Producer-songwriter-artist Charlie Peacock—whose five-decade career encompasses producing acclaimed folk duo The Civil Wars, developing Christian rock band Switchfoot and co-writing Amy Grant’s pop smash, “Every Heartbeat”—has written a memoir.
Roots & Rhythm: A Life in Music, arriving in early 2025 via Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, will explore Peacock’s winding career journey. The book is described in the announcement as a heartfelt tribute to the joy and perseverance of a life in music, a narrative rooted in the ancestral and musical influences that shaped his remarkable career. In the author’s words, the tome is a “chapter-by-chapter remix of the music, places and people that made me and the music I made.”
Along the way, Roots & Rhythm recounts Peacock’s recording sessions with Chris Cornell and Holly Williams, his creation of the now-ubiquitous commercial-music program and his years directing the School of Music at Lipscomb University in Nashville, his jazz explorations with bassist John Patitucci and his contributions to gospel rock and the Americana/folk movement of the 2000s.
In 2017, Peacock began experiencing what would become a chronic headache. He went to the Mayo Clinic, where he was diagnosed with the brain and central-nervous-system disorders dysautonomia and central sensitization. Seven years later, “The headache isn't gone, but imagination, hope and optimism are alive and well,” he says.
Presently, Peacock is working on a solo album co-produced with son Sam Ashworth, himself a Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated songwriter and producer. In parallel with the memoir, Peacock’s new album is a reflection on lessons learned and inspiration gained from a half-century in the music business.
Photo by Jeremy Cowart
Former Fever 333 members Aric Improta and Stephen Harrison have formed a new band, House of Protection, whose loud, glitchy debut single "It's Supposed to Hurt" is out now on Red Bull Records.
The track features the pair's first vocals ever on a recording and was produced by former Bring Me the Horizon member Jordan Fish. "We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to start again from scratch but that phrase became our ethos," said Improta, who also plays in Night Verses. "Starting again was the whole point of this."
The new group added that "It's Supposed to Hurt" was the first song they worked on together, and despite Improta and Harrison never having taken the mic, "we just knew the energy we wanted to create sonically and that we’d put in whatever time it took to get it to feel right. Fortunately, this song answered a lot of those questions instantly."
Crank this one to 11, folks.
Barbra Streisand has accomplished just about everything imaginable in her 64-year (!?!) professional career, but she'd never recorded a song for a TV series until now.
Her new tune, "Love Will Survive," is out now via Columbia and will appear as the end title of the upcoming Sky and Peacock original series, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. The show debuts 5/2.
Streisand, 82, is backed on the song by the London Symphony Orchestra. "Love Will Survive" was composed by Hans Zimmer, Kara Talve and Walter Afanasieff and produced by Afanasieff and Peter Asher. Streisand, Jay Landers and Russell Emanuel are executive producers.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who was imprisoned at but survived his experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
"Because of the rise in antisemitism around the world today, I wanted to sing 'Love Will Survive' in the context of this series, as a way of remembering the six million souls who were lost less than 80 years ago," Streisand said. "And also to say that even in the darkest of times, the power of love can triumph and endure."
