No Bjorn, No John, Just Peter

I spent a good 14 hours wandering SXSW yesterday, dropping into various venues and tents when something caught my ear. Early in the day, I was enticed by one singer-songwriter with a particularly lovely voice. It turned out to be a familiar one. It belonged to Peter Moren, the Peter part of Peter, Bjorn and John.

He was plugging his upcoming solo album, performing somber songs with just an acoustic guitar and the Bob Dylan harmonica set up. The audience wasn’t really buying it---not that there was much of an audience. For much of his set, he played to barely a dozen people, and most of the ones that weren’t talking to each other were snapping pictures or writing in their notepads, arms folded when they weren’t. Tough crowd, especially for a guy who wrote one of last year’s biggest singles.