FTV: Till I Turn Blue

 

     Late in May, I got a sonic treat of epic proportions when Gary Tanin, our friend at Daystorm Music in Milwaukee, sent us an early copy of Peggy James’ new album.  First the disclaimer – I have had the opportunity to preview several of Peggy’s albums.  With each and every one of them, I have told Gary, “Wow – this is Peggy’s best record yet.”  I was only halfway through the opening track when I grabbed my phone and repeated myself.  If the first track pulls me into an album, I am rarely disappointed with the whole package and Till I Turn Blue is no exception.

     Peggy James is a Milwaukee singer/songwriter with so many gifts, it is hard to describe her albums without repeating myself.  She is an artful storyteller.  Her melodies are hard to forget.  The arrangements always make you feel something.  Every time a new layer is introduced in a song’s arrangement, it gets better.  There are only so many superlatives one can use to describe the guitar work I hear on this album because it is all good.  No, not good, it is all great and we will come back to that thought in a bit.

     Listening to a Peggy James song is like watching Bob Ross paint.  Ross would start with a blank canvas and as you watch him add layer upon layer, a picture emerges.  Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, he adds another dab here and there and suddenly, it pops to life.

I can’t think of another artist since Joni Mitchell arrived on the scene who can make the combination of stories, voice, and musical ingredients come alive like Peggy James.  

     The opening track (Compensation) is typical of how Peggy tells stories.  It doesn’t matter if they are based on the real world or come from her imagination because they connect with the listener on many levels.  The bouncy beat coupled with layers of guitar and backing vocals are the perfect vehicles to carry the ‘lead instrument’ – namely Peggy’s vocals.  There Must Be Gold features more of the same and the ‘ya done me wrong’ Texas swing of So Over You puts you smack in the middle of a roadhouse honky tonk.  The ‘pop’ in the accents add a nice touch to First Kiss followed by another chapter in the James book of stories, the rags to riches theme of Eyes on the Horizon.  Eyes starts with a simple strum and builds as layers are added in each new verse.  Lovely tremolo guitar and full chorus vocals add so much to the track’s vibe.

     More ‘jangly guitar’ carries A Walk With You and Loneliest Girl, both songs that could have come straight off of a Smithereens album.  Stuck on the Tracks has a clip-clop rhythm and lap steel guitar base that bears witness to the ‘country girl’ in James.  One of the things I loved about The Doors albums back in the day was drummer John Densmore’s ability to introduce jazz and latin beats into their hit songs.  I find the same bounce in the rhythm and guitar lines in the title track, Till I Turn Blue.  O.Winston Link, You’re Still the Highlight, and Isn’t Anybody Coming?  end the record with a strong flourish.  The chorus of the last track seems to be a sad reflection about war (or just about our times) (This is a war that we have not made / How high this price we’ve got to pay? / Isn’t anybody coming to our aid?), but yet it left me feeling like all is not lost.  Whether or not Peggy meant it as a rallying cry to move people past the malaise we might be feeling with things in such turmoil, I heard it that way.  When we are on the bubble, who will come to our aid if we don’t aid others who are in trouble?  The song rises beyond being a simple anti-war anthem for the new millennium – it is a call for empathy we all need to hear.

     I do not think I have been too effusive in my praise of Peggy’s catalog of work.  Her last two albums (Paint Still Wet and The Parade) were released in 2020 and 2021 both made it into the Top 100 of Goldmine magazine’s year end list of Fabulous Songs.  Till I Turn Blue is her sixth album and the third produced by guitarist / multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Jim Eannelli.  He has proven over and over that he and James know how to arrange her songs for maximum effect.

     Eannelli reminds me of a story Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter tells about working with famed studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco.  At one session they worked together, the producer kept changing his mind about what he wanted on a track.  Every time he suggested Tedesco try a different instrument, Tommy would bend down behind the baffle and pick up the requested instrument, be it a baritone guitar, bazzouki, electric guitar, or whatnot.   He would then play a sample for the producer who eventually said, “Yeah, that’s the one I want.”  When the session ended, Skunk looked over the baffle and saw the only instrument Tedesco had with him was one guitar.  Baxter said he learned it was all in Tedesco’s hands but it added a whole new meaning to what the term ‘multi-instrumentalist’ meant.  I am not sure how many instruments Eannelli uses (or if he has worked for the Department of Defense like Baxter did for a while), but I can hear what he brings to the party on Peggy’s albums and it is all good.   

     With a release date of June 27, 2025 on Happy Growl Records, look for the album at record stores or at E-Bay.com.  More information can be found at facebook.com/PeggyJamesMusician.

     Many thanks to our friend Gary Tanin at Daystorm Music for sending us an advanced copy of Till I Turn Blue.  It is high time that Peggy James’reputation as a gifted Americana singer/songwriter spreads out from the cozy confines of the mid-west and Nashville. 

Top Piece Video:  An older Peggy James track from seven years ago – In One Ear and Out the Other