Kim Ware and the Good Graces - Palisade Peaches

“I’ve been fortunate to attend Song School in Lyons, Colorado a few times over the past several years,” says North Carolina based songwriter and performer Kim Ware. “In 2019, two months after my dad had passed away, the last day I was in a workshop with Cara Luft. We had been talking about how songs can mean such different things to the listener than what the writer intended. Then we started just sharing stuff, going around the circle, talking about what we had learned that week. The man beside me wanted to share a song he had just finished. The refrain was ‘my baby's eating peaches, and she's growing up too fast.’ I couldn't believe it. Because, while my dad was not at all musical (never even listened to the radio), I thought, if my dad were to write a song, this would be it. He was a peach farmer, and I grew up around peaches. So, I shared that with the group, and the man sitting directly across from me looks at me, eyes wide, and said ‘Have you ever had a Palisade peach? They get ripe on both sides!’ I was like, I'm writing that **** down! The phrase alone might not seem like much, but the ‘get ripe on both sides’ was just so visual, and he said it so emphatically. He was clearly VERY excited for me to understand the beauty of this peach! Later that day, my friend Barry bought some Palisade peaches and gave me one (I had never even heard of them). It was AMAZING. I so wished my Dad could taste it. I thought I knew a lot about peaches. And, when I first went to Song School, I thought I knew a lot about songs. No matter what we might think we’re an ‘expert’ in, there’s still plenty to learn and experience.

“The part about the mountain lion – that came also from Song School, the same year. I had gone to park my friend Wyatt Espalin’s (a great songwriter) car, and when I was walking back he called me and told me to be careful, as he had just seen a mountain lion. I was so happy to have been able to get Wyatt to play fiddle on this track.”