This is the Listening page. For downloads & purchases go here
In May 2015, I released my first official self produced single “No, Father”, from the upcoming album “Worth The Wait”, on my own, through iTunes, Google Music, and Amazon. It was an amazing process of learning in both technical aspects and more. The project was to lead off a series of singles of the album to be released on September 1, 2015 but life got in the way – again – and the album itself has been pushed back to hopefully just 2016.
You can still purchase the single on all the avenues listed above and it is also streaming on Spotify and available through my artist profile page at Reverbnation, where my efforts took me all the way to #6 on the Austin Pop Music charts, a feat that I am still quite proud of, considering this is definitely a home grown, grass-roots effort at best.
I don’t proclaim to be the most hip artist around. My influences go way back to the 70’s and 80’s and a lot of my output is covers because I don’t have a band and I sing what can get a hold of track wise. I stay busy to keep my mind occupied – mainly to stay out of trouble – and time does not always permit me to work on my original material as I want and need to due to other obligations. But that will change.
I can, however, say that I sing, and write, what is in my heart, and it my soul. “No, Father” was the scariest thing I’ve ever set to music… and it dealt with a lot of demons. Demons that continued to haunt me even after the song was out. Fortunately those seem to have dwindled now for the most part and I’m moving on to bigger and better – and much brighter – things… The follow up single, being worked on now, is called “The Color Of Light” and I promise you, it’s quite amazing. After that comes “Grace”….and a re-working of “It’s Alright”, a demo tune that reached #1 on dropmusic.net in March of 2015 as a “test subject” when this album started taking form.
Music has always been my salvation – it never lies to me…. and I don’t think it ever will…
I have a profile on SoundCloud that has many recordings on it, some good, some not so good, but they’re me, they’re real, and they’re honest. There’s a 2015 playlist that has 21 songs on it, all remastered to the best of my technical abilities including some songs that I’ve always wanted to sing – many in just demo form, but they’re still “me”. I’m hoping some day a producer will hear what I hear from my heart, and help make it perfect…. and let me share what is in my heart. That bigger picture HAS to mean something.
Enjoy-
K
p.s. You can also find my original material on Jango Radio, where it is receiving quite favorable reviews.
PREVIOUS UPDATES TO THIS PAGE
12/11/2014 added:
“Morningside”, cover of Neil Diamond’s classic song…a beautiful and haunting tune. (unmastered)
7.12.2014 Update
Happy to say that the “Worth The Wait” project is up & running and kicking butt. The first song is near lyric ready and the music is in process of starting to be written. I’ve purchased a brand new Korg microSTATION music keyboard that is AMAZING and I’m thrilled with it will be able to do and create. I’ve landed a video director and we’re seeing eye-to-eye on video conceptualization. The major beginning pieces of this part of the journey – the furthest so far in this amazing project – have fallen into place like a well oiled machine. I am extremely blessed and excited….almost too many wonderful emotions to count. Stay tuned. Right now targeted initial release of the first single, “No, Father” is May or June, 2015, 3 months before the album drops in September.
I have a new logo I’ll be using until further notice, created by my good friend Sean Avidano. It will be integrated into the marketing aspects of #Worth The Wait going forward. It’s the logo at the top of the page. The version you see here is altered a bit from what he supplied but it’s still his general beginning design & font idea.
The rest of 2014 will be an amazing experience – buckle up!
music & me –
by kenny peters
Music – it’s been the one single force in my life that has kept me sane and even kept me alive, next to my mother and my partner. it’s no secret that i’ve been through a couple of major depressive episodes in my life. two extreme major events, both of which led me down roads that only pointed towards suicide. music has been the source i can turn to for inspiration, hope, love, comfort, both in lyric content and just pure enjoyment of the sounds made by the combination of instruments. i can get enjoyment from just about anything from a simple piano piece to a full orchestra, from a 3 piece jazz trio to a blasting rock band – it just has to fit what ever mood my brain is in at the time.
the start of my love affair with music began when i was a very young child, less than 5 years old, when my mom, who’d quit her job to stay home with me until I started school, played records at home when cleaning the house. i’d listen and be fascinated that something so beautiful could come off of these little plastic and vinyl discs. they were like magic to me. the biggest turning point was one day while riding in our old beat up ford station wagon…something we’d do to escape pressures of home which were slowly starting to rise. I was 5 years old. we were driving around white rock lake in dallas, tx and a song began playing on the radio that completely captured my attention. a simple piano and harmonica intro, and then this voice…a silky hand that came out of the radio and wrapped itself around me, as if the singer were singing just for me, and it held me solely and individually for the entire song. i turned to my mother at the end of the song and told her “I like that song”. She replied that she did too and shortly thereafter bought the album for me. I still have that vinyl copy 40 years later….
the song? “Rainy Days & Mondays” by the carpenters and the voice of the incredible karen carpenter, who of course the world lost in 1983 due to complications from anorexia nervosa. the impact that karen & richard’s music left on my life was undeniable and pushed me toward a world of music that i never wanted to leave.
the song also made its way into my own tribute to their contribution to my life, in my original composition “My Song For You (for Karen)”, [recorded 199] that you can hear right here. it takes a few lines both musically and lyrically as well as their vocal style and creates a story of what that moment, and their music brought to me.
