I’ve said it a lot in the past, I’m certain I’m gonna say it in the future: In my days of being a roadie I’ve worked for the cream of local bands, the “three W’s” of Columbus rock & roll; Watershed, The Whiles and Willie Phoenix. Colin Gawel of Watershed has already appeared on the CAPA ApART Together Concert Series (his set is archived here, in case you missed it…..Colin Gawel / ApART Together…..). Joe Peppercorn of The Whiles appears this Thursday, August 6th at 7 pm; info at CAPA ApART Together Concert Series. Willie Phoenix will throw in a set on Saturday, August 15th. Much more on Willie next week.
I met Joe Peppercorn in 2002 when I was working at a record store called Ace In The Hole Music. Joe came in with the first e.p. by his group Mrs. Children, who became The Whiles after a 2004 name change. Even in those early days I could tell I was in the presence of a gifted songwriter with a singular intellect. I had conversations with Joe at that record shop and at his gigs that I imagined were like conversing with the young Brian Wilson around 1966 before the drugs & cheeseburgers sapped that Beach Boy’s power & magic. (For more on that early history check out Mrs. Children, The Whiles & The Beatles Marathon at Growing Old With Rock & Roll.)
Joe is the only musician I know who possesses the drive, talent and organizational skills to make it possible to pull off The Beatles Marathon for the last 10 years. For the uninitiated, Sgt. Peppercorn’s Beatles Marathon involves Joe, his core band The Whiles, and an ever-expanding cadre of guest musicians & singers playing EVERY Beatles song ever recorded, in chronological order. Plus nowadays there’s all kind of extras in the set: Christmas tunes, selections from all The Beatles’ solo careers, box-set rarities, etc. I use the term “set” loosely, because the show is close to 14 hours long. In 2019, Sir Paul McCartney himself introduced the show (via video from his home studio), see YouTube clip below.
Truthfully, though, as much as I enjoy stage-managing the Beatles Marathon - tuning a plethora of guitars for Joe & his brother Matt or wiping up honey ‘n’ cognac spills from the stage floor of the Bluestone - I miss the days of seeing Mrs. Children in the backroom of Andyman’s Treehouse; or The Whiles at Little Brothers; or Joe solo at Quinn Fallon’s Little Rock Bar. Someday after a Covid-19 vaccine and time gives us back our planet & our music I’ll get to see shows like those live & up close again. For now I’m gonna sit happily at my laptop and watch Joe at the ApART Together Concert Series this Thursday at 7 pm. I can’t wait. - Ricki C. / August 3rd, 2020.