Caroline Peyton
Caroline Peyton | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 8, 1951 Brookhaven, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Origin | Charleston, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | August 11, 2021 (aged 69) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Years active | 1970–2014 |
| Labels | Spring Hill Music Group, The Numero Group |
Caroline Peyton (October 8, 1951 – August 11, 2021) was an American singer, songwriter and actor. Peyton was born in
Early life
Her father, Thomas Peyton, is from
Early career
Bingham had put together a large band with shifting membership, the Screaming Gypsy Bandits, who were influenced by
Working at a local studio owned by drummer and teacher Jack Gilfoy, Peyton and Bingham recorded what would be Peyton's first record album on a label they had begun along with a local woman named Kathy Canada, who had family connections to, and thus family money from,
Later career
As Peyton said in a 2006 Nashville Scene article,[2] "I didn't know what I wanted, and I needed to find my own voice. Mock Up was my first recording. My father paid for it, even though I had dropped out of Northwestern. My frustration with Mark Bingham was that he was so anti-establishment. I don't think he ever re-wrote anything—it was all stream-of-consciousness. People ask me what ‘Engram’ means and I say, ‘I don't know what it means now, and I didn't know when I was singing it, and I’ll never know what it meant."
Peyton continued to perform in the
Working again with Bingham, Peyton recorded another album in sessions that stretched from late 1974 until 1977. Released in 1977, Intuition featured songs by Bingham and Peyton and was reviewed in Rolling Stone.
Peyton moved to Los Angeles in 1977, where she performed in local clubs, recorded demos for record-label impresario Mike Curb and appeared on a couple of television shows—most notably the Dinah Shore show and the Gong Show.
In the early 1980s Peyton began performing in theatrical productions.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Peyton was recommended for auditions in Disney films through friends and wound up recording vocals for four
.Peyton moved to Williamson County, Tennessee in 1993 and recorded a collection of Celtic Christmas songs on the Green Hill label. Ubiquity Records featured a track from Intuition, "Just as We," on a compilation, Gilles Peterson Digs America:Brownswood, U.S.A. In 2006 the Chicago record label The Numero Group included "Engram"—a track from Mock Up—on their anthology of female singer-songwriters, Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon. Asterisk, an imprint of Numero, reissued Mock Up and Intuition in January 2009, with archival photos, extra tracks, liner notes and a video of Peyton performing in 1972 at Indianapolis club the Hummingbird Cafe. Both albums had been previously reissued in limited editions in Japan.
In February 2009, Peyton performed a set of songs drawn from her 1970s albums at Nashville club the Basement, and in May re-united with Bingham and Bob Lucas at a concert in Bloomington. As she told reporter Ron Wynn of Nashville's City Paper,[3] "I guess I was just ahead of my time. It was what I call art songs. We really didn't think much about whether they might be commercial or not. I know there are some incredible players on these recordings, guys who’ve gone on to make great records with other people." She has also performed infrequently in Nashville.
Personal life
Peyton lived in Brentwood, Tennessee, until her death on August 11, 2021. She had twin girls. The oldest, Lila Angelique, is married to S.K. Thoth, a famed street performer from New York. They currently travel the world performing as Tribal Baroque. Her other child is an actress and received her MFA in Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2020. Peyton's former husband and member of Starz (band), Brendan Harkin, used to run and own a recording studio in Franklin, Tennessee. He now is retired in Florida. Peyton's godfather is novelist William Styron, with whom her father grew up in Virginia.
Death
Peyton died in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 11, 2021, at 69 from neuropathy. She suffered terribly for a year before she died. She couldn't walk or use her hands for the last 7 months of her life. She had 24/7 care and died in hospice.[4]
Discography
- Mock Up (Bar-B-Q, 1972; Asterisk/Numero Group 2009)
- Back to Doghead (with the Screaming Gypsy Bandits, recorded 1970–1972; Piety Street Files and Archaic Media, 2009)
- In the Eye (with the Screaming Gypsy Bandits, Bar-B-Q, 1973)
- Bloomington I (compilation of Bar-B-Q records artists, 1976)
- Intuition (Bar-B-Q, 1977; Asterisk/Numero Group 2009)
- Celtic Christmas Spirit (Green Hill, 1998)
- Gilles Peterson Digs America: Brownswood U.S.A. (Ubiquity, 2005)
- Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon (Numero Group, 2006)
- Homeseeker's Paradise (Peytunes, 2014)
References
- ^ Anderson, Skip (September 4, 2014). "Vocal heavyweight Caroline Peyton drops her first album in 16 years". Nashville Scene. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
- ^ [1] Archived April 30, 2020, at the Wayback Machine 2006 Nashville Scene article
- ^ [2] Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine the Nashville City Paper
- ^ Caroline Peyton Has Died
Sources
- 1973 newspaper article about the Screaming Gypsy Bandits, accessed at http://www.ghp.net/bq/art3.htm
- Liner notes for Asterisk reissues of Mock Up and Intuition: Asterisk CDs 006 and 007
- Green, Larry and Laura. "Let the Music Happen." Chicago Daily News,
March 21–22, 1970.
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