Jefferson Pepper writes and sings Country music for people who hate Country music. Combining alternative rock, country, punk, folk and bluegrass, he inhabits an eclectic, rootsy territory all his own. Expanding on the tradition of singer-songwriters like Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Neil Young and Steve Earle, he exposes the fat, soft underbelly of conformity and the status quo and tears them wide open with biting, razor-sharp lyrics and straightforward vocal delivery.
In 2005, Jefferson Pepper took out a second mortgage on the modest, wood-sided home he built in the hills of rural south-central Pennsylvania in order to finance the recording of his debut release, 'Christmas in Fallujah'. His inspiration was David Maples, a 21-year-old neighbor kid; A kid Jefferson and his wife had watched grow up; a kid who went along on family vacations; a kid who caught lightning bugs and frogs and played games in the backyard on warm summer nights. David was a dimpled dreamer with aspirations of becoming a doctor. With no money for college or medical school, David joined the Army to train as a medic. David was shipped off to Iraq.
Jefferson Pepper was angry.
As with many who watched the horrors of the Iraqi quagmire unfold, Jefferson felt helpless. So, he did what he had to do to communicate the feelings that would not be considered appropriate in polite conversation: he wrote songs.
The grandson of coal miners and farmers and the son of a factory worker, Jefferson Pepper has experienced firsthand the challenges of living the American Dream. Over the years he has worked as a stock clerk in a grocery store, a bricklayer, a landscaper and a factory worker. He identified at an early age with the uphill battles faced by working people.
The debut album from Jefferson Pepper explores the darker side of the American social and political landscape with songs that are both profound and undeniably catchy. Stories are told from the vantage points of, among others, a disillusioned soldier stationed in Iraq (Christmas in Fallujah), a bloated defense contractor growing fat on the breast of the nanny-state (M-16), a regretful lover lamenting a failed relationship (Bethlehem, PA), the collective restlessness of our culture (Interstate Highway), one man's loathing of dehumanizing, homogenizing architecture and short-sighted residential planning (Stranded), an unemployed factory worker (Back To 1999), a spurned lover (Christmas Tree), a disillusioned child (Deceived), and a soldier's grieving mother (Why?). An amped-up version of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land' puts it all into context. References range from Enron, Osama Bin Laden and Woodrow Wilson to Frank Lloyd Wright, Santa Claus and the Wizard of Oz. 'Christmas in Fallujah' is vital Americana music as a vehicle for social change.
Pepper's debut album, 2005's 'Christmas in Fallujah' hit # 23 on the Freeform American Roots Chart for the month of November 2005 and # 13 on the Euro Americana Chart for the month of December, 2005. The album also hit # 1 on the Roots Music Report Folk Radio Chart and # 10 on the Roots Top 100 Chart during the week of January 17, 2006. It has received airplay across the US, New Zealand, Australia and Europe and has been greeted with critical acclaim from reviewers around the world. The music critic Geraint Jones(UK), pronounced 'Christmas in Fallujah' "one of 2005's best" and Malcolm Carter of Pennyblack Music (UK), called 'Christmas in Fallujah' "the year's best album".
View the YouTube video of 'Christmas n Fallujah' here...
Purchase downloads of any of the songs on 'Christmas in Fallujah' at iTunes here...
Read Reviews of 'Christmas in Fallujah'
Read reviews by Pennyblack Music (UK), Americana-UK (UK), Rootstime (Belgium), Kindamuzik (Europe), AltCountry.nl (Netherlands), Real Roots Cafe (Netherlands), MazzMusikas (Belgium), Whisperin' and Hollerin'(Ireland), Roots Music (UK), Comes With A Smile (UK), Forth Worth Weekly (US), The Harvard Independent (US), The Appleton Post-Crescent (US), Hanx (Netherlands), Il Popolo Del Blues (Italy), Slacker Country (US), Billy Bob (Belgium), Mescalina (Italy), Rock n Reel Magazine(UK), Freemusic.cz (Czech Republic), NetRhythms (UK), Home of Rock (Germany), Gaesteliste (Germany), Christmas Reviews.com (US), Le Cri Du Coyote (France), OX (Germany), Musikkguiden Groove (Norway), FileUnder (Netherlands), SonicWave Magazine (Spain), Mistletunes (US), Nicky Stardust (US), and Lonesome Highway (Ireland).
To pre-order 'American Evolution', email info@americanfallout.com with your name, address and email.
American Evolution Volume 1 (The Red Album) was released April 15, 2008. The series is being distributed by Burnside Distributon. The album includes the following 17 tracks:
Click here to read reviews of Jefferson Pepper's American Evolution
For the past several years, Jefferson Pepper has been asking himself “What has happened to my country?” For Pepper, it was a notion that he could not let go. For him, it wasn’t just a rhetorical, abstract question. He wanted answers. He started reading. And writing songs.
Lots of songs.
He spent the winters of 2006 and 2007 holed up in his cedar-sided home studio in the Conewago Mountains of southern Pennsylvania. As the snow piled up outside, he became more and more reclusive, sometimes going for several weeks at a time without leaving the house. For two years he worked feverishly on writing and recording the songs that would be included on his sophomore effort, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2005 debut album 'Christmas in Fallujah'.
