Roy Peak

Roy Peak
ALL IS WELL
Bandcamp

Another Unknown Legend From The Suburbs Delivers a Gem.

I receive music from a variety of sources and countries every week, so prioritising reviews is proving increasingly difficult, especially as I pride myself in listening to everything prior to writing about it.
Thus more and more albums are falling by the wayside; some from bands and singers on biggish record labels and also self-releases by Singers like Roy Peak. Roy did the right thing and contacted me via the website several times earlier this year, but because I was overwhelmed by work and CD’s I didn’t respond…..then two days ago he sent me a snarky/sarcastic Tweet.
I wasn’t in the best frame of mind so this was the wrong place……right time!
OK Fella…..bring it on……show me what you’ve got!
Oh dear……opening track Okolona is bloody good! Peak has the type of interesting and raspy singing voice I love and the slightly sloppy guitars and bass behind him were just what I needed to hear, but didn’t know it.
By day Roy Peak is a bass player (for hire?) in several bands; but with songs like Underhill Rose and the grizzled folk-rocker It’s Better To Be The Bride he deserves to front of house a lot more often.
I like the way Peak takes everyday subjects like life, love and death and give them a quirky left of centre makeover. His writing style on Teach Me and the punchy Black River is like the edgier side of Neil Young and John Martyn, but Peak certainly isn’t a copyist or indeed a one trick pony.
He has an angry Punky streak in him too which comes across in the fiery Mean Girl Blues and the muscular Somewhere in the Distance too.
It’s favourite song time and on an album that has appealed to me on many levels one song stands out above all others; Clear Lake, February 3rd 1959.
One of the greatest songs of all time, American Pie is about the same subject…..the death of Buddy Holly. The difference here is that Roy Peak inhabits the mind of a tired and lonely Holly and re-imagines his last thoughts about his wife Maria Elena.
It’s a genuinely clever and fascinating song that shoe horns in a couple of Buddy’s song titles without ever being cheesy or mawkish, which is quite an achievement.
Apart from the vanity side of listening to albums before anyone else; one of my main reasons for keeping going with The Rocking Magpie is discovering artists like Roy Peak and having the ability to scream their talents from the Internet Rooftops……trust me, this is right up our/your musical street; and it’s cheap too. - The Rocking Magpie

I was lucky enough to catch the CD release party for this album so I may be entering this with biased ears but I can tell you that as strong as it is in recorded form the live version is practically mythical. There is sincerity in every song and none of them shy away from their punk roots but also fully embrace their folk marriages – in some cases second marriages. All Is Well welcomes you in with its acoustic guitars and warm harmonies but it sneaks behind you and grabs you with its stories. These songs have things to say, some from darker places than others, but combined they resolve in hope. I like that.

Standout tracks include Inside Out, All Is Well and Teach Me, but its not just about the individual songs, its really about the whole experience. This album catches me in exactly that same spot that Son Volt’s Trace did, and for the same reason. This album gets me. I hope it gets you too. - No Depression

roy peak is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in jacksonville, florida. he sent me a cover of gillian welch's 'look at miss ohio' to check out, but i'm more inclined to share his 2014 album of original songs, 'all is well'.

it features some pretty great, dark, sad-luck songwriting, shack shaking cow-punk production, and desperate, heart-on-the-sleeve, paul westerberg-esque singing. i recommend it. the gillian welch cover is the lead single for a new album, coming soon. - The Modern Folk

The best covers are those that transcend their source material, finding in the cracks and crevices certain elements to be highlighted at the expense of others. By getting to the heart of Gillian Welch’s “Look At Miss Ohio,” Roy Peak ratchets up both the volume and subtle, simmering angst at the song’s very core. When he snarls, “She says she wants to do right, but not right now” the unspoken transgressions become all the more accusatory and scandalous. Where Welch merely suggested, Peak demands we look at the titular character and see her for what she really is. – John Paul - Cover Me Songs

