Song Premiere: Vanessa Peters’ “Just One of Them”

Dallas native Vanessa Peters perfected her songwriting over decades racking up millions of miles by plane, train, and automobile, performing thousands of shows, sleeping on couches and floors in the United States and Europe, and crowdfunding 12 records paid for by diehard fans.

The result is imaginative and metaphor-filled songs that inspire listeners and fellow songwriters alike.

Her upcoming album, Foxhole Prayers, was strongly influenced by the classic appeal of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby. The 10 tracks may be inspired by that portrait of the Roaring Twenties, but they’re still relevant today.

Album highlights include the track “Just One of Them,” a politically charged song about the misconceptions of the American Dream. Powered by symbolic lyrics, enchanting guitar, and steady acoustics, the song brings a light sound to a heavy topic.

We talked more with Peters about the song.

Cowboys & Indians: What is the story behind this song? What is it about? What inspired you to write it?
Vanessa Peters: This song, like quite a few others from the record, was inspired by The Great Gatsby. Initially, I had thought that I might do a concept album where every character got a song, and this was Nick Carraway’s song. He’s the narrator of the novel, and is mostly a decent guy, but one of his major flaws is that he thinks a little too highly of himself. He believes very strongly in his own moral superiority, and I think sometimes he’s blinded by it. But ultimately he is the character by which we judge all of the others, who are in almost every way more selfish, spoiled, and shallow than he is. And he does recognize that the friends he has surrounded himself with are blinded by money, fame, power, and celebrity, and he is wise enough to finally distance himself from that path in the end. It takes him a while though. The last verse is about just that, about how easily we get caught up in possibility of glory/fame/wealth. The book was written after WW I, when America had all of this power and wealth, and the idea of the American Dream, of the self-made man, was really ingrained the fabric of our society. The book takes a hard look at that dream, and I wanted to use those themes in this song.

C&I: There are a number of different musical sounds on this album. How did you want this song to fit into the overall sound of things?
Peters: I tried not to stress too much about tying the musical aspects of the album together. In the past, that’s been more of a concern, but I felt like there was enough lyrical/thematic cohesion that it would all work out in the end. And it helped that I was playing with my longtime collaborators. They knew which direction to go in once we started arranging the song. And, in any case, this song was definitely a more “classic” Vanessa Peters song: very much in the singer-songwriter/Americana/alt-country wheelhouse, as opposed to some of the more pop songs on the record, where we intentionally strayed off the path a little bit.

C&I: Are you a lyrics-first or a music-first writer? Did this song follow your usual writing method?
Peters: I’m almost always a lyrics-first writer, and this song definitely came about that way. I wrote almost the whole thing in one sitting. As often happens, the first line came to me, and I just ran with it. Many of the songs on the album had to be edited and rewritten, but this one is almost the same now as it was in the first draft. I was really delighted when the ending to the second verse came to me, because it’s a direct reference to one of the best parts of Gatsby, where Nick and Jordan finally part ways and deliver a few bittersweet zingers to one another, and I was so happy to be able to tie it in. It always feels like such a victory when that happens.

Get an exclusive first listen to “Just One of Them,” below.

For more information on Vanessa Peters, including upcoming tour dates, and to preorder Foxhole Prayers, visit her website. Photography: Courtesy Giulia De Gregori.