Pierce Pettis

"My motive -- that is, if I have a motive," muses songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Pierce Pettis, "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."

It is with this thought echoing in his mind that Pettis set about crafting his eighth and newest album, the evocative and powerful Great Big World. The result of over two years of writing, recording, and diligent song selection, Great Big World is Pettis' most affecting and insightful collection yet. 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. "About a year before any recording started," Pettis explains, "Garry and I went through dozens of songs -- probably well over a hundred." For his last album, 2001's acclaimed State of Grace, Pettis undertook a rigorous and scientific approach to choosing the right songs. "I took surveys, measured responses, and really stuck to it," he recalls. "This time it was a little looser. I let the songs assert themselves, and I listened not for what I thought was the better song, but which song sounded best alongside the others."

Performing these songs in concert over the past two years also helped narrow the selection. "I've been performing "Leonardo" at most of my shows, and the audiences react very strongly," he says of the song, which reflects upon the prodigious accomplishments of Leonardo da Vinci. "Leonardo's life perfectly captures my preoccupation with alienation and grace. He existed outside of society, yet he was clearly blessed somehow. People didn't understand him then, and we are only beginning to understand him now. He was disconnected to reality -- or maybe just connected to a better reality."

Coming to terms with reality is a theme also explored in the bittersweet "Alabama 1959," in which the five-year-old narrator slowly becomes aware of the ongoing civil rights struggles of the time. "I had just seen these old home movies that my parents had taken," Pettis says, "and I saw this parade scene " and these people I hadn't seen in thirty years. The song was born from that, as memories of my upbringing returned to me. Growing up in the south at that time, you eventually come to the realization that what you've known up until then isn't right. Those memories are innocent and yet very messed up at the same time."

As a native of DeKalb County, Alabama, the indelible images of the American south in social transition had a powerful impact on Pettis as he grew up. The driving sounds of the sixties British invasion first inspired him to pick up the guitar, but his college-aged sister's folk records were equally resonant. Writing songs immediately upon obtaining his first six-string, his influences converged into a pliable sound that draws from rock, folk, country, and r&b, informed by a soulful, 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.

Set for release on August 3, 2004 on Compass, Great Big World finds Pierce and producer Garry West opting for a more uncluttered sonic landscape. "We consciously tried to clear the air," says Pettis. "More space, more distance between the different registers. You hear a lot more. In fact, this is the first record since Chase the Buffalo where we did eighty percent of it live, in the studio, with me singing and playing live with a band. Every vocal and guitar track is live. From there, we did some choice overdubs with a handful of great players."

Those live-in-the-studio tracks, featuring drummer Kenny Malone, Pettis' own distinctly nimble fingerstyle guitar, and either acoustic bassist Danny Thompson or West on electric bass, set the tone for each subsequent addition. "We kept the core solid," Pettis notes. "When you play live -- as opposed to layering everything separately -- you always get someplace different from when you started. The interplay of the musicians always takes you somewhere. Then, when people like Dan Dugmore, Andrea Zonn, Reese Wynans, and Alison Brown came in to overdub parts, they could tell exactly where they fit in. The basic tracks were so organic, they knew instinctively just what to do."

This sensitivity to detail and space serves the songs well, throwing each observation, motion, and subtlety into higher relief. The tender torment of "Black Sheep Boy" glistens with a delicate clarity that perfectly serves its tale of a wayward spirit. "That song speaks for itself," Pettis declares. "Most parents will read between the lines, and understand the song instantly. There is always a child who gets in trouble, but isn't bad. He's misunderstood, but his soul is so purely good. He's just out of sync. Again, it's a character that is alienated, yet touched by grace."

Similarly, "Anybody's Girl" uncovers grace in the midst of intense despair. "I co-wrote that song with the great bluegrass artist Claire Lynch and an Italian songwriter named Fabrizio Casalino, who is better known as a television writer in Italy. He writes the number one comedy show there, actually! We based it on a painting by Fred Folsem. Fred is a recovered alcoholic who revisits his old haunts and paints them. This particular piece was called Last Call (At the Shepherd Park GoGo Club). It shows people in various states of desperation. In the center, there is this stripper. She's naked, but more vulnerable and pure than sexual. She's very angelic, like Botticelli's Birth of Venus. She became "Anybody's Girl" -- a symbol of grace."

The emotional and thematic fulcrum of the album is the disarming title track, co-written with the 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."