Pierce Pettis: His Life of Crime

I have been an outlaw
All my grownup life
Just ask my former in-laws
Just ask my former wife

Living from a suitcase
Standing in the rain
You can keep the house, baby
I will keep the change

There have been some changes
I will testify
Still it's just another chapter
In my life of crime
In my life of crime

I first heard of Pierce Pettis about eight years ago, when a colleague at the office loaned me his CD Making Light Of It. Pettis' songs possessed a dry wit, and an enduring faith despite everything, including a broken marriage as was the case with me. And also like me, there was a son in the middle. Eventually I bought the next two which came out, "Everything Matters" and "State of Grace." His life does have a way of moving on, without losing an awareness of its pitfalls. But my favorite work of his, is a manifesto that could have easily have passed for my own at any one time of my life.

I have held some people up
I have robbed the stage
With my trusty six-string
I have made them pay

They smile and give me money
They smile and give me praise
I make out like a bandit
Then I steal away

To a lonely hideout
That no one can find
Making plans for my next caper
In my life of crime
In my life of crime

A good many so-called "Christian" artists wear their faith on their sleeve. Pettis keeps his in his back pocket (Deo gratias!), and pulls it out when the audience isn't looking. Perhaps this is neither to be shy or clever, so much as a result of simply living the way he chooses, and leaving the conclusions to others. Even without following the usual social-political whims of politically-correct "folksingers," Pettis has done respectably in that venue, having been part of the "Fast Folk" wave of singer-songwriters in the 1990s, and having performed at Kerrville Folk Festival, APR's Mountain Stage, NPR's E-town, Morning Edition and World Cafe, not to mention VH-1, CBS News, the Nashville Network...

I chose this life
As much as it chose me
I know I'm an outlaw
But there is honor among thieves

I have seen my posters
Hanging on the wall
I have stayed just out of reach
Of the long arm of the law

Of the law of averages
Of the law of fate
I know my days are numbered
The law must be obeyed

And though I stay two steps ahead
He's just two steps behind
Making sure I never rest
In my life of crime
In my life of crime

Tonight he'll be performing at the Jammin' Java in Vienna, Virginia. The show starts at 7:30, and tickets are only $15. With any luck, he'll perform "State of Grace." It's a song about going home again to Alabama, in a way that yours truly would muse about going home to Ohio.

This should be really good!



(Photo above copyright 2006 by Debi Friedlander. The song "My Life of Crime" is co-written with Dana Cooper, and appears on Pettis' 1996 CD "Making Light Of It," on Compass Records. Photo and lyrics are reproduced here without permission or shame.)
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