Buried Treasure

Pieces of Peace - I Still Care

Sometimes things just slip through the cracks. Unfortunately for the members of Pieces of Peace, that included their self titled debut album, recorded in the early 1970s and never released. Pieces of Peace was essentially a Chicago funky soul super-group. They went through many lineup changes through the 60s, settling on Bernard Reed, John Bishop, Jerry Wilson, King Johnson, Michael Davis, Benjamin Wright, and Fred Crutchfield.

Their sound in the late 60s was crucial to the scene in Chicago, as they were the backing band for the seminal Syl Johnson album Is It Because I'm Black?. They became closely tied to The Pharoahs, who ran their own independent label, Scarab, and for whom Pieces of Peace recorded their debut LP in 1971-72. According to the press materials, while the album was being finished, the band got an offer to tour Southeast Asia for six months. Unfortunately, pressures within and outside of the band saw them break up while on the road. They returned to Chicago to find the LP they had recorded was going to be shelved by the label, and it never saw the light of day.

Thankfully, our friends at Quannum Records/Cali-Tex were able to pull Pieces of Peace from the vaults - thanks to years of diligence by music researchers Dante Carfagna and Rob Sevier, and funk-savant and crate-digger DJ Shadow - so the album will finally see release on September 25th. It will be available in all fine record shops and downloadable via iTunes.

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