This week’s local artist spotlight goes out to Lauryn Peacock and her recent single, “Camus Blues,” released January 29th ahead of her third full-length album Theology. The record is said to cover everything from environmentalism, to conversion therapy, to poverty, to love— certainly a product of the many lives she has lead in recent years. “Camus Blues” is a smart and simple introduction to the LP, and a testament to her connection to Nashville, which she says “perhaps more than any other place, has me appreciate the simple song form and increased my desire to communicate more clearly in my music.”
This past December saw Peacock put out new music for the first time in five years with “Coming Over Me Again,” although this lull was not without reason. Much of the upcoming record was written during a summer in France while Peacock was pursuing her second master’s degree, this one in theology at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School. The project then wasn’t recorded until after the onset of the pandemic, at which point she was working on a third master’s— this time an MFA in poetry from New York University. The influence of her time in the academy is all over “Camus Blues,” which overtly references the famous French existential philosopher.
Peacock is classically trained on piano, but her talent as a musician goes far beyond the keys. Her writing is winding and witty and delivered artfully by intimate and optimistic vocals. “Camus Blues” is driven by rhythmic guitars and the defiant, ultimately convincing assertion that “all will be well.” It previews an album that promises to be honest and, at its core, human.
“We’ll be playing “Camus Blues” throughout the week as we feature Lauryn Peacock as our Local Artist of the Week. Catch it live on-air at 100.1FM on your dial or streaming live at lightning100.com.