My Song For You (for Karen) – from SoundCloud
influences grew from that point to include so many different people, artists and styles. i am a huge barbra streisand fan but it’s in awe of her massive talents in many areas not just as a singer, although I have to say i feel she is unsurpassed in range and interpretation. neil diamond has a place in there mainly because of his electrifying “hot august night” album from 1972 – it’s simply sublime.
as i grew up “harder rock” started catching my ear, but for me, mid-to-late 70’s and early 80’s hard rock for me was journey, chicago, kansas, boston, toto, fleetwood mac….artists that I still appreciate to this day although none of them seem to have retained as much of their artistic integrity as they had in their heyday. journey is still out there doing a great job but lost some of it’s signature sound with steve perry’s unfortunate retirement. chicago….their early stuff was phenomenal, and even though david foster (a producer I greatly admire) brought a huge new level to their commercial success starting in 1982 and running through the remainder of that decade, he over-contemporized their sound and drove most of their original fan base away. they’ve never hit that same stride again. kansas & boston both have had major player lineups and deaths in their founders but keep going, toto as well, and fleetwood mac is actually a group that even though i liked their music in early days, i didn’t recognize exactly just how good and unique they were until many years later, in my late 30s. i’m glad to hear they’re all back together again and touring.
other artists with major influence:
donna summer….an incredibly gifted songwriter and an incredibly gifted singer. most people don’t know just how talented she was and that she wrote most of her own material; the best of which was usually album cuts although the hits were great too. she was also a gifted painter. we lost her to cancer in 2012.
george michael / elton john / kenny loggins / gino vanelli –
these artists shaped me vocally; i was most often compared to george michael when i started singing professionally and i took it as a huge compliment. elton john’s writing is fantastic and although i’m not as fond of his current material as I was of most output through about 10 years ago, he’s still a master. kenny loggins i’ve always liked but he found an incredibly beautiful place in his soul in the early 90’s with “Leap Of Faith” and “The Unimaginable Life”; two albums that shaped my world for years. gino vanelli – an amazing vocalist who I HOPE i get to see in concert in a few weeks in an ultra rare tour appearance through texas.
many more to list & think of but this will work for now.
i began singing after high school – found my voice and just went from there; how I ever gained the confidence to get out in front of people at that age and try to sing, in a contest of all things where the contestants were all drag queens, except for me, I’ll never know. but i was so well received and ended up winning several in a row and after this pattern continued i was finally asked to join the regular cast at the old plantation in 1984. i spent the next few years as a singer in these shows and then at the blue mill with the incredible paul allen playing piano accompanying me. the confidence boost was fantastic and led me to reaching for more. opportunities started presenting themselves and within a few years i actually had an opportunity to sign with a major label (not naming it here). it looked like everything was a “go”; i gave my notice at my apartments, made my plans to move to CA and then…..the label reorganized literally the day before i was to leave, and they dropped every single unsigned artist, along with several established well known artists, and i was left with nothing but a plate full of broken dreams.
i rebuilt, reorganized and kept trying. different venues, different things, and then this karaoke thing…. well that’s another story.
let it suffice to say at this point my energies are squarely focused on music and acting and if things go right, i’ll be doing those things the rest of my life and hopefully doing them successfully enough to make my living from them. it’s the only thing i think will truly make me happy.
A few other recordings; nothing major, no major in-studio work, mostly home studio, indicated after the title as to whether home, studio or karaoke.
2014
I’m about to embark on the most ambitious music journey of my lifetime. “Worth The Wait”, which has been in my head for over 25 years will see the light of day on my 50th birthday, September 1, 2015. I am about to reveal my soul, pain and all, to the world and while there’s a very scary element to that I also know that it’s the only way to fully cleanse myself of the past. The past and the trappings of it, can have horrible ways of preventing you from truly moving on with your life. You can even think that you’ve let go, only to find you really haven’t. I invite you to visit the project’s website at www.worththewaitproject.com and click the “about” page to see the topics that will be examined the albums concept matter. It’s heady, but it’s also going to make for some killer music along the way. Lyrics are in process as we speak. I hope you’ll stay tuned.
