PETER STUART INTERVIEWS

Like the rest of us,
Peter Stuart just doesn't know what to do.
He doesn't know what's right
or what's appropriate to do right now.
He does know what he feels;
that's why he wrote Waiting for Peace To Come.
He wrote it while on tour with matchbox twenty
a few days ago out of a sense of helplessness
and played it in public twice on his acoustic guitar.

Then on Monday night he went into a
portable recording studio parked behind Fiddler's Green
and recorded the song, with members of
matchbox twenty backing him.
The gutwrenching song will soon
be available for download on his Web site,
www.peterstuart.com.
He'll give it away free.

"It's definitely a song I feel people should hear,
but I don't want to be opportunistic," Stuart says.
"I think that people need songs, people need music,
to help them deal with things that
are difficult in their lives.
If this can do that, then great.
If it can't, then it can't.
I want nothing out of it other than
if it's something people want to hear,
I want people to hear it."

Stuart was leader of Dog's Eye View,
best-known for the hit single Everything Falls Apart
(which I'd still argue is one of the best songs out there
to help women understand men).
He had follow-up hits, including the poignant
Last Letter Home,
which got strong airplay in Denver.
He's now on his own and solo,
playing acoustic on a side stage
and helping his pals in matchbox twenty
with guitar duties onstage.

Waiting for Peace To Come is a folk-blues tune
that's a combination of devastation and faith,
loss and hope:

As we stand together hand in hand,

waiting for peace to come.

Looking for some way to understand,

terrified and numb.

But standing, standing, still standing

and waiting for peace to come.


After the tour restarted after the bombing, Stuart said at Fiddler's, he asked himself: "Is
what I'm doing trivial? Is what I'm doing stupid in the face of all this?"

He came to the conclusion that "even if you're singing a love song, I think it's important
to connect with people and for people to connect with each other," he
says. It's doubly hard, as his girlfriend is on business in South America and he
can't see her.
Just then, a jet roars overhead. Stuart shudders and looks up.
"It's still odd to see planes in the sky. They've taken on the appearance of weapons
now," he says.

Nothing will ever be as simple as it once was

We're forced to remember just how fragile life is

With candles and bows

To lead our way home

You used to be able to do this -- write topical songs reacting to the news of the day.
Most famously, Neil Young wrote Ohio as an angry response to the Kent
State University killings in 1970, and the song was recorded and released in eight
days. Waiting for Peace To Come is a similar reaction to a tragedy.

"It's sort of solidifying my thought that I'm a folk singer," Stuart says. "I'm no Woody
Guthrie, but very few people are doing that."

To keep it immediate, "I'm putting it up on my Web site to get it out to people as quickly
as possible," he says. " Because of the Internet and MP3s, there's the
ability to get it out to people for free and let it find its own way."

Take this precious moment, please

to let yourself believe

that love is stronger than hate

that love is fiercer than fear

Too bad all artists don't have the same altruistic
outlook Stuart does in the face of disaster.

A lame midlevel country star issued a press release last week noting that he was
stranded in Hawaii because of the airline shutdowns (oh, the horror!) and had been
considering filming a video in New York City and was thus nearly a victim himself.
I'm not printing his name because he doesn't deserve any of the publicity he's
cravenly trying to get.

And Michael Jackson has announced grandiose plans to record an overblown charity
single. Gee, right at a time when he needs good publicity to kick off his new album
and resuscitate his moribund career. Hey, Mike, where were you during Oklahoma City? Columbine?

"If I do have any fervor to get this song out, it's because I want something out there
that's got more soul to it and more truth to it than the Michael Jackson-with-
*NSYNC B.S. that's about to happen," Stuart says. "It's going to be so false; it's
going to be so jive and so self-serving."
And it may be the end of an era.

"I think music will start to change becuase of this and entertainment in general will
because of this," he says. "I don't think anyone will go out and spend $10 on a
B.S. movie right now or a pop CD. The importance of all that just got wildly
diminished."