Yamica Peterson is hauling west to Manchester from her home on the Seacoast with her sound-guy/roadie/husband/love-of-her-life/muse Doug Cain for a Saturday night gig at the XO Bistro.
Before the show, however, she’s agreed to meet with me for an interview at 5 p.m. I’ve already ordered a Stone Face IPA and have settled at the bar in XO when a text message arrives from Peterson, who apologizes for running late.
I message her back, telling her not to worry. I’ve always had a way of entertaining myself at bars.
The bartender, a pleasant young woman, asks me if I’d like a menu, and I decline, explaining that I’m a journalist here to interview the musician playing at 6 p.m.
The bartender’s face lights up. “You’re going to love Mica,” she tells me. “She has great vibes.”
A short time later, Peterson arrives donning a sequined Santa hat and a holiday sweater. The bartender was right: she has a veritably radiant presence. But she is short on time, and her husband needs help setting up for the show, so we agree to chat during her set break.
I get it. Peterson—a mother of five, a full-time office manager and a professional musician—is perpetually busy.
“I won’t argue that I’m a work-a-holic,” Peterson said. “I get tired, just like anyone else. But I don’t really see any other way, outside of doing what I need to do to provide for myself and my family.”
And for Peterson, family is everything, and she considers her fellow musicians to be “the best extended family a girl could have.”
Tonight’s extended family is the Mica Peterson Duo with Manchester-based guitarist Nate Comp—one of the three “main squeezes” with whom Peterson currently plays.
The duo tears through an eclectic setlist that includes Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” John Prine’s “Angel of Montgomery,” and a host of soulful renditions of holiday favorites.
“[Nate Comp] is a singer’s dream,” said Peterson. “Whenever we play together, his unrivaled talent allows me to go places vocally I would otherwise be scared to go. It’s like a trust fall between us.”
The music is, indeed, a prodigious part of Peterson’s lineage. She is the granddaughter of the late Jean M. Jones, who was deemed Portsmouth’s “Lady of Song.” Her great uncle was the Seacoast’s famed “Sweet” Roy Jones and her great-aunt is Sharon “Brown Sugar” Jones, who continues to perform in her 70s.
“The way was paved before I even got here,” Peterson said. “I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Peterson said that some of her earliest memories are singing at home with her mother, Deb Peterson, and her two sisters, Tia Peterson Loenhart and Adia Amos.
“Mom has a voice like melted chocolate when she sings,” she said.
But it was her father, Pete Peterson of Rhythm Method who first invited his daughter on stage in 2004—when Mica was in her late-20s—for her first “real gig” as a back-up for his band.
Mica also credits her father with instilling in her the work ethic the music industry demands, which has landed her where she is today.
“My dad didn’t hand me anything. He told me, ‘If you want this, you’re going to have to work for it,’” she said.
To this day, Peterson still performs with her dad in a collaboration they call a Family Affair.
Peterson later joined with Rhythm Method’s bassist Chad Owen, who became her mentor and “big brother in music,” to form Mica’s Groove Train in 2010.
“We bypassed the friendship and became instant brother and sister,” she said. “It’s only so often that you have such a connection with someone that words don’t have to be spoken.”
Owen possessed the patience to teach Peterson, who was never classically trained and “plays by ear,” the technical aspects of music and, ultimately, gave her the confidence to pursue her passions. “He would constantly push and encourage me to tap into myself and my music,” she said.
Then Chad Owen unexpectedly passed in 2013, devastating Peterson, personally and musically.
“His loss was unconscionable,” she said. “We were so close and so connected that I didn’t feel the passion for music anymore. When he died, it was like I’d lost my magic, and I didn’t care to find it.”
Peterson then moved to Tucson, AZ, to care for her mother, who was recovering from a surgery, and Peterson stopped playing music professionally, but would occasionally sit in with some new musician friends she met while living there.
Then, two years after Owen’s passing, Peterson was sitting in her music room one day when an epiphany struck. “To this day, I will swear that he was either in the room with me, or in my head,” she said. “But I heard him, plain as day, teasing me about not writing anymore.”
That day she resumed practicing, and although it would be another year until she would write another song, the artistic dry-spell broke.
“I realized my magic wasn’t gone,” said Peterson. “Chad is in my heart and always will be, and so will my magic.”
Peterson’s mother recovered and the family returned to the Granite State. Peterson then rebooted Mica’s Groove Train, which she still affectionately refers to as her “baby.”
The five-piece band now plays with a new line-up that includes Peterson on keyboards and vocals, Suzanne Nicholas on vocals, Stacy Bugg on bass and vocals, Joe Rizzo on the drums and Paul Lessard handling the guitar and vocals.
Mica’s Groove Train is still actively playing gigs and looking to cut an album in 2022.
And the Family Affair has paved room for yet another generation of Peterson talent, adding Mica’s oldest daughter Sierra Peterson, who—in her 20s—is already an accomplished songwriter in her own right.
When the stars align and their busy schedules can accommodate it, Sierra will join her mother and grandfather on the stage.
“It’s one of my greatest pleasures when I’m able to have [Sierra] play at a show,” Mica said. “Her presence makes it a truly special family show. When we sing together, it’s like soul food.”
By the end of the show at the XO Bistro, I’ve perhaps had more Stone Face IPA’s than some might consider professional and make plans for a follow-up interview with Peterson. But the bartender was right: Yamica Peterson is great, and her music—as well Comp’s stellar guitar work—is equally spectacular.
And her family story: It almost feels like you couldn’t write something this heartwarming and cool.
Unless it was true.
Catch Mica Peterson on Sat. Dec. 18 performing at Strange Brew in Manchester.
[Peterson can be followed on her website, Mica’s Groove Train’s website, her Facebook page and the band’s Facebook page. For a list of regular gigs, check her out on Bandsintown.]
