A highly respected Christian recording artist, Andrew Peterson eschews the normal route many aspiring singers and songwriters have taken. His website reveals, "For more than twenty years now, Andrew Peterson has tirelessly been about the business of quietly changing lives in four-minute increments."
The increments, of course, are his songs—songs that speak to praising God and thanking Him for His bountiful blessings.
Andrew Peterson grew up the son of a pastor in a home filled with books. His dad's library brimmed with theology books alongside William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Edgar Allan Poe.
His dad excelled at storytelling, telling a story every week in the pulpit to help his congregation engage with the truth he shared.
Peterson described himself as a "rascal with a heart of coal" as a child but always smiled at the little ladies in church. He "walked the aisle" and cried into his dad's hip when he was nine. He admits a fear of hell drove him, yet he knew he was broken and needed Jesus. Though calling himself a Christian from then on, he shared in his memoir, Adorning the Dark, "I was nineteen when I had a head-on collision with Jesus through the music of Rich Mullins, and I gave the next twenty-six years to a stumbling pursuit of a calling."
As detailed in a Crosswalk.com two-part biography, Peterson's music career and faith developed in surprising ways after discovering Mullins' music. His work first appeared on Billboard's Top Ten Christian chart in 2012, and not long afterward, he achieved success on the mainstream pop music charts as well. In 2021, he received new acclaim when he won the 2021 Musical/Choral Collection Dove Award for Behold the Lamb of God.
Peterson also has a rich history as a performing musician. He's toured with many musicians, including Fernando Ortega, Caedmon's Call, Bebo Norman, Michael Card, and Nichole Nordeman. He also participates in Square Peg Alliance, a group of friends who play music together when time permits.
Some of Peterson's best-known songs include "Is He Worthy?", "Dancing in the Mindfields," and "You'll Find Your Way."
Timothy Monger of the ALLMusic website describes Peterson as being known for "his proficiency at genres including folk, bluegrass, blues, and rock." Those are the styles, but his heart for the Lord is at the heart of his music. He lays his heart out, gives it to the Lord, and invites his listeners to participate in his worshipful thanksgiving to God.
Andrew Peterson's lyrics are interwoven with strong faith, an awe of God in creation, and many Scriptural references. In 2018, Trevin Wax wrote a glowing report about the effects of Andrew Peterson's music on his life: "his songs have become part of the soundtrack for my life and faith." Wax later interviewed Peterson, where Peterson provided more details about how Mullins' approach to music informed his work:
"It was around the time I heard Rich Mullins' music that songwriting began to occur to me as a type of art. His music was a vehicle for a deepening of my faith. I remember praying one night that I wanted to do music, not for my own glory, but for God's. And if I could write music to help someone feel the way Rich's music made me feel, that's what I wanted to do."
Much like Mullins, Peterson has become known for collaborating with others and mentoring other musicians. In an AnglicanChurch.net interview, Peterson described what motivates him to help others: "Sometimes when I'm walking through the airport with my guitar I find myself wondering what in the world I'm doing. I just want to go home. Then I remember that twenty years ago I asked God for this. Good people in my life affirmed my calling, and I felt with as much certainty as a 19-year-old kid can feel that God had given me a certain gift, and I wanted to give it back to Him for the building of the Kingdom. When I remember that this isn't just a job, but a calling, I find the stamina to keep at it."
On his website, Peterson says his spare time activities include beekeeping, building dry stack stone walls, gardening, and drawing. He is wise to include sleeping in his spare time pursuits.
Naturally curious, Andrew Peterson likes to know how and why things work. In an interview with Our Jackson Home, Peterson said he wonders about creativity, "Wait, wait, wait. Why—why did the movie The Raiders of the Lost Ark make me feel the way that it made me feel when I saw it the first time? You know?"
As of 2015, Peterson and his wife attend an Anglican church in Nashville. Peterson says, "I can't speak for Anglicanism as a whole, but Church of the Redeemer and St. Mary of Bethany Parish (both in Nashville), are wonderful, Christ-centered churches through which God has blessed me and my family."
Peterson has used his gifts to glorify God and foster community with artists who seek God's glory.
How does a songwriter/musician venture into writing books? In his Our Jackson Home interview, Andrew Peterson says a moment came when he tired of only talking about writing a book and figured out a way to make it happen. He and his older brother, A.S. "Pete" Peterson, had a contest to see who could finish a novel first. Pete won, but Andrew got published first. Peterson said the other impetus to write came because he spent so much time reading to his (then) two sons. Reading Tolkien and Lewis inspired him as he began his writing journey.
Peterson has currently published 10 books.
