Local and Live -Peter Wile
Unusually, I met Peter Wile and spoke to him before I saw him play. I knew he played guitar and harmonica, and I talked to him about folk music. I like talking about folk music, and most people’s eyes glaze over pretty quicky. Pete went with it, and even told me he’d met Pete Seeger. Far as I’m concerned, that was pretty much like talking with John the Baptist… “oh, the guy? Yeah, I’ve met him…”
Turns out he isn’t as big a harry chapin fan as he should be, but nonetheless, we spent the better part of that winter on Tuesday nights at Vinyl Night at Ploughmans, with mike Stearns bartending, Pete drinking a Dad’s Hat neat, me with a cider, and the three of us talking about swapping out pickups on telecasters, obscure old David Bowie albums, and basically music nerded it to high heaven. It was glorious.
He would mention a gig he was doing the following weekend, or something, but it was another month or so before I actually got to see him play.
Then this long haired guy who I’d been talking music and joking around with, who took pride in embarrassing me when he met me with a date (“Is he boring the hell out of you, talking about civil war generals and Harry Chapin?”) got up there, tuned up his guitar, and started playing.
It was like the first time I saw Tom Petty in concert. Everything I thought about the man changed. As I recall, he played about 2/3 originals in that set, and the rest, some well curated covers. Mostly old blues and country tunes, one or two Rolling stones songs. Later times when I saw him play, he was up there with Gena Lanette (who we will be talking about soon, believe that), and other great musicians.
In order to explain my thoughts on Peter, I have to digress. Bear with me, please. We’ll get there.
Since I got here to Gettysburg, it’s fair to say I’ve seen and heard a lot of live music. There are some virtuoso musicians who kind of forget there are people out there listening to them, there are acts to insist on playing only originals, which in itself is fine, unless they think G is the only key that exists and they only ever play 5 chords…and this makes up all of their original songs. Same strumming pattern too. It’s cool for your first drink, but ½ hour in, all due respect to their craft, my ass is starting to itch a little.
Then you have what is thankfully the broad majority, which are tremendous entertainers and musicians who play a mix of covers and perhaps a few originals, but in their own voice. I’d drive 50 miles with my dog needing to pee the whole way to hear Jenni Joy do “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, or Hopeless Semantics do “taxi”, or Neil and Shannon…well, hell, they can do pretty much anything. I even like it when they do songs I normally can’t stand.
And when they do an original, it’s fresh and interesting because they already have you engaged. It’s why you come out to see them. I know a good handful of Matt Moriss’s original songs by heart, and I could have a majestically shitty day, and if I’m sitting in ploughmans with a drink hearing Mitch Morrell do “sweet melissa”, well, hell…it’s just all good.
So, having said that, Peter Wile is one of the best live acts I’ve ever had the pleasure to see, Gettysburg or otherwise. Often, he surrounds himself with exceptional musicians and is springsteen-like in his band leading…he’s easily one of the two best harmonica players iv’e ever seen (hi, Cuz), and he is a true professional, TinPan Alley level song writer. Finally, there isn’t a band playing live music who’s set wouldn’t be made better by having Pete stroll up and sit in with them.
Luckily, he and gena are pretty ubiquitous to the local area these days, so do yourself a favor and catch him before fame catches up with him and he starts demanding bowls of all blue M&ms in his green room.
This Machine Kills Fascists, Brother.