Check Out Eric Peters’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Peters.

Hi Eric, can you introduce yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been a touring singer-songwriter since 1993. My first band (technically, a duo), Ridgely, toured predominantly in the southeastern US, and we found moderate success, selling over 10,000 units of our two independent records. I began my solo career in 1998/99, and have stuck with it ever since.

Around 2010, dealing with some significant anxiety and depression, I realized I needed an artistic outlet for my creative outlet. So I started making visual art (painting and found-object art using random bits of broken, rusted, unwanted, trashed materials I’d collect) in addition to songwriting and performing. Painting was a medium I valued as a non-participant, but the self-defeating voices always shut me down, so I never tried. Visual art opened up a new world, and in it I found a measure of relief since this new form offered me the gift of creating without having to write words. It was a wordless new language for me, one I very much needed.

Around that same time, I’d started collecting the books of a couple of my favorite authors and building my library. Learning to identify first editions/printings fascinated me, and I soaked up all I could on the subject of Books on Books, book-collecting, and identification. It became a passion of mine, and I figured that at the same time I traveled for music and shows, I could use the downtime (and there’s a lot of it) on the road, to scour local secondhand bookshops for not only the titles and authors I wanted but also the titles and authors that others wanted. I guess that’s called a “hustle” nowadays, but it was a way to earn a little extra money. It seemed a win-win to combine two things I loved doing while I was away from home and my family. I’ve been doing that ever since, and after an initial bookselling start-stop, I’m back at it, rebranded as “Refuge Books.”

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There is no such thing as a “smooth road” when it comes to pursuing something you love. You learn to struggle. You have to find your way through not only any outside doubters’ voices, but also your own inner self-doubts and butcher voices. Unless you are incredibly fortunate in your endeavor, time and finances are a significant, perpetual challenge. Though I wish I could, it has not been possible to support my family in bookselling alone. One of my biggest struggles has been my own worth, my self-worth, in an America that bases a person’s “value” on how much money they make. To live is to work at that which fills you up, and gives you energy. To quote my favorite author, Frederick Buechner, who comprises the complete collection of authors in my library, “Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.”

Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work.
I’m a performing singer-songwriter and recording artist. I’ve released twelve studio albums since 1995, and I’m recording my 13th project now, set for an early 2023 release. For better or worse, I’ve always tried to make music I myself would want to listen to, not necessarily seeking to be the flavor of the day. There’s nothing really unique about me, nor am I breaking new ground as an artist, but the songs I write are perfectly me. Lyrically, I write what I write because there is a little bit of each of us in one another, whether we like it or know it. I write what I know, what is authentic and genuine to me, hoping that some portion of my music will resonate with listeners. Above all, I wish to create good art, something that lasts. I am probably most proud of my 2012 album, “Birds of Relocation.” That came out of a very dark period and reawakened me. I don’t know that I could fully articulate the How, but there are some very special songs on that record.

My family and I lost our house in east Nashville the night of the 3/3/20 tornado. I likely saved my youngest son’s life that night since my wife and I were too slow to react to the warnings and get everyone to the basement. My son’s bed – and his face and body – was situated only inches from the front window pane when the tornado hit. I covered his body with mine, and I slid us across the floor toward the hallway as chaos (broken glass, insulation, dirt, tree limbs, 2x4s, rain, etc.) exploded in his room and the house. He and I should, at the very least, be maimed, if not dead. It is a miracle, and that’s not being melodramatic. The songs I’ve managed to write since that moment will be on my upcoming EP. I’m eager for folks to hear the songs.

We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
I am averse to risk-taking. Haha. I’m an anxiety-riddled man who fears way too many things in life, but, whether I realize it or not, I’ve taken risks my whole career as an artist. There are no safety nets, no matching IRAs, and no retirement funds; there’s just art and the creation of something that previously did not exist in the world. That, to me, is breathtaking, and if it isn’t considered risky to put yourself and your work out there in the world as an artist, then I’m not really sure what “risk-taking” really is.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ericpeters.net
• Instagram: @ericpeters @refugebooks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.peters.355/ https://www.facebook.com/RefugeBooks/
• Twitter: @ericpetersmusic

Image Credits
Artist photo by Allison Gower