Traveler — Christopher Peacock

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Contemporary acoustic instrumental music inspired by the world . . . Traveler. Peacock's original compositions are featured in addition to beautiful arrangements of the soundtracks from Il Postino and City of Angels. From Celtic pipes to Peruvian flutes, English choir to Latin guitar, Peacock takes us on a journey of the world . . . Traveler.

“A traveler . . . the best symbol of our life. Going from toward: it is the history of every one of us.”

—Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 1851

I often get asked which of my albums is my favorite. This question has no answer because all of them represent special moments in time. Like a scrapbook or journal, each entry is influenced by my life at that moment. This entry in my musical journal is inspired by and dedicated to two people: my mother and my son.

My son is about to make his solo voyage away from home. We began preparing him for this journey 18 years ago and never really thought the departure day would arrive. Kawika, when you were a child your dreams of discovering the world began with a simple spin of a globe. Now your departure leads to an open road of learning and relationships. When traveling the open road, go with an open mind and remember it’s the journey, not the destination, that matters.

“The traveler must learn to expect discomforts, delays, disappointments . . . and then, waiting at the end of the road, there occurs some sight or meeting or experience that is worth all the effort and, one knows, achieved only because of it.”

—Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Oxford Book of Travel Verse, 1986

From an early age, I knew my mother loved to travel. I remember looking through the many photo albums of her when she was young, traveling all over Europe. Whenever we went on a trip, my parents would teach us about where we were going and what we would see there. My mother approached her last journey as all the others. She learned all she could about the voyage, prepared us for her departure, and shared the many possibilities for a destination. When she finally departed, I was happy for I knew she was ready, but sad because we had said our final goodbye.

“We will not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.”

—T.S. Elliot Four Quartets, 1943

“To shut our eyes is to Travel.”

—Emily Dickinson

“The wise traveler travels only in imagination . . . Those are the best journeys that you take at your own fireside, for then you lose none of your illusions.”

—W. Somerset Maugham

In listening to this music, I hope you will close your eyes, become the traveler and experience a wonderful journey to many delightful places.

Bon Voyage!

Christopher Peacock

1) THE OPEN ROAD by Christopher Peacock (Pure & Simple Island Productions BMI)

“The Open Road. The great home of the soul is the Open Road. Not Heaven, not paradise. Not ‘above.’ Not even ‘within.’ It is a wayfarer down the road.”

—D. H. Lawrence Whitman

2) BENEATH THE WOODED CANOPY by Leo Delibes

“Beneath the wooded canopy where the white jasmine entwines with the rose . . . upon the flowering bank, greeting the morning– come, let us go down together. Let us glide gently; upon its delightful billows let us follow the running current. Upon the shimmering water, with a languid hand, come, we’ll reach the shore where the spring is still and the birds sing.”

—Leo Delibes, Lakme, 1883

3) MILES OF DREAMS by Christopher Peacock (Pure & Simple Island Productions BMI)

“A traveler’s thoughts in the night wander in a thousand miles of dreams.”

—Wang Ei, Seeking A Mooring, 17 c.

4) BUTTERFLY by Christopher Peacock (Pure & Simple Island Productions BMI) In loving memory of my mother, Jane Moore Peacock.

“When we have done all the work we were sent to earth to do . . . We are allowed to shed our body which imprisons our soul like a cocoon encloses the future butterfly. And when the time is right, we can let go of it and we will be free of pain, free of fear and worries, free as a very beautiful butterfly returning home to God.”

—Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, The Wheel of Life, 1997

5) CITY OF ANGELS by Gabriel Yared (WB Music Corp. and New Regency Music)

“... this is what travel can always do for you, whether it be by air or sea or cinema. You can take a trip, and if you are lucky you begin to know a stranger, who in turn helps you see yourself and your homeland with clearer eyes.”

—James D. Houston, San Francisco Chronicle

6) IL POSTINO by Luis Bacalov (C.A.M. S.r.l. and Esterno Mediterraneo Film S.r.l.)

“The traveler who has gone to Italy to study the tactile values of Giotto or the corruption of the Papacy, may return remembering nothing but the blue sky and the men and women who live under it.”

—E.M. Forster, A Room with a View, 1908

7) TRAVELER by Christopher Peacock (Pure & Simple Island Productions BMI)

“Maybe I’m a gypsy. I don’t know, But every time I see an afterglow Of flaming sun upon a distant rise, The spell of open trails gets in my eyes. And when the wind blows in the early dawn Over the misty mountains I would be gone, In eagerness, for another field to know, Another sun and another afterglow.”

—Anonymous

8) WOMEN OF IRELAND by Paddy Moloney (BMG Music)

“Oh I found so many beautiful things As I roamed the wide world o’er, And they sang a song that soars and sings Around me evermore.”

—Anonymous

9) NO PLACE LIKE HOME by Christopher Peacock (Pure & Simple Island Productions BMI)

“’Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”

—John Howard Payne, Clari, the Maid of Milan, 1823

10) NEITHER HERE NOR THERE by Christopher Peacock (Pure & Simple Island Productions BMI)

“There is something about the momentum of travel that makes you want to just keep moving, to never stop.”

—Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There, 1992

Produced and Arranged by Gene Nery and Christopher Peacock

Recorded at The Treehouse and The Hideout, Orcas Island, WA and Studio X, Seattle, WA

Engineered by Gene Nery and Reed Ruddy (Studio X)

Performed on a Yamaha C-7II Disclavier Grand Piano

Piano Technician: Scott Craven

Mastered by Ross Nyberg at Studio X Mastering, Seattle, WA

Design by TMA Ted Mader Associates, Seattle, WA