Peter Grudzien
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Peter Grudzien is an American country/psychedelic singer-songwriter, photographer, commercial artist, musician and recording engineer.
Grudzien's music has been well-known in the outsider music community since it's inclusion in Irwin Chusid's book Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music (2000). "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" is included on the companion CD for the book.
Grudzien's music is eclectic. Peter grew up listening to classical music and later discovered country. In the fifties he started listening to such artists as Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, and Johnny Horton. (see Esoteric Culture, Issue 2, Robert Koenig) Peter had a recording contract at the age of sixteen with the Pell Brothers whom he referrs to as "Brooklyn hillbillies". They wrote the music; he wrote the lyrics.
He was tremendously influenced by Dylan, whom he met briefly. Grudzien was part of the group of luminaries such as John Herald, Peter Stampfel, Phil White, and others who played around Greenwich Village. Myth has it that Peter met Johnny Cash. Although he had his picture taken with Cash they did not otherwise meet and certainly never played together.
Grudzien's LP, The Unicorn, was released in 1974. Grudzien had 500 copies pressed and tried, unsuccessfully, to sell them in bookstores. The album was almost entirely written, played, and produced by Peter except for the piano intro in "The Innocents", transcribed by a gay friend whose name he has forgotten (see Koenig). The Unicorn was re-released on CD by Parallel World in 1995. The CD release of The Unicorn also included several new songs by Grudzien, including his take on the American standard, "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere", updated with many openly gay sentiments. (According to Grudzien's associate Barbara Zigman, Grudzien did not receive any royalties from Parallel World for the CD reissue.)
Grudzien still occasionally performs in the New York area. He no longer records. Several post-Unicorn tapes and CDs were produced but are not generally available.
