Joseph Arthur’s Good and Bad Fortune
Joseph Arthur’s good luck borders on the miraculous. In the late 90’s, Peter Gabriel was searching for an American performer to appear on his Real World international record label. A&R veteran Harvey Schwartz gave Gabriel a 4-song demo by Arthur called Cut and Blind. Gabriel was impressed by the lyricism and arranged to audition Arthur at the Fez nightclub in New York City.
At the time, Arthur was living in an attic apartment in Atlanta and working as a guitar salesman at Clark Music Store. As Arthur explained in a 1997 interview with Creative Loafing, “I came home to a phone message. ‘Hi. This is Peter Gabriel… got the tape… you write really good songs. I’ll call you back.’” Arthur flew from Atlanta to New York and nearly lost it when he learned Lou Reed would be in attendance. “It was just so fucking intense with Lou Reed there. I went in the bathroom and got on my knees and prayed, no shit. Before I knew it I was sitting in a restaurant with him [Reed] sharing ice cream off the same plate. It was like dreaming with your eyes open.”
Arthur signed with Real World and flew to Gabriel’s studio in England. He was teamed with producer Markus Dravs (Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Björk) to record the album Big City Secrets. Arthur described the music as “someone struggling to heal over experimental folk-rock.” The songs were angsty in the vein of Tom Waits, Neil…
