No matter how good you are, if you live on one side of the United States, someone on the other side may have never heard of you. So when someone with as many awards and accolades from the New Mexico Music Awards sends a CD to me in Cleveland, I am intrigued. And when Kito Peters from Santa Fe sent me his CD of “Undertow,” I immediately put it on. And after listening to the release, it became clear to me why his name keeps popping up in New Mexico: The man has talent.
Kito Peters calls the area of Santa Fe “home”. It is there that you will find him creating a lot of noise; not just musically, but in their local music scene, as well. Every time the musician puts out a release, it is sure to end up in the New Mexico Music Awards, which says a lot for the talent of this singer-songwriter. One such album that ended up being included in the New Mexico Music Awards is Peters’ album of “Undertow”.
Like many singer-songwriters that have come before him, ‘musical genre’ means almost nothing to Kito. Depending on the song and the feeling each song takes, there might be folk, jazz, blues, or even rock in the songs that Kito writes. But most of the time, the songs end up with a combination of styles creating their sounds. Along with his ability to create songs with different genres, he also writes songs with some other singer-songwriters as influences, even if those influences are more than apparently worn on his sleeve. If you listen to the songs on “Undertow,” some of Kito’s influences should be very obvious.
On “Undertow,” Kito seems to have channeled several people when he was writing the songs for the album. The style of playing for the instruments as well as the lyrics for the tune “Priests” are very reminiscent of singer-songwriter Warren Zevon. And when listening to the song “Empty,” the writing style of the song as well as the vocal style that Kito has chosen for the song most definitely bring to mind none other than Tom Waits. The vocal approach that Kito takes on the song is a cross between early Tom Waits and the later years of the musician’s career when his voice was much more coarse. Other styles are also present on the release, but those are the ones that jump out at me the most. And while some of Kito Peters’ influences are very apparent, these influences have helped to shape the musician that created the enjoyable album of “Undertow”.
For the album “Undertow,” many talented musicians who played the instruments heard on the release joined Kito Peters. Without these talented musicians, and without the talents of Paul Groetzinger, Kevin Zoernig, and Ben Wright as producers, the album wouldn’t have the same feel.
Time and again, Santa Fe’s Kito Peters has been nominated in the New Mexico Music Awards. Take the chance to listen to “Undertow” or any of his other releases and you can see why.
To find out more about the talented singer-songwriter Kito Peters and his music, check out his website at www.kitopeters.com. You can also find him on MySpace at www.myspace.com/kitopeters.
Reviewed By Matheson Kamin
