Roots and Rhythm: A Life in Music
Ebook
A beautifully crafted memoir unveiling the ancestral, musical, and spiritual roots of Grammy Award-winning music producer Charlie Peacock.
In this artful memoir, Grammy Award–winning music producer Charlie Peacock flexes his literary chops and gives readers the gritty backstage stories they crave: biographical anecdotes, geeky trivia, and how the hits were written and recorded (from jazz to rock and pop). Threaded throughout is Peacock’s unique ancestral and spiritual story—the roots. Like Coltrane, Dylan, and Bono before him, Peacock reveals a Christ-affection while refusing genres too small for his music.
Peacock, the great-grandson of a Louisiana fiddler, is an American musical polymath. He’s been the young jazz musician sitting at the feet of trumpeter Eddie Henderson and pianist Herbie Hancock; the singer-songwriter plucked from the Northern California punk/pop underground by legendary impresarios Bill Graham and Chris Blackwell; a pioneering, innovative contributor to the nascent rise of gospel rock in the 1980s; and the genre-busting producer behind such diverse artists as Al Green, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Chris Cornell, Audio Adrenaline, The Civil Wars, Switchfoot, Turtle Island Quartet, and John Patitucci.
Roots and Rhythm includes Peacock’s seminal NorCal days, the story of indie labels Exit and re:think, his first decade as a Nashville producer (1989–1999), and his essential role in the 21st-century folk/Americana boom (The Civil Wars, Holly Williams, The Lone Bellow). While his exploits and achievements grace the book (including the story of Amy Grant’s “Every Heartbeat” and the evergreen “In the Light”), Peacock is hardly the only character. Instead, he writes as a Joan Didion-style essayist, weaving together a quintessential American story. Beat poet Gary Snyder, evangelist Billy Graham, producer T Bone Burnett, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and writers Wendell Berry and Isabel Wilkerson all appear in this sweeping tale where ancestry, migration, teenage love, Jesus, and Miles Davis collide.
The book is an invitation to all, including aspiring musicians: embrace the roots and rhythm of our own lives, letting the music and God’s insistent love lead us to gratitude and wonder.
“Charlie Peacock, a music artist of high order and deep experience, takes an unblinking, truthful, and, most of all, kind look at a long life in music.”
—T Bone Burnett, Oscar and Grammy Award–winning music producer, recording artist, and composer
“Any musician who raised up a Grammy-nominated songwriter son like Sam Ashworth is a musician worth reading. I should know, Sam and I wrote the Oscar-nominated song ‘Speak Now’ together. This is the story of a music producer and his family that lives the music life like breathing. You can bet this book will be in my library.”
—Leslie Odom, Jr., Tony and Grammy Award winner and two-time Academy Award nominee
“Look up the definition of variety. Charlie Peacock IS the definition of variety—in both his life and career. Roots & Rhythm is a book that begins to explain why he continues to defy genres and labels. I am forever inspired by him and this book is the embodiment of that inspiration.”
—Mike Elizondo, Grammy Award–winning producer, songwriter, and musician (Eminem, Switchfoot, Lauren Daigle, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Twenty One Pilots)
“What makes a great memoir is not just stories from a person’s life, but how those stories are told. Charlie Peacock’s fluid, free-form narrative is infused with earnestness, poetic style and heart. Most rewardingly, it reveals how his relationships, faith, and philosophical ideas have fundamentally shaped his unique and fascinating life in popular music.”
—Scott Derrickson, director, producer, and screenwriter (Doctor Strange, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the Snowpiercer series)
“From center stage to the cocoon of the studio, Charlie takes us into his world of creating music and curating a meaningful life as a whole. His invisible fingerprints as a gifted producer are made visible in this book, and his heart shines through.”
—Joy Williams, Grammy Award–winning recording artist (formerly of The Civil Wars), host of the Apple podcast Southern Craft Radio
“Charlie has a way of nurturing artists in their process and preserving the pure love and vulnerability of songwriting. Roots & Rhythm is a behind-the-scenes look at the legacy I had the pleasure of experiencing when I first started!”
—H.E.R., Oscar and Grammy Award–winning singer-songwriter and recording artist
“We musical improvisers have the power to break and enter into your soul. There’s no sense in resisting. And since we never, ever take, the question is: What will we deposit into your soul? With Roots & Rhythm, my fellow improviser Charlie Peacock is at it again—this time, depositing profoundly thoughtful, impactful words of beauty and insight into God’s big heart for music and justice. By all means read this book.”
—Kirk Whalum, Grammy Award–winning jazz saxophonist and composer
“Working with Charlie Peacock in the studio and on stage changed the artistic trajectory of my life. He never chose the obvious chord, riff, or melody. Instead, he coaxed novel creativity from everyone. His methods made me a better writer, singer and musician—perhaps even a better person, because it got closer to the soul of me than I was willing to explore on my own. I’m excited that he’s finally telling his story and know it will inspire others.”
—Michael Roe, singer-songwriter, cofounder of the rock band The 77s
“Roots and Rhythm is the play of youth with the wisdom of age merging into a beautiful fireworks show. We all desperately need the sorts of honest, sage stories Charlie tells about the artful life—to see, in ourselves, the merging of the girl in the woman, the boy in the man, simultaneously growing more playful, imaginative, and wise.”
