Kito Peters: Reviews

Undertow-it changes the tides of your mind
First, it's the melodies, lilting one moment, then bringing up the pain of lost love,then foot-tapping, hip-swinging cool; then it's the incredible harmonies-deep and rich and cool and climbing; and finally the lyrics, poignant,lyrical-they stir your mind and bring you to a new consciousness ...you'll never hear what you heard the time before, it changes not with time but the tides of your mind. undertow gets better each time you hear it, which you'll want to do often. - EDC

Kito Peters does it again! This is his best yet!
Undertow is Kito's best work yet. The sounds are more sophisticated as are the vocals and the lyrics. The CD is very well engineered and I found there was something new and dynamic every time I listened to it I highly recommend it! - Tim Karsten

I asked some listeners to help me describe "Last Chance Love." Here's what they said:

In "Last Chance Love", Kito Peters brings together the acoustic sweetness of "Semi Blue" and the instrumental richness of "Exiles" to create a completely personalized sound. In these 13 songs, Kito the personal/political wordsmith and Kito the folk-inflected studio savvy musician come together to touch you, sting you, and draw you in.

"Last Chance Love" is a mature musical exploration of modern life in America and beyond, as felt/sung through the heart of poetic, amused and socially conscious gravity. Kito's hungry heart, exuberant sooth-saying lyrics and healthy anger expressed herein are crafted in danceable R&B grooves, sparkling rhythmic revelations, and cleanly vented soulfulness. His third offering extends his work to yet another level of authenticity and original import.

A Tarot-style fool on the cover of this third of Kito's CDs introduces a sharply contrasting mix of songs about love, fear, and last chances. The tunes are full-voiced and full-hearted, but never foolhardy. They sometimes serve up groovin,¹ shoulder-swayin' melodies; sometimes lure us to take a bite of harsh reality and always keep engaging. The songs ­ powerful in texture, complicated in resonance ­ come from a bard who persists in the universal search for a hard-to-find package of love, friendship, and passion even as he keeps drivin¹ wearily down the road looking for home.

Firestorms of love, laughter, and loss course through Last Chance Love. Funky and righteous, wry, and luscious, Last Chance Love takes us to a world of poignant contradiction. Kito's lyrics are both deeply knowing and freshly born in every beat, as he looks around him at our shared world with the eyes of discovery.

"The honesty and peculiar blend of humor and pain in Semi-Blue, particularly in the songs, 'we go on' and 'semi-blue,' soothed my heart. This album is an oasis of lyrics and melodies for those who are tired of hearing corporate slogans and political lies and who want to hear of life and love as they often are today: ambivalent, but persisting."

~ Jim Zinaman

"All the songs are sung, written, and produced with unmistakable heart, soul, and perspicacity. Several are so sweet they take me right back to riding in a convertible during the summer of 1966, longing for the girl I hope to meet at the shore that day, and then I can't get the songs out of my head, singing them to myself as I work."

~ Jeffrey Goldstein

"These songs, personally and politically conscious and articulate, soulfully sung, sad and funny, sum up the journey many of us have taken from the sixties to today. In the words of 'We Go On': Out on the road, no city in sight/ Driving, driving on through the night."

~ fw

"listen -- or read -- torrent in the mall, corporate me, cactus people and you'll hear poetry, and probably your own voice made sweeet, in all of them. semi-blue is just that: a little blues, a little melancholy, a lot of heart."

~ pam fleischaker

"Heartfelt lyrics backed by music that's kept me groovin' since I first heard it. The title cut from this cd has become a favorite, singing in my head at the most unexpected times. Please keep your music coming, Kito Peters and co.!"

~ ss

Semi-Blue has become my anthem, at once optimistic and loser resigned. As if Charlie Brown, grown past his worrisome childhood, had discovered a soulmate in Woody Guthrie.

~ paddy breen

i admit i usually listen to female vocalists, but i have noticed that Semi-Blue is on the track a lot lately. Semi-Blue is an original. Intelligent, honest lyrics ride the waves of a beautiful voice(s). Images and word play engage my mind and then let me share another's experiences. Thanks Kito.

~ JV

"Exiles continues the longing and lashing out for freedom first heard in Peters' Semi-Blue, the responses of a soul aching for people and a life to love in an America full of lies and emotional traps. Take a walk with Peters down the lonely highway. Listen to the America he loves without the flag-waving. And you'll better know how you really feel."

~ Jim Zinaman

"Intensely personal, this CD also serves as a coming-of-age story for an entire alienated generation bred in the sixties, baffled and angry in 2003. Alternately lyrical, jazzy, and grating, the music displays a real individual sensibility at work. And it keeps unfolding, yielding more and more on repeated hearings."

~ AWA

"This album is rich with haunting melodies, grooving rifs, and lyrics which are so clever, stinging, and plaintive they touch you and make you think at the same time -- a rare feat. It captures many of the elusive feelings, dreams, moods, and existential dilemmas of the age!"

~ Jeffrey Goldstein

"loneliness and longing have made exiles of us all. listen to peters' poetry on lonely highway and fantasy -- and come back from exile."

~ pam

"The thoughtful, poignant lyrics of Exiles speaks to me- both on the personal and global level- backed up by awesome rhythms and sound. I've been boogying my brains out to this music with meaning. Please keep it comin'!"

~ ss