Travel to the song links for Peter’s comments and lyrics + 30-second soundbites, too.
Peter’s songs published by Chewed Pencil Music Inc.
(ASCAP).
Dancing on a Long Leash CD release party!
Free admission
Friday, November 6, 2009, 7 pm to 9 pm
Peter King, vocals/guitar
Marc Reisman, harmonica
Mark Perna, bass
Don Aliquo Sr., sax/flute
Heather Kropf, vocals/keyboard
Mark Weakland, drums
Jeff Berman, percussion
special guests
Heather Kropf
opening Club Cafe, 56-58 South 12th Street, Pittsburgh (South Side), PA 15203 • 412.431.4950
(See Peter’s other upcoming performances, too.)
Have a question or a comment or even a shaggy dog story for Peter? Contact him.
Interior ilustration by Daniel Marsula
About "Dancing on a Long Leash", CD release party and beyond
“Dancing on a Long Leash,” guitarist/singer/songwriter Peter King's second full-length CD, will be unleashed at a CD release party on Friday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. at Club Cafe. The performance will feature many of the CD's musicians: Marc Reisman, harmonicas; Mark Perna, bass; Mark Weakland, drums/vocals; Jeff Berman, percussion, and Heather Kropf, keyboards/vocals.
Special guests will include saxophonist Don Aliquo Sr., clarinetist Lou Schreiber and accordion player Henry Doktorski.
Heather Kropf will kick off the festivities with a short solo set.
King's latest recording
“Dancing on a Long Leash” follows “The Road to Ubatuba,” which was named a “notable release” of 2006 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The new CD further demonstrates King's knack for writing moody, melodic, intelligent tunes that venture into the crossroads where blues and jazz meet the singer-songwriter tradition. The 12 songs on “Dancing on a Long Leash” range from the upbeat shuffle “That's My Girl” (written for the composer's wife) to the samba-influenced “Don't Play That Song” to a wistful, deliberately low-key version of Van Morrison's “Brown Eyed Girl.”
“Number One in Liechstentein” (humor alert!) tells the story of a delusional unknown who takes the stage at an open mike and proclaims his genius.
“Connoisseur of Lawns” contains the line “My best friend's dancing on his long leash, like I'm dancing on mine” from which the CD takes its title. The song is about Oliver, the composer's black lab/golden retriever, but it's not a children's song – and it's not just about a dog.
"That song and the CD's title, 'Dancing on a Long Leash,' took shape on the many late nights I would walk with Ollie through the streets of Aspinwall, O'Hara and Fox Chapel," King says. "Walking your dog is ordinary, right? But on a quiet summer evening with a thousand stars in the sky, I felt magic in everything. I tried to express what is essentially inexpressible through music."
That magic was conjured up with the help of many of Pittsburgh's best musicians: keyboardist Max Leake (Roger Humphries), Reisman (Joe Grushecky, Ernie Hawkins, Bill Toms), Schreiber (Five Guys Named Moe), Perna (Leslie Smith, Don Aliquo Sr.), Weakland and Berman (both frequent guests with The Newlanders, whose Doug Wilkin co-produced “Long Leash”) and others.
“I've traveled enough to say with conviction that, for a relatively small city, Pittsburgh is bubbling over with good musicians, from pop to jazz to classical,” King remarks. “I'm fortunate to have been able to learn from and tap into that deep pool of Pittsburgh talent.”
King's education actually began much earlier: He started guitar lessons at the age of 4 while growing up in suburban Philadelphia. He studied classical music as an undergrad at Penn State and, much later, jazz at Duquesne University, where he obtained an M.A. in guitar performance in 1994.
His teachers included Brazilian/jazz guitarist Marty Ashby, who heads MCG Jazz, Duquesne University guitar chair Bill Purse, and the legendary arranger John “Doc” Wilson.
Equally important were his “informal” teachers – a universe of recordings and live performances he absorbed growing up, from Mississippi John Hurt to James Taylor to Steely Dan. A self-described musical omnivore, King listens to everything -- from Brazilian pop such as Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes to Pittsburgh's late, great jazz drummer Art Blakey to French impressionist composers Ravel and Debussy.
Perhaps that openness to diverse sounds stems from his years as pop music critic at the now-defunct Pittsburgh Press, and his writings on jazz and classical guitar while a copy editor and Web specialist at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He still writes free-lance for the PG and other publications.
King also teaches guitar lessons and music classes. His course “Darkness, Spark and Fire: The Music of Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor,” will be offered at Pitt's Osher Center in early 2009.
The presence of Time hangs over more than one of the songs on "Dancing on a Long Leash," which, after all, was created by a man who is not quite young any longer.
"I'm a bit of a late bloomer,” King says. “If you're lucky, as you get older you get truer to yourself.”
Admission to the Nov. 6, 7 p.m. “Dancing on a Long Leash” CD release party at Club Cafe is free. Seating is unreserved. Please come early. For more information, call Club Cafe at 
412-431-4950
or visit www.peterkingmusic.com.
"Dancing on a Long Leash" is now available as a hard-copy CD or a digital download at www.cdbaby.com. It will soon be available at area Borders stores and at iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody and other online music stores, along with "The Road to Ubatuba."
