Peter Willard

The Tater Tot Hotdish Song and More by Peter Willard

Thanks for stopping! I’ve written, arranged, and recorded for 40 years now, very seldom collaborating or performing or bothering to share my cassettes and CD’s. Most of the old stuff was what we used to call “demo tapes,” which, because of questionable quality, will stay in the drawer. But with the help of modern technology, I’ve put together a couple albums of the more recent stuff.

All of the songs are written by me except where noted. All the arrangements, vocals, and instrumentals are mine. The instruments include tenor and baritone ukulele, electric guitar and bass, piano, harmonica, duck call, and melodica. All other sounds, such as organ, xylophone, strings, accordion, and drums, are played on a keyboard synthesizer.

About Us

SONGWRITING IN THE 80’S, 90’S AND BEYOND

I began writing in the 80’s, focusing on keyboard-based synth pop with electronic drums. Then came the country phase, centered on the lyrics and the story (This required learning guitar as well). I graduated from little home cassette-based four-channel decks to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) in the early nineties. Why? Because that’s what all the songwriters were doing. MIDI was great, except it required a whole lotta equipment with twice the wires to the point of the ridiculous. For a while, the thing was programming the drums and bass and hauling all your gear into a small studio, dumping what you had onto their system and doing the vocals, guitar, and mixdown there. The whole idea was to create a thrilling, if imperfect “demo” that would catch someone’s attention.

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