Reviewed by Harry Kaplan
The jongleur of Jacksonville is at it again, releasing his first new album in five years. Peak is a misnomer because Roy is still on the rise. A five year gap is understandable between albums since Roy has a lot of balls in the air (writing, producing, putting on shows, etc.). How’s that for tying in the juggler motif? Alright let’s back to the topic at hand, the sound waves. Roy makes some killer waves, ten waves to be exact. Some of the waves are rather compact and tightly contained while others are very grand and powerful. Be careful or some of these “waves” will swallow you up whole.
This time, I will begin at the beginning. Sylvia Sylvia (Track 1) is Roy’s first offering on this collection and it is a beautiful tune with luxurious acoustic guitar parts that really ground this song and allow Roy and the other musicians to explore a bit. But they always come back to the foundation. The song is quite complex, the fills are fairly intricate, but not too fancy as to over power the other elements. Balance is the key here.
Roy’s voice is very interesting and quite pleasing to listen to. He doesn’t have the vocal range of some, but he makes up for that with his fine writing and musical prowess. The Radioactive Kid (Track 3) perfectly exemplifies this. Just take a listen to those pedal steel riffs. Heaven, here I come. Roy’s voice is the perfect voice for this music, much like Neil Young. I absolutely adore the spacey, country vibe that makes me feel like I am somewhere else. Somewhere a million miles away. Thank goodness this song is only five minutes long or I may have drifted into the abyss.
Time to put your money where your mouth is. I know you all say you support independent music. Prove it. Roy Peak is as “indie” and “DIY” as humanly possible. And besides that, An Ever Darkening Sky is a damn good album. I can say with pride that I have added the album to my best playlist and eagerly await listening ASAP. - Twangrila

Roy Peak is a trusted member of the RMHQ Extended Family who write prosaic reviews from the heart in a style becoming of the wonderful records he creates as a side line to his day job as ‘Bass Player For Hire’.
So obviously there will be no nepotism involved in the writing of this review. (Ya think?)
That said, I only got to know Roy after reviewing his last album ALL IS WELL and as we live on different continents we are more pen-pals than friends; but he does have phenomenal musical taste that mirrors my own.
Opening track Sylvia, Sylvia took me by surprise as it’s a moody acoustic modernish Folk song with a bit of a bouncy beat and some lightning Dobro from Mark Williams ; not like I remember at all…… but better?
Not for the last time here, Roy uses his world weary voice as an extra instrument to curl its way around his words in a way most others couldn’t possibly achieve.
One song title in particular caught my attention as I skimmed the album cover; The Radioactive Kid, which may or may not also be the title of a Bill Bryson book but that’s only coincidental as this gloriously intense self-searching tale with a searing Hawaiian/steel guitar thread will tug at your heartstrings in a way my favourite travel writer never could.
When reviewing songs you are supposed to try to get to the roots of what the writer ‘meant’ but as a fan; I just try to explain the emotions that the songs create which is sad but hopeful when I hear Look Up At The Moon, ‘smiley’ with the dark and almost gloomy Look at Miss Ohio and ’empathetic’ each time I tap my toes to the growling Broken Too.
I’ve said a couple of times lately that I’m not really a lover of instrumentals; but the delightfully moody Not Enough Mermaids (with that beautiful Hawaiian/steel guitar lilt again) is a TV theme tune in waiting surely?
The title An Ever Darkening Sky squeezed my heart near to bursting the first time I heard it, as it really captured the zeitgeist of my life that evening; but today I’m in a different place and can just appreciate it for what it is; an intense and beautifully created song about depression and the shades that beast creates inside your head.
In today’s ‘market’ I suppose this album fits into the Alt. Country file; but there’s a bit of a Folk-Rock edginess to it too; none more so than the bittersweet break-up song Walk Away, which features Mr Mark Williams on harmonica too; which is something of a rare treat.
Then there is the ordeal of selecting one of my friends ‘musical babies’ as a personal favourite…….. well; I’m going for the ginger haired step-kid; Old Crow, which by the standards the album sets is a bit of a ‘right Royal Rocker’ albeit of the shoe-gazing type, and one that could and should prove a stepping stone for a whole album of Neil Young/REM/Tom Petty/Waco Brothers influenced songs in the near future perhaps?
There’s an argument that it’s never been easier to release music, but when I hear albums by songwriters like Roy Peak I marvel at the talent and fortitude that is actually out there to still battle through the numerous and tricky hurdles that the current music industry creates; to get their songs and tunes out into Internetland, making this a better place for me and you to live in.

Released February 29th 2019 - The Rocking Magpie