—Sara Groves, recording artist and cofounder of Art House North, St. Paul, Minnesota
“Charlie Peacock is a musician who defies labels, categories, and genres. He is a deep searcher of the most serious persuasion. Actually, the term ‘serious’ doesn’t even do him justice. Maybe elevated or undaunted better fits the bill. I love Charlie and how we make music together—how he makes everyone feel welcome. But what I love most is his indomitable spirit and sparkle.”
—Jeff Coffin, Grammy Award–winning saxophonist, solo artist, educator, and member of Dave Matthews Band
“Throughout our over 40-year relationship as friends and musical soulmates, Charlie Peacock has been a mentor and a role model, an advisor both temporal and godly, a source of inspiration as well as income, a shoulder to laugh and to cry on, and a constantly creative and intellectually curious man for all seasons. Roots & Rhythm is Exhibit A of a life well and fully lived.”
—Brent Bourgeois, Bourgeois Tagg (“I Don’t Mind at All”), keyboardist/vocalist (Todd Rundgren), solo artist, and A&R Director for Meta, Inc.
“Charlie Peacock has been a confidant, a co-conspirator, and a creative inspiration ever since we shared the stage of a beer-soaked L.A. club in the 1980s. He has a habit of raising the bar wherever he directs his talents, and this memoir is further proof that his artistic oeuvre contains multitudes.”
—Steve Taylor, solo artist, filmmaker (Blue Like Jazz), record producer (“Kiss Me,” Sixpence None the Richer) and film professor, Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee
“Charlie rearranged all our lives musically when his Planet of Cyborgs vessel descended on ole Music City back in ’89. I was one of the lucky humans impacted by this landing. He is that rare class of musician who becomes the obsession of other musicians. And I’m not just referencing the novices; I’m speaking of musicians who are amongst the most skilled and decorated practitioners of the art, on this planet or any other.”
—Tommy Sims, Grammy Award–winning songwriter, musician and producer; cowriter of “Change the World” by Eric Clapton and bassist for Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, and Michael McDonald
“An historic trailblazer who truly cared and created for our culture, Charlie Peacock has encouraged me to persevere and seek the highest realms of my art, and still (somehow) dare to love Jesus and his Broken body—the church. I am grateful for Roots & Rhythm to reintroduce his work to the next generation, and to the music communities at large.”
—Makoto Fujimura, artist and author of Art and Faith: A Theology of Making
“On the surface, Roots and Rhythm is about the making of a Grammy–winning music producer, but Charlie Peacock’s history is about so much more. With wit and transparency rooted in hard won wisdom and insight, Peacock narrates the rhythms of his story and the artistry and anguish of his ancestors. Charlie’s story as a musician, artist, author, and activist, is that of a vibrant life interwoven with generations of hardship, beauty, and love.”
—Dr. Leah Payne, author of God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music
“I wish I could communicate all the admiration and respect I have for Charlie with a fraction of the artistry he possesses. He is an amazing, soulful storyteller at all times—as an author with Roots & Rhythm, as a musician, improviser, producer, songwriter—and a man of faith, family, integrity and more. I am so very grateful to know him!”
—John Patitucci, Grammy Award–winning bassist, solo artist, educator, and multi-decade collaborator with jazz legends Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter
“Lyrically written and richly textured, Roots and Rhythm is the best sort of memoir: captivating, entertaining, and subtly coaxing readers to live their own lives more wholeheartedly.”
—Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and JohnWayne
“The truest masters always teach over the shoulder and through the heart, inviting others to come alongside and listen carefully to the storied insight of their years. In his new memoir, Charlie Peacock—musician extraordinaire—invites the wide world into his life, sharing about the music and musicians of the modern world as he reflects on the vocation that makes sense of who he is and, why he is, and what he has done. With rare understanding of the nexus of imagination and the marketplace, Roots and Rhythm offers philosophical and theological insight into Charlie’s unique pilgrimage as an artist of unparalleled creativity and surprising generosity, nurturing the hearts and minds of a generation of singers and songwriters who long to learn from the master.”
—Steven Garber, Senior Fellow for Vocation and the Common Good, M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust; author of The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work
- Title: Roots and Rhythm: A Life in Music
- Author: Charlie Peacock
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2025
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781467468619, 9780802884374, 0802884377, 1467468614
- Resource ID: LLS:9781467468619
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-19T05:55:30Z
Charlie Peacock is a Billboard chart-topping musical creator, a six-time Grammy Award-winning music producer (Folk, Country, Rock Gospel), and three-time recipient of the Gospel Music Association’s Producer of the Year award (his recordings and productions exceed 25 million albums). Named by Billboard’s Encyclopedia of Record Producers as one of the 500 most important producers in popular music history, Charlie has produced music for film and television and held executive and A&R positions at EMI/Universal and Sony/ATV. Charlie is the founder of the Universal Music Group imprint re:think; founder and director emeritus of the Commercial Music Program at Lipscomb University; and a longtime advocate for social justice, working directly with International Justice Mission, and the ONE Campaign beginning in 2002 when Charlie and wife Andi hosted co-founder Bono in their home, putting the rock-star activist in front of Nashville’s artist community. Charlie is the creator/host of the Apple Top 100 music podcast Music & Meaning, and continues to create his own jazz/improvisational and singer-songwriter recordings, including Every Kind of Uh-Oh, a full-length vocal album produced by Charlie and his son, Grammy and Oscar-nominated songwriter and producer Sam Ashworth (H.E.R., Andy Grammer, Leslie Odom Jr.).