Peter Salett “Waitin on a Rainstorm”
Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Peter Salett’s song “Waiting on a Rainstorm” from his forthcoming double album Suite for the Summer Rain / Dance of the Yellow Leaf, slated for release on July 11 via Dusty Shoes Music. The albums will be released together in physical format but as separate digital releases. Both works were written, sung, and performed by Salett, and co-produced with longtime collaborator Jeff Hill, with strings arrangements by Chris Carmichael (Taylor Swift) and sounds recorded in nature.
Musicians on the albums are Peter Salett on vocals and guitar; Thomas Bartlett and Jason Lindner on pianos; Rob Jost of French horn; Erin Hill on harp; Bill Dobrow on drums, percussion, and vibraphone; and Jeff Hill himself on bass.
We had a chance to chat with Peter about the song, the album and more. The premiere appears just beneath the interview.
Americana Highways: Suite for the Summer Rain / Dance of the Yellow Leaf marks a return to your roots after several years of work. How did your time away from the music scene influence your creative process, and were there specific aspects of your earlier music that you felt compelled to revisit in this project?
Peter Salett: I wrote the Suite for the Summer Rain / Dance of the Yellow Leaf over a period of 6 years, and then for various reasons had left it unreleased until now. The process of creating it was freeing in a way, ironically because I had given myself some musical and lyrical constraints – I would only write the songs in Drop C tuning, and the lyrics would need to contain some reference to water, and work together in a way that doesn’t feel like a narrative but more like a collage of emotions surrounding loss and rebirth. The music I had written right before Suite was very electric guitar heavy, so I wanted to move away from that, and in these pieces only use acoustic instruments.
On a whim, I tuned the low E string on my guitar down to C,Suddenly a new world opened up. Chords played as usual made new harmonic and emotional impressions, and I began fingerpicking instead of strumming. Purposefully non-metronomic, these songs breathe and bend—they’re meant to sway to elemental cadences.
AH: The lead single, “Waitin’ on a Rainstorm,” captures a very cinematic and atmospheric moment before a summer downpour. Can you talk about how this sense of tension and anticipation sets the tone for the rest of the album, and how nature played a role in shaping the sound of this record?
PS: “Waitin’ on a Rainstorm,” was the first song I wrote and in a way set off this entire journey. There’s something very primal happening when we feel the air begin to change, something larger than us is coming our way, and the anticipation that the world will look different soon. It also gave me the idea to use both percussion that sounds like natural sounds and also recordings of the sounds themselves. For the opening of Suite I worked with the fantastic sound mixer Andy Kris (The Wire, Succession) on a soundstage to create something moodily cinematic.
AH: This album spans six years of work and features collaborations with a range of talented musicians. How did working with these collaborators influence the overall atmosphere and emotional depth of the album?
PS: Most of the musicians on Suite / Dance I have worked with for many years, on a wide range of different sounding projects (both records and film scores), so as I was creating the songs I had a good idea about who I wanted to use on the recordings. And we recorded in a very non-traditional way.
Jeff Hill first recorded the songs acoustically (me playing and singing at the same time) using a particular mic technique which worked very well (Mid-Side). This gave my performance great ambience and three dimensionality. I then sent the recordings to Chris Carmichael, an amazing string arranger, who arranged and recorded himself on violin, viola and cello. These songs are purposefully non-metronic, and Chris was able to weave his parts together seamlessly, and added so much emotion to the records. Next we recorded Jeff on bass, and Bill Dobrow on drums, percussion, timpani, vibes – Bill as always brought a lot of ideas and harmonic energy to the project. Finally we added finishing touches like harp and piano and french horn. Hector Castillo mixed both records, and I think does a great job of making the music feel both acoustic and earthy and also ethereal and airy.
Thanks very much for sharing with us, Peter! Folks can find the music at these links: https://orcd.co/waitinonarainstorm https://orcd.co/danceoftheyellowleaf and https://orcd.co/suiteforthesummerrain
If peace and acceptance were music, it would sound exactly like this. It’s gently uplifting, thoughtful and reflective, with beautiful imagery and observations on life. The music Peter Salett makes sounds natural and grounded while it’s simultaneously light and expansive.
