With tenor guitar in hand, Peter Harper — the bountifully soulful singer/songwriter/sculptor/teacher who plays SOhO Restaurant & Music Club on Thursday, April 26 — wants to help us break old cycles and grow anew.
On his newest album, Break the Cycle, the peaceful poet advocates that we “recognize the shared humanity in one another” to break seemingly endless “cycles of violence.” “One of the things I'm trying to get across to people is that even a small amount of patience and a small ability to listen can go such an incredibly long way,” Harper said. “It takes a lot to love somebody. If you could simply tolerate, in this day and age, that's enormous.”
His tone, warm and deep, blankets you; his message inspires you. It's one he's carried all his life. Harper, who is also a sculptor and a teacher at CSU Channel Islands, has been a lifelong listener of the world, but it wasn't until his thirties that he began to write and share his songs. Growing up in and around the musical wonderland of his grandparents' Folk Music Center in Claremont, California, he helped repair instruments for the family business, with ears pricked to the comers and goers and the sound of their music.