Biography
Karen Peris, one half of the central duo driving the dreamy alternative folk-pop outfit the Innocence Mission, first appeared on the Billboard 200 with her spouse Don via their inaugural album, the 1989 release titled The Innocence Mission. Her gentle, heartfelt vocal style proved equally suited to wistful renditions of standards such as "Moon River" and "Over the Rainbow" on the group's lullaby-oriented seventh album, Now the Day Is Over, issued in 2004. The band subsequently charted on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums list with 2010's My Room in the Trees. Peris launched her solo career in 2012 via the kindred spirit album Violet. After the Innocence Mission delivered See You Tomorrow in 2020, she followed with the family-oriented solo effort A Song Is Way Above the Lawn in 2021.
Hailing from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they surfaced in the mid-'80s, the Innocence Mission crafts a wistful aesthetic anchored by the husband-and-wife team of Don and Karen Peris. Their early limited EP Tending the Rose Garden came out on Llist Records in 1986. Contemporary Christian artist Amy Grant included a version of one track from it, "Shadows," on her 1988 album Lead Me On, which topped the Christian chart. A&M quickly signed the group and put out their self-titled full-length debut in 1989. That record showcased the quartet of Don and Karen Peris, bassist Mike Bitts, and drummer Steve Brown, and was helmed by producer Larry Klein, at the time married to longtime Innocence Mission admirer Joni Mitchell. The album remained on the Billboard 200 for ten weeks, reaching a high of number 167, and helped position the band within the modern rock landscape alongside comparable folk-pop acts such as 10,000 Maniacs and the Sundays. This same configuration issued two further A&M releases: the Klein-produced Umbrella in 1991 and the more acoustic Glow in 1995, overseen by Dennis Henning (Camper van Beethoven, Throwing Muses). Glow spawned the folky sleeper hit "Bright as Yellow," featured on the Empire Records soundtrack and prompting several tours supporting Natalie Merchant.
Reduced to an acoustic trio following Brown's exit, the Innocence Mission entered a new chapter that defined their trajectory across the ensuing two decades. With Brown contributing to only one track on 1999's Birds of My Neighborhood, they effectively shifted toward chamber folk, Bitts largely switching to upright bass and the spotlight falling on Karen Peris' acoustic compositions. Shortly before that album's arrival, they supplied a cover of John Denver's "Follow Me" for a 1998 tribute collection assembled by Mark Kozelek; the track also appeared on Birds of My Neighborhood. The group opened the new millennium with Christ Is My Hope, a self-released set of traditional hymns and folk songs whose proceeds benefited hunger-relief organizations. Small Planes, a collection of late-'90s recordings made between Glow and Birds of My Neighborhood, surfaced in 2001, the same year Don Peris released his solo debut Ten Silver Slide Trombones. Befriended arrived in 2003 as the band's first outing on Badman Recording Co. A compilation of lullabies and traditional material titled Now the Day Is Over followed in 2004, succeeded in 2006 by another solo project from Don. We Walked in Song, released in 2007, ranked among the Innocence Mission's most acclaimed works of the era, earning broad international distribution and registering on Billboard's Independent Albums chart in the United States.
After the Street Maps EP in 2008, the trio issued the self-produced full-length My Room in the Trees in 2010. A five-year hiatus ensued, during which Karen Peris issued her solo debut Violet in 2012. Retaining their hallmark approach of thoughtful songwriting from the Perises and arrangements that shift between orchestral passages and sparse fingerpicked folk, the Innocence Mission eventually returned with Hello I Feel the Same in 2015 on the co-op label Korda. Following Karen's vocal contribution to former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde's Lost Horizons album in 2017, Raymonde brought the group to his Bella Union imprint. They reemerged in mid-2018 with the richly textured Sun on the Square, their first release for the label. For the subsequent album, the band worked at home, with Karen multi-tracking the majority of instruments while Don and Mike Bitts supplied occasional parts, yielding the sweetly nostalgic See You Tomorrow in 2020. Peris then reunited with Raymonde for a track on Lost Horizons' early 2021 release In Quiet Moments. Her second solo album, A Song Is Way Above the Lawn, appeared on Bella Union in October 2021. This child-oriented project featured input from Don as well as their children Drew and Anna.
