Welcome
I’m Peter Brunette, and this is where you’ll find the fruits of my labour in three fields of expression I’ve rambled into, following a fickle muse.
I hope you find these sundry creations—some for the eye, some for the ear, and some for the mind—worthy of your notice. All are free of charge in digital form. Folks who prefer hard copies may purchase them in my store.
Working in the folk tradition, I compose songs that celebrate the joys and follies of everyday life, revel in the glory of the expanding universe, and stick it to the powers that be. Very occasionally, I get up the nerve to perform them in public—a big ask, since my singing voice is nothing to write home about and I’ve been a beginning guitarist for about sixty years. My one album to date, Meadowlark, graced by the accompaniment of many fine musicians and backup singers, was released in 2015. My big news on the songwriting front, though, is that I’ve finally published Three Chords and the Truth: The Peter Brunette Songbook. Well over a year in the making, this hefty volume features the words and music for forty-eight of my songs; what’s more, its eighty-odd illustrations make Three Chords as much a book for the coffee table as for the music stand.
As a prose writer, my chief mentors have been Aristotle, Hegel, and Marx. My essays in history and philosophy deal with topics ranging from public works in the Inca Empire to arguments for and against the existence of God. In addition, there’s a book-length study, currently in progress, entitled The Artful Animal: Human Nature in Retrospect and Prospect. This is a madly ambitious endeavour that, if I live to complete it, will encompass not only philosophical anthropology but ontology and cosmology to boot. The aim is to counter the prevailing ruling-class ideology—which, whether in its liberal or its fascist guise, serves to justify plutocracy, neocolonialism, endless war, and ecocide—through a fairly comprehensive exposition of Dialectical Naturalism, a mode of thought as old as the hills and as fresh as a budding rose. The 50-page Prologue, posted here, offers a preview of the work.
Though I’ve taken on more than a few paid gigs—portrait sessions, weddings, concerts, office parties, and the like—photography is and always has been more a hobby of mine than a profession. In her infinite wisdom, the Creator gave me the sort of mind that functions almost exclusively in words rather than images, so I’ve used my camera to memorialize visual experiences I’d otherwise be unable to recapture. My favourite subjects have been the natural splendours I’ve witnessed on this achingly beautiful planet, the folk-music scene in and around my home town, and the good times I’ve shared with friends and loved ones—above all, our many happy adventures in the great outdoors. My Nature Gallery and Performance Gallery provide a sampling of the first two, and my Anniversary Slideshow of the third (though this last is, admittedly, more likely to interest my family and friends than the general public).