Wendell Berry in the Fields at Night
The Ultimate Condition of Our Experience via Jazz Quintet
We (Andi and I) were introduced to the multi-hyphenate agrarian writer, Wendell Berry, after our eventual move to Nashville in 1989. I took notice that our alternative news weekly, the Nashville Scene, liked to quote and name-check Mr. Berry and a fellow named Will Campbell. With that, our bookshelves expanded to fit their works, and in particular, the Wendell Berry canon. Wendell reminded me of what I admired about poet Gary Snyder with his adoration of the confluence of land and art. Just for pure fun, I name-checked Mr. Berry in the song “Wendell Berry in the Fields at Night” on my 2018 jazz release, When Light Flashes. Thinking of Mr. Berry and this jaunty melody just makes me happy (see video below).
Speaking of happiness. I am content with my station in life—my “just well-knownness” over against relentless branding and Babel’s making a name for myself. I simply like making stuff, that’s it. Which is, I trust/think, a part of the outworking of a spiritual and artistic plot. One true to my calling. Not every person or thing benefits from being scaled from one to a zillion. Now that I've worked for entertainment corporations for 40+ years, I know I wouldn't have. Though my musical-artist career has never been more visible (thanks to streaming), most of my work has been quiet and behind the curtain, writing and producing music for the unknown and little-known, more well-known and the sometimes famous.
I've learned there are different economies at work—and on this topic, Mr. Berry has been more than helpful. I enjoy a good wage and quantifiable success as much as the next person. But I find myself less interested in platform and performance than what poet-farmer Wendell Berry called The Great Economy. Berry wrote: “The Great Economy, like the Tao or the Kingdom of God, is both known and unknown, visible and invisible, comprehensible and mysterious.” It is the “ultimate condition of our experience” on earth, where practical questions naturally arise from our experience. It is an economy of people, place, and things with more questions than answers.
Berry’s poetic punchline? We are all implicated to give ourselves to the questions, and our consideration of those questions involves an “extremity of seriousness and an extremity of humility.” This composition and performance, with these fine folks, is just one way I implicate myself and take this life seriously with joy and gratitude. Peace to you. Enjoy the music and video.
Watch and comment on YouTube here:
Quotes in succession from: Wendell Berry, Home Economics: Fourteen Essays, (New York: North Point Press, 1987), 56-57.
Charlie Peacock Quintet live performance of "Wendell Berry In The Fields At Night" recorded at The Silent Planet, Nashville, October 25, 2017.
JEFF COFFIN - BARITONE SAX, VICENTE ARCHER - UPRIGHT BASS, DERREK PHILLIPS - DRUMS, JERRY MCPHERSON - ELECTRIC GUITAR, CHARLIE PEACOCK - RHODES ELECTRIC PIANO
"Wendell Berry In The Fields At Night" composed by Charlie Peacock Published by It's Time to Art/Patron and Profit Publishing (BMI)
Videography by Matt Huesmann
Edited, Mixed and Mastered by Charlie Peacock
Engineered by Brandon Owens at The Silent Planet
Interested in CP and Andi’s book as well as CP’s memoir?
I appreciate your reference to Wendell Berry here, and like him, your care-filled choice of words as you attempt to articulate what often seems inexpressible. Making words dance and notes sing. That’s your thing. In the key of wisdom. With the rhythm of the saints.
Most excellent! Does the Quintet do gigs? If so, is there a schedule?