Hope in Our Hearts

The Pete Kilpatrick Band will release "Hope in Our Hearts' on Saturday October 4th at The Empire
By Jaye Drew, freelance writer
Thursday, October 2, 2008
There is an old Irish proverb that says "Count your joys instead of your woes, Count your friends instead of your foes."

In the winter of 2007 Pete Kilpatrick and his band - Zack Jones (guitar), Matt Cosby (bass), Matt Lydon (drums) and Steve Morell (keys, sax) were disappointed by a promising development deal with Epic Records that suddenly fell through.

"We went from being like, we thought we were on top of the world...and it wasn't anything we did you know, everything just kinda fell apart."

Pete recalls how he was still being bombarded by congratulations in the wake of The Portland Press Herald's coverage of the group's record deal with major label Epic.

In the very same week he suffered another blow when his estranged father suddenly passed away.

"A lot of stuff just kind of happened all at once. Like, my dad who I'm not really too close with, we never really talked since I was like two or three - he passed away. And it was all within a week that this happened. But it was good cause we got (from Epic) some money and we put it towards the CD - we wanted to record something of our own."

So the story goes of how "Hope in Our Hearts" came to be. Kilpatrick sums up seeming disappointments balanced by perspective as well as any age-old proverb in the second track on the album "By My Side":

"The evening is here and the snow it falls;
I keep asking myself why I didn't call.
Cause now you're gone,
it's true that life's too short
to worry about the little things."

Pete is no stranger to counting his blessings and he has had no shortage of them over the past few years. This soft-spoken, easy going guy from York, Maine, has found himself in the midst of some big names in the business and he isn't slowing down. He described his experience playing backstage at a Dave Matthews show where he got to meet and talk with Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds.

"Yeah, it was crazy. Our friend Victor who works for them came up and gave us these meal tickets which we thought were for like hot-dogs at the vending area and he was like "Oh no, go back there -this is for the catering." We walked in and it was the most ridiculous set up. They had twin lobster and pan seared tuna and the only people back there were the band and their kids and us."

This winter The Pete Kilpatrick Band will set out on a tour of Ski resorts with IZ style that will take them from Sugarloaf and Sunday River to Colorado. They played one such show last year with Yukon Kornelius in which Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider showed up and jumped on stage.

So the winter of 2008 is looking bright for The Pete Kilpatrick Band with the release of "Hope in Our Hearts' and a supported tour. The album was available on September 30th on iTunes and at Bull Moose Music. This Saturday The Pete Kilpatrick Band will host two CD release shows back to back at The Empire. An all ages show begins at 5pm and the 21+ show will follow at 9 pm. Tickets are $10 and are available at Bull Moose Music.

And on October 10th they will be at The Asylum for the benefit "BaROCK the Vote." Twenty bucks will get you in the door and every penny goes to the cause.

If the passing of Summer is getting you down, pick up a copy of "Hope in Our Hearts." I found the album to be a breath of fresh air and a welcome remedy to a rainy day funk. It's just another testimony to what a little bit of perspective can do for you. As for Pete and the boys, I have a sneaking suspicion that the best is yet to come.