After a lifetime of crafting finely-wrought, heart-touching songs, singer-songwriter Pierce Pettis (he/him) feels that he’s finally found his comfort zone. “The biggest change,” he says of this point in his career “has been getting over myself and realizing this is a job and a craft. And the purpose is not fame and fortune (whatever that is) but simply doing good work.” 

“From the time I was very little, I always had the music going in my head,” Pettis explains. “In school, I met other kids who wanted to be rock stars, just like me.  From the time we were around 10 or so up through high school, we put together various bands -- all of them horrible.”

His “horrible” bands didn’t deter him though and even though he had a nagging feeling  (“I thought I was supposed to be a doctor or something.”) he persevered, not only playing music but writing songs in a mix of rock, folk, country and R&B genres that landed him an unpaid position as a staff writer for Muscle Shoals Sounds Studios. While there, his track “Song at the End of the Movie” found its way to Joan Baez’s 1979 album Honest Lullaby.

Pettis hit the road and became a member of the “Fast Folk” movement in New York in the mid-1980s and was a staff songwriter for PolyGram from 1993-2000.  Pierce Pettis’ songs have been recorded by artists including Susan Ashton, Dar Williams, Garth Brooks and Art Garfunkel.

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