Peter Luke is a singer-songwriter from London that has been performing around the local scene for the past couple of years. He is certainly quite the character; claiming everything from how he performed all over Europe as a child playing bajo sexto in some sort of traveling band, to how he once traded a bottle of Jack for a harmonica in New Jersey. Most accounts, however, state that he can usually be found wandering around the streets of Camden, in inner-city London, busking harp tunes and playing every venue that sends him an offer. This debut album, titled “The Adventurous World of Peter Luke” came out last year and serves as a testament to his folk inspired song craft.
This is a true “artist’s record” in every sense of the word. It is stripped down in terms of instrumentation and production, is focused almost entirely on witty narrative and intricate musical dialogue, and is as thoroughly unapologetic as it is stubbornly unique, yet traditional. This record consists almost exclusively of acoustic guitar, harmonica, and voice. Aside from the basics, only a touch of reverb and subtle overdubbing have been put on the final product. Ultimately, the sound of this album will strike listeners as pure, honest, and rustically refreshing. Throughout these tracks, it is obvious Luke pulled a large degree of inspiration from forties and fifties folk, country, and delta-blues artists; as his record stands not only as a modern day tribute to these weathered guitar-men of years past, but also as a continuation of the truly expressive, unapologetic, individual, and poetic tradition that is traditional folk music. The stark atmosphere of the recordings provide an excellent backdrop for a flurry of semi-cryptic, Dylan-esque witticisms that pepper each song between strums of an exceedingly warm and bright acoustic guitar, which contains a hint of brash tonality that serves to provide each track with a sense of freshness and airy contemplation. A listener can get lost in the overtones created within the simplistic atmosphere of this album. Sometimes the best notes are the ones that aren’t heard. With all folk music, there has to be a keen sense of human presence; listeners must hear the twang of the strings, the pop and creak of the wood on the guitar, and all the little things in between that makes traditional music both personable and artful. These can all be heard in Peter Luke’s record, for that reason alone, this music is good. It takes balls to record with nothing but your voice and an acoustic guitar, especially nowadays, and listeners must respect this. Speaking specifically to the music, the latter-half of this album is where Luke’s writing stands out the best. Tracks like “I Know The Sun’s Coming Up Tomorrow Again” and “Hip Flask” combine spirited lyrical exploration with a definitive sense of instrumental movement. Sure, most of the time Luke is just strumming chords, but, like many Dylan or Neil Young tunes, listeners kind of forget about that and tend to get lost in the overall presentation of the song. The track no longer becomes instrumentation+lyrics, but instead just becomes “music” as a whole. Peter Luke’s harmonica skills are impressive as well, most songs have a Dylan-esque harmonica refrain that reminds one of something they might here in the 1963 release, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. Lyrical topics can range from political commentary, to vague personal experience, to pseudo life lessons (ex; saying “I Love You” to someone may be a poor idea that is likely to piss them off and leave you in an embarrassing position). Luke’s songs don’t carry as much political fire as Dylan’s, but in retrospect that’s probably a good thing. The less a man has to answer to, the better.
Peter Luke isn’t the best singer, and if sparing folk music isn’t your thing, you’ll likely find this album to be one-dimensional and blatantly amateur. In actuality, the instrumentation is pretty vanilla, and Luke doesn’t have much of a vocal range. Granted, his voice isn’t terrible, but maybe the record would sound better if it was. In technical terms, Luke’s voice is probably better than Dylan’s, but unlike Dylan, Luke somewhat lacks the massive amounts of character that must be apparent in this type of folk music. Luke’s vocals are neither good, nor terrible, yet they lack the same kind of fiery, piercing annoyance that made Dylan’s music so fantastic.
Overall, Peter Luke has made a great debut record. He is truly his own artist that maintains the rich tradition of folk music while putting his own spin on present day political commentary. The sound of this album is pretty one-dimensional, but at the same time, is beautifully stark and honest.
7/10
Artist: Peter Luke
Album: The Adventurous World of Peter Luke
Label: Independent
Website: https://www.facebook.com/dont.be.a.schmuck/
Genre: Folk
Sounds Like: Bob Dylan, Neil Young
Technical Grade: 5/10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 5/10
Commercial Value: 5/10
Overall Talent Level: 7/10
Songwriting Skills: 7/10
Performance Skills: 7/10
Best Songs: Let Me Build My Dreams For Me, I Know The Sun’s Coming Up Tomorrow Again
Strengths: Creative and elaborate lyrics, Album presentation is honest and pleasantly simplistic
Weaknesses: Not the best singer, instrumentation is one-dimensional
~Owen Matheson