His first one, The Ballad of Begats, is a children's song-story book about the lineage of Christ, published in 2007.
Peterson followed with On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, the first book in the Wingfeather Saga series, in 2008. Other Wingfeather Saga books include North! Or Be Eaten, The Monster in the Hollows, and The Warden and the Wolf King. The Wingfeather spinoff Pembrick's Creaturepedia describes the fantasy creatures in the story; for example, the toothy cows, which Peterson described as inspired by his childhood. His mother loves cows, and she had many cow-themed accessories in her home, and he has "always been a little horrified of them." So, in his Saga, he gave the cows fangs. Another Wingfeather spinoff, A Ranger's Guide to Glipwood Forest, will appear in November 2023.
In December 2022, the Wingfeather Saga reached new audiences when Angel Studios released the first season of an animated series based on the books. Mr. Peterson serves as executive producer of the series and is the voice of Oskar N. Reteep.
Peterson's book about writing, Adorning the Dark, reads like a memoir where he discusses the writers who have influenced him and what he has learned writing music as well as books. The memoir The God of the Garden considers another creative area (his experience starting a garden at his Nashville home).
Peterson has cited several writers who informed his work. In an iBelieve.com article about pushing back the darkness, he references authors like Wendell Berry and Walter Wangerin Jr. In a Tabletalk magazine interview, he describes his "mentors" (Tolkien and Lewis) as "scholars and lovers of literature writing great books. That's what I'm shooting for, however far I fall short." Later in the same interview, he said, "I'm probably more averse to a badly written book by a Christian than an excellent work by someone who isn't."
Peterson's family includes some other great artists.
Peterson and his wife, Jamie, have been married for over 28 years. They have three children: Aedan, Asher, and Skye.
His son, Aedan Peterson, is "an Illustrator, character designer, visual developer, and background artist, which works out well." The website describes his work as capturing the "feeling of wonder and whimsy" he experienced as a child reading the Narnia and Middle-Earth stories.
His older son, Asher Peterson, is a drummer and sound engineer who has played on many records and is an accomplished music producer.
His daughter Skye Peterson is a singer-songwriter who began touring in high school and appears on the annual Behold the Lamb of God Christmas tour with her father. As of this writing, she has released a variety of music, including the EP Searching for Us and the album Where the Winter Was.
The three siblings have also collaborated on a music project called Wake Low, which started after their mother suggested they record something together.
Peterson's brother, A.S. "Pete" Peterson, was mentioned earlier. His books include Fin's Revolution and Tales of an Unremembered Country. He has also contributed to Wingfeather Tales and has a collection of poems titled In the Year of Jubilation. Pete's playwrighting includes a 2022 play based on the Corrie ten Boom book The Hiding Place. He later adapted the play for the 2023 The Hiding Place movie.
In a recent Facebook post, Peterson observes, "There's no doubt in my mind that what's shaped me and my work more than any particular talent on my part has been living out a calling in the midst of a Christ-centered community."
One of Peterson's best-known projects for encouraging Christ-centered community is the Rabbit Room, which "cultivates and curates story, music, and art to nourish Christ-centered communities for the life of the world."
The plans for the Rabbit Room originated in 2006 when Peterson visited C.S. Lewis' home in Oxford. He learned Lewis and his friends held their Inklings meetings in the Rabbit Room, a back room in The Eagle and Child pub. Returning to Nashville, Peterson contemplated how "community nourishes good and lasting artistic work—and that creative work nourishes community." He soon established the Rabbit Room to "generate and curate stories, music, and works of art to nourish the life of Christ-centered communities for the life of the world."
The Rabbit Room encourages people to read well, recommending works by writers like Lewis, Berry, George MacDonald, Leif Enger, Annie Dillard, and G.K. Chesterton.
The Rabbit Room encompasses the following resources for creatives:
Hutchmoot is an annual weekend conference with live music, food, and fellowship. Discussions center on faith, art, and storytelling via various mediums. A twin conference is held in the UK.
In 2014, the Rabbit Room launched a spinoff called The Local Show, a Facebook-centered venue for musicians to gather and make music. As traveling musicians, Peterson felt they didn't see their friends often enough, so the Local Show allowed them to fellowship and foster new friendships.
The Rabbit Room also has a publishing arm, Rabbit Room Press, which has released books like the liturgy book Every Moment Holy and the Inklings history book The Major and the Missionary.
Rabbit Room Theatre is a live venue in Nashville, which also helped produce The Hiding Place movie.
From all he's said and done, one gathers that Peterson would rather be known as a Christian than anything else. Watching his videos, listening to his music, and reading his books is well worth the time.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Nutthaseth Vanchaichana
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