Singer-songwriter Caroline Peyton moved to Nashville in 1993. Had she done so about 20 years prior, more people might know her name — her talent certainly warrants it. Peyton is an insightful songwriter with a classically trained voice that commands attention. But in recent years, Peyton, 62, has shunned the spotlight. That changes on Tuesday, when she'll release Homeseeker's Paradise, her first album since Celtic Christmas Spirit 16 years ago.
"On this record, I wrote about my experiences and my passions and my heartbreaks," Peyton says. "This album is my book. I wanted to tell stories that are real."
The record's first song, "She's Coming Home," is an upbeat rhythm rocker that traverses a mother's struggle that comes from watching her twin daughters slip into womanhood.
"They're both very talented and very beautiful, and I love them," she says. "But there's a lot of pain, too — we all have it."
Many of the record's 10 songs are equally personal. "Idella," rooted in jazz, is inspired by a woman in Brookhaven, Miss. — the town where Peyton was born — who provided hospice care to Peyton's now-deceased parents. "Walk on Back" speaks to the wanderlust that carried her far from anybody who would know it was her 60th birthday.
"I wrote that song in a half-hour on a borrowed guitar in the crow's nest of a bed-and-breakfast in South Africa."
That's not to say that this spirited album is defined by haughty topics. "Rollin' Chair" is a joyful, upbeat song that describes an aged woman who has decidedly not lost her knack in the kitchen. "Happy Home" bounces through reflections of a lifetime rooted within one's living, breathing family tree. The musicianship on the record reflects the high-caliber talent Peyton handpicked to join her in the studio. Musician and producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop) tracked the songs. Guitarists Chris Scruggs (who's played with BR549 and Michael Nesmith) and noted solo performer William Tyler (also formerly of Lambchop and Silver Jews), keyboardist Tony Crow (Lambchop) and bassist Jordan Caress (Ponychase) each play on the record, as does renowned harmonica virtuoso Pat Bergeson.
Peyton dropped out of Northwestern University to join a commune in central Indiana at the turn of the 1970s. She soon began working with songwriter-producer Mark Bingham on her first album, Mock Up, released in 1972. It was a loosely focused vehicle that showcased her aria-quality vocal range. Peyton and Bingham soon formed a jazz/funk/folk/disco ensemble called Screaming Gypsy Bandits, recording two albums as a band and touring with the likes of Frank Zappa. She and Bingham also collaborated on her 1977 solo album Intuition before ongoing tension would lead to the end of their work together.
"I hit pay dirt twice in my career," Peyton says. "The first time was when I got the lead role in Pirates of Penzance [in 1981]."
Peyton served as Linda Ronstadt's understudy as Mabel in the Los Angeles production of Pirates of Penzance, which also starred Kevin Kline.
"Kevin Kline gave [the producers] my Intuition record, and they wanted somebody like that to be Mabel [in the touring company]," Peyton says.
Pam Dawber held the part, but would soon accept a title role with Robin Williams in the television show Mork and Mindy. Peyton had her big break. She eventually moved to Manhattan and starred in several Broadway shows, including The Human Comedy. But this was the early 1980s, when AIDS was terrorizing the country.
"Just about everybody who cared about me, or believed in me, died in the 1980s, including my agent, several people in the New York Shakespeare Festival," Peyton says. "They just dropped like flies."
Peyton's second "pay dirt" moment came in the early 1990s.
"That's when I got my first Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast," she says, smiling. Peyton — who also sang in the Disney animated films Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas — bats her eyes and sings a wordless melody. For the next 30 seconds, the threat of cartoon forest critters frolicking in front of the fireplace seems truly plausible.
Email music@nashvillescene.com.