Hailing from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they surfaced in the mid-'80s, the Innocence Mission crafts a wistful aesthetic anchored by the husband-and-wife team of Don and Karen Peris. Their early limited EP Tending the Rose Garden came out on Llist Records in 1986. Contemporary Christian artist Amy Grant included a version of one track from it, "Shadows," on her 1988 album Lead Me On, which topped the Christian chart. A&M quickly signed the group and put out their self-titled full-length debut in 1989. That record showcased the quartet of Don and Karen Peris, bassist Mike Bitts, and drummer Steve Brown, and was helmed by producer Larry Klein, at the time married to longtime Innocence Mission admirer Joni Mitchell. The album remained on the Billboard 200 for ten weeks, reaching a high of number 167, and helped position the band within the modern rock landscape alongside comparable folk-pop acts such as 10,000 Maniacs and the Sundays. This same configuration issued two further A&M releases: the Klein-produced Umbrella in 1991 and the more acoustic Glow in 1995, overseen by Dennis Henning (Camper van Beethoven, Throwing Muses). Glow spawned the folky sleeper hit "Bright as Yellow," featured on the Empire Records soundtrack and prompting several tours supporting Natalie Merchant.
Reduced to an acoustic trio following Brown's exit, the Innocence Mission entered a new chapter that defined their trajectory across the ensuing two decades. With Brown contributing to only one track on 1999's Birds of My Neighborhood, they effectively shifted toward chamber folk, Bitts largely switching to upright bass and the spotlight falling on Karen Peris' acoustic compositions. Shortly before that album's arrival, they supplied a cover of John Denver's "Follow Me" for a 1998 tribute collection assembled by Mark Kozelek; the track also appeared on Birds of My Neighborhood. The group opened the new millennium with Christ Is My Hope, a self-released set of traditional hymns and folk songs whose proceeds benefited hunger-relief organizations. Small Planes, a collection of late-'90s recordings made between Glow and Birds of My Neighborhood, surfaced in 2001, the same year Don Peris released his solo debut Ten Silver Slide Trombones. Befriended arrived in 2003 as the band's first outing on Badman Recording Co. A compilation of lullabies and traditional material titled Now the Day Is Over followed in 2004, succeeded in 2006 by another solo project from Don. We Walked in Song, released in 2007, ranked among the Innocence Mission's most acclaimed works of the era, earning broad international distribution and registering on Billboard's Independent Albums chart in the United States.
After the Street Maps EP in 2008, the trio issued the self-produced full-length My Room in the Trees in 2010. A five-year hiatus ensued, during which Karen Peris issued her solo debut Violet in 2012. Retaining their hallmark approach of thoughtful songwriting from the Perises and arrangements that shift between orchestral passages and sparse fingerpicked folk, the Innocence Mission eventually returned with Hello I Feel the Same in 2015 on the co-op label Korda. Following Karen's vocal contribution to former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde's Lost Horizons album in 2017, Raymonde brought the group to his Bella Union imprint. They reemerged in mid-2018 with the richly textured Sun on the Square, their first release for the label. For the subsequent album, the band worked at home, with Karen multi-tracking the majority of instruments while Don and Mike Bitts supplied occasional parts, yielding the sweetly nostalgic See You Tomorrow in 2020. Peris then reunited with Raymonde for a track on Lost Horizons' early 2021 release In Quiet Moments. Her second solo album, A Song Is Way Above the Lawn, appeared on Bella Union in October 2021. This child-oriented project featured input from Don as well as their children Drew and Anna.
Albums
Singles
