a major chart hit, rising to number two on Billboard's Hot 100. Over the next decade, Peacock would also produce close to 50 albums' worth of material for a variety of gospel and contemporary Christian music acts including Twila Paris, Al Green, Audio Adrenaline, and Nicole Nordeman. For three consecutive years during the 1990s he was named the Gospel Music Association's Producer of the Year.
The 2000s represented Peacocks most vocationally diverse decade to date, including a return to an early love -- jazz and improvisational music. As a jazz artist, Peacock's recordings include Love Press Ex-Curio, which featured saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, and an improvisational duo project he made with Dave Matthews Band saxophonist Jeff Coffin. That date also featured guitarist Marc Ribot. Titled Arc of the Circle, the album peaked at number two on the CMJ jazz charts in 2008. In addition, Peacock served as senior A&R consultant to EMI and Sony/ATV, co-produced Switchfoot's multi-platinum Top 40 pop hit "Dare You to Move" (he discovered and signed the band), and produced artists from Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe to Sara Groves and Sam & Ruby.
Peacock's many endeavors in the a oughts include working in film and television as a music supervisor, and as writer/director/producer for the short film The Legend Hank Cochran (2010), starring Merle Haggard, Elvis Costello, Lee Ann Womack, and Jamey Johnson. Peacock was also music producer/film producer/director for Brooke Waggoner's Go Easy Little Doves concert DVD, and producer for the award-winning Any Day Now documentary.
A longtime advocate for social justice, Peacock has worked directly with the ONE Campaign for a decade, a fruitful relationship that began in 2002 when he hosted co-founder Bono and, later, ONE president David Lane, putting them in front of Nashville's artist community.
The music producer also helmed the the Civil Wars' Poison & Wine EP, featuring the breakout hit from Grey's Anatomy, and produced their double Grammy Award-winning gold record, Barton Hollow. In 2012 Peacock recorded and produced his own return to vocal music, the folk/Americana-flavored No Man's Land, as well as Holly Williams' The Highway (including guests Jackson Browne, Jakob Dylan, Dierks Bentley, and Gwyneth Paltrow) and Keith & Kristyn Getty's Hymns for the Christian Life (featuring guest performances from Alison Krauss and Ricky Skaggs).
Wikipedia:
Charles William Ashworth (born, August 10, 1956) better known by the stage name Charlie Peacock is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, record producer, session musician and author. While growing up in California Peacock began playing the piano. After completing his education he formed a band and began a career as a professional musician. His albums include the instrumental jazz recordings Love Press Ex-Curio and Arc of the Circle (Runway) and his latest vocal project No Man's Land (101). Peacock has been part of the creative team for several successful songs and albums including Amy Grant's "Every Heartbeat" (1991), Switchfoot's "Dare You to Move" (2003) and the The Civil Wars' album Barton Hollow in 2011.
Early life [edit]
Peacock was born in Yuba City, California and his father was a trumpeter and educator. As a youth he was inspired by the music of John Coltrane. During junior and senior high Peacock received instrumental and theory instruction from his father and a local educator. Peacock, then known as Chuck Ashworth, left Yuba City High School after his junior year at the age of 16.
Career [edit]
After leaving the California State University, Sacramento in 1976 Peacock began playing jazz piano in the band, The Runners. He collaborated with bassist Erik Kleven, guitarist Robert Kuhlman, drummers Scott Usedom, Jimmy Griego and Aaron Smith, trumpeters Tom Peron and Larry Lunetta, saxophonist's Darius Babazadeh, Mike Butera, and Joe Espinoza, bassist Alphonza Kee, percussionist Bongo Bob Smith, guitarist Henry Robinett and others. He met author Frank Kofsky at California State University in Sacramento and through him met various jazz artists such as Andrew Hill. Peacock honored the late Dr. Frank Kofsky in his composition "Frank the Marxist Memorial Gong Blues" on the album Love Press Ex-Curio in 2005.
1978 to 1999 [edit]
In 1978, songwriter Stephen Holsapple recorded Peacock's vocal compositions and they began writing songs together. Peacock started performing at Maurice's American Bar and his song "So Attractive" was placed with a music publisher. Vocalist and songwriter Sal Valentino asked Peacock to join his band and gave Peacock's music to his industry friends. Finally in 1980 A&M Records signed Peacock for a demo recording with producer David Kahne.
