All tagged Great Peacock

Favorite Albums of 2020

Last year seemed like a banner year for releases, but the buzz for 2020 albums, tours and festivals had everyone thrilled for what was to come. No one imagined that all of that would come to a screeching halt in Mid-March when a global pandemic struck. A devastating blow to the performing arts community among so many other small businesses, the education system and the healthcare community. Many musicians had just released or were nearing release dates for their music, but were left unable to tour in support of it. Some chose to delay their releases and others forged on and released albums, EPs and singles anyway. I have a great deal of respect for those that took a gamble and provided us with one of the most important things to help get us through this difficult period. The power of music has continued to bring us together when we can’t join each other like we normally would. Thankfully, social media has allowed the artists to perform livestreams or even just promote their art. It’s allowed the fans to share music and continue to discuss and analyze it. Here at the Amp, we’ve made our own individual lists of our favorite three albums this year to share with our readers. We hope that you’ve listened to some of these amazing artists and their albums, but if not, we hope that you’ll at least give them a listen and perhaps find some new favorites.

Birmingham Independent Venues: Coping with Covid

Great Peacock has solid ties with Birmingham, Alabama. Front man Andrew Nelson grew up in the area and guitarist Blount Floyd is also an Alabama native. They have plenty of friends and family around to make a party of any appearance in the Magic City. The band opened for The Wild Feathers, another band with a loyal Birmingham following, on Friday the 13th at Avondale Brewing Co., a popular outdoor music venue and brewpub just east of downtown. A few hundred fans showed up to help Great Peacock celebrate the release of their new record Forever Worse Better and the band treated the socially distanced crowd to several of the new songs in a solid set. But something just wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t help thinking that the show would have been a REAL party across the street at Saturn, the temporarily shuttered venue that is widely revered by artists across the country for its fabulous green room facilities and loved by fans for its consistently fantastic lineup.

Great Peacock: Forever Worse Better

“Don’t quit your day job” is the standard insult used by hecklers to put down performers, but the new Great Peacock record, Forever Worse Better, took shape as part of band frontman/guitarist Andrew Nelson’s day job. That job has him driving a truck delivering meat from a small farm to restaurants around the southeast. It gives him plenty of alone time which leads to inspiration for writing songs. Nelson says he would use phone apps to record lyrics and work out basic arrangements while he was on the road between deliveries. With the 2020 pandemic shutting down the live music industry, Nelson was happy to have that day job.