Pierce Pettis

The breakthrough for Alabama singer-songwriter Pierce Pettis arrived when Joan Baez selected his composition "Song at the End of the Movie" for her 1979 album Honest Lullaby. During the 1980s he participated in New York's Fast Folk scene together with Shawn Colvin and Suzanne Vega. His independent debut Moments appeared in 1987 and remains, for some listeners, the strongest of his recordings. Between 1991 and 1996 High Street Records issued four albums—Tinseltown, While the Serpent Lies Sleeping, Chase the Buffalo, and Making Light of It—that earned strong critical notice without reaching a broad public. Fellow performers nevertheless began placing his material on their own records; Dar Williams recorded "Family" for Mortal City, and Garth Brooks included "You Move Me" on the hit album Sevens. Pettis has consistently emphasized songwriting itself, working at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and later serving as a staff writer for PolyGram Publishing in Nashville. In 1998 he moved to Compass Records and delivered Everything Matters, a set of incisive character studies whose more polished and seasoned tone owes much to producer Gordon Kennedy, the Grammy winner recognized for his contributions to Eric Clapton's "Change the World."