Peacock formed a band called The Charlie Peacock Group with Erik Kleven (bass), Jim Caselli (drums), Darius Babazadeh (tenor saxophone) and guitarist, Mark Herzig. Peacock also recorded with David Kahne at the Automatt and at Moon Studios with Stephen Holsapple during this period and those recordings became the album Last Vestiges of Honor which was released in 1998. Peacock contracted with a production imprint company called Exit Records in early 1983 and released his own debut solo album Lie Down In The Grass in 1984. Later that year Peacock began touring as an opening act for The Fixx, Let's Active, General Public, Missing Persons, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Peacock moved to Island Records and recorded a self-titled album that was released in 1986. During this period Peacock also began playing jazz in an electric improvisational band called, Emperor Norton. The band consisted of Peacock, Brent Bourgeois, Larry Tagg, Bongo Bob Smith, Henry Robinett, and Aaron Smith. After being released from Island records in 1988 Peacock joined Jimmy Abegg and Vince Ebo to form an acoustic trio that toured the USA and Europe.
In 1987, Peacock's song ("Down In The Lowlands") was recorded by contemporary Christian artist Russ Taff with Peacock singing background vocals. That same year Peacock produced the Christian band, The Choir. He then co-wrote songs with Margaret Becker in the fall of 1988 and the subsequent album, Immigrant's Daughter was nominated for a Grammy award. Peacock moved to Nashville in the Summer of 1989 and received a recording contract with Sparrow Records. His recording, The Secret of Time was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1990 (Best Rock Gospel) as Peacock continued to perform production and session musician work with Al Green, Twila Paris, and Amy Grant. He co-wrote Grant's No. 2 single "Every Heartbeat".
From 1990 to 1999 Peacock produced over fifty albums in the Christian and gospel music genre and founded the record company, re:think (EMI/Sparrow) and signed the artists Sarah Masen and Switchfoot. Peacock's book, At the Crossroads, a commentary on the genre of contemporary Christian music, was published by Broadman & Holman in 1999.
2000 to present [edit]
On on March 9, 2004, Peacock, released Full Circle: A Celebration of Songs and Friends commemorating his 20-year anniversary as a solo recording artist.
In 2005 Peacock released his first commercial jazz/improvisational music CD titled Love Press Ex-Curio, short for Loves Pressure Exhibits Curiosity. According an article in the Runway Network/RED "while Peacock has consistently pushed the boundaries of pop and gospel music by adding elements of alternative rock, dance music and jazz, he has never before delved into jazz as unabashedly and wholeheartedly as he does on Love Press Ex-Curio".
In 2008, Peacock recorded the Arc of the Circle (Runway) with saxophonist Jeff Coffin and the album peaked at No. 2 on the CMJ Jazz Charts. The album's original tracks, were recorded at Peacock's Nashville home. The album also featured guitarist Marc Ribot, drummer Derrek Phillips, electronica player Tony Miracle, percussionist Ken Lewis, keyboardist/percussionist Chad Howat, and tuba player Joe Murphy. A review in Abstract Logix said the album contained "high-risk improvisational music" with "eclectic influences" that kept the sound "bluesy and essentially American." A Jazz Times review described it as “an improvisational blend of modern classical and ECM-like influences.”
In 2009, Peacock was the executive producer of music for the documentary Any Day Now, and in 2010 he co-founded the artist development and music publishing company Twenty Ten Music with businessman David Kiersznowski. Peacock was also the writer/director/producer for the film The Legend Hank Cochran and music producer/film producer/director for Brooke Waggoner’s concert DVD And the World Opened Up. During this period, Peacock produced the album Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars and the song "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go" by Isaac and Anna Slade, and produced and performed on Jon Foreman's EPs Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer.
In October 2012, Peacock released the album, No Man's Land, his first vocal project since 1999. A reviewer at Paste Magazine described the album as reaching "deep into the roots of American music".
Reception [edit]
He has been noted as a unique musical and lyrical voice, intelligent, innovative, and difficult to categorize.
Personal life [edit]
He began working with DATA and The ONE Campaign in 2002, placing co-founder Bono and ONE President David Lane in front of Nashville's artist community.
