Eric Brown
Andrew Peterson
Singer-songwriter and author Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God Tour will celebrate its 16th annual stop at Ryman Auditorium on December 8 and 9.
But this year’s show is also special for another reason: in commemoration of the tour’s 20th year, Peterson re-recorded its titular Christmas album, originally released in 2004, with a cast of musicians and old friends. Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ released on Centricity Records October 25th, and is distinct from its original version with crisp, reworked fan-favorite tracks and fresh arrangements buffed over two decades on the road. Peterson’s first adult nonfiction book, Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making also released on October 15th, following his successful fantasy series, The Wingfeather Saga.
Andrew Peterson
Eric Brown
Age: 45
Revisiting:
“Realizing about a year ago that it’ll be the 20th anniversary of the tour,” Peterson says, “I thought, ‘how do we commemorate it?’ I mean, I don’t know any other album like this, where a group of friends go out on the road and play the same record for 20 years.” There was “an energy” to the show that he didn’t hear when he listened to the old record, which inspired his idea to reimagine it in the studio.
Sharing the Wealth:
“One of the happy accidents of this album is that it’s not just mine,” he says. “It’s under my catalog on iTunes or whatever, but on the front, it says, ‘Andrew Peterson presents Behold the Lamb of God,’ and that was a result of how much of a community effort it was.” He enlisted a large number of past collaborators (around 40 musicians) to help him update the now-classic record at Nashville’s Sound Emporium.
Back to Basics:
“It was a two-day party,” Peterson says of tracking the new Behold the Lamb of God. “I mean, how rare is it that you have a band in the studio that knows the songs that well? Every little nuance. It was getting so many old friends in the same room at once… I think the hardest worker was the producer Ben [Shive] trying to get us to stop talking.”
Building a Home:
A sense of community and Nashville’s natural-spring musicianship has kept Peterson in Tennessee’s capital for the past 22 years. He and his wife, with whom he has three kids, host an annual “Pickin’ Party,” which welcomes scores of local bluegrass musicians. “We invite all these players and friends we’ve made over the years,” he says. “There’s 100 people jamming, and we’re sitting there at our own home listening to the best musicians in the world. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
A Born Writer:
“Somebody once asked me once, ‘when do you rest?’ and I said, ‘what else am I going to do, watch Netflix?’ The truth is, I love movies, but at the same time, if I had to choose between a life sitting around and a life where I worked myself to the bone doing something that I truly feel called to do, there’s no question.”