About
Gerry Peters was born in New Orleans, Louisiana where he started playing the piano at age 8. At age 12 he moved to Memphis Tennessee where he first started playing in bands at age 13. He went to Memphis State University as a music major and first started doing recording sessions in 1976 as a pianist and synthesizer player. In 1978 he started working also as an arranger (strings and horns) and in 1981 started also working as a producer.
In Memphis he played on recordings for artists such as Mel McDaniel, Al Green, Amy Grant, DeGarmo and Key, Tony Joe White, Waylon Jennings, Joe Walsh (Eagles guitarist), Ace Cannon, Bobby Helms (Jingle bell rock, My special angel, Sam the Sham (Wooly Bully), Rufus Thomas, Willie Mitchell (Hi Records), Billy Swan, Jimmy Griffin (Bread), Joe Simon, Porter Wagoner, T.G. Shepherd, Brother Cornelius and Sister Rose (Treat her like Lady), Johnny Nash, Cybill Shepherd.
He moved to Nashville in 1986 and has played on recordings for such artists as: Kathy Mattea, Tanya Tucker, Mel Tillis, Roy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Pam Tillis, Tony Joe White, Lee Greenwood, David Ball, Donna Fargo, Lynn Anderson, Little David Wilkins, and Roger Miller. He built Midi Magic Studio in his home in 1989 and now works there as an engineer, producer, and keyboard player, and continues to work as a free-lance studio keyboardist, arranger and producer in the Nashville area working on songwriter demos and masters for publishing companies, producers, record labels, and songwriters.
My Philosophy
“Being a committed Christian, I feel it’s an honor to be involved in work that I can be of service to people and be a blessing to people to help actualize their dreams. One of my daily prayers is to be the answer to someone’s prayer in my music or advice.
“There are 2 basic approaches to improving the world and humanity. One is by seeing what’s wrong with the world and try to destroy it, the other is to look for the good and encourage it and help it to grow. I endeavor to look for the good, because too many times I’ve seen good destroyed or harmed in attempts to eradicate evil. Try and be positive and not cynical, not only will your world improve but so will others around you.”
“My musical philosophy is that everyone I work with, whether they’re a major artist or someone just starting out, is serious and it’s my job to make them look as good as possible with the musical product I produce for them, to take time to do things right, even if some times it takes longer.”
“All of the singers and musicians that I hire to work with me share the same philosophy, we do each part until everyone is very satisfied with it and feels it’s the best we can do. With songwriter demos some people have the attitude that ‘it’s only a songwriter demo’ and will stop working on a part when there are no mistakes, whereas we take it beyond mistakes to something that we really like and makes the song sound better with the attitude that ‘this is not a demo, but a master’.”
Most pro songwriters today take this approach when doing their songwriter demos and have seen the results with more cuts. When I’m mixing the song in the final stage of the songwriter demo, I know I’m done when I’m not finding new things to do to improve it and I’m just sitting back watching my automated faders move. This is a very gratifying part of the process, when I can just listen and enjoy all of the hard work we’ve put into the song, much like a builder that steps back and looks at the house he’s just built.”
Gerry and his wife, Dianna
Gerry Peters facebook page – become a friend
