Ralph Peer ’62 carries on his father’s music industry tradition

Jeffrey Selesnick

The e-mails to Ralph I. Peer II ’62 came flooding in from formmates when Ken Burns’s Country Music series debuted in September of 2019. Not only did Ralph, current chair and CEO of peermusic publishing firm, appear in the documentary, but his father, Ralph S. Peer, was featured prominently in the first two episodes as a major player at the so-called “big bang of country music.”

“Ralph’s interview for the documentary was over three hours long,” shares Peer II’s wife, Liz, who was instrumental in curating source material for use in the film. “The unedited cut of it will be archived at the Country Music Hall of Fame.” Ralph S. Peer gained notoriety by becoming the first person to commercially record and publicize African American artists performing the blues in 1920 and then country music, beginning in 1924 in Atlanta, working with the artist known as “Fiddlin’ John Carson.” Peer went on to produce the now-famous Bristol Sessions, which launched the careers of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, using state-of-the-art, “portable,” electronic field recording equipment that required only two trucks to transport the five-foot-tall batteries for the system. He established the Southern Music Publishing Company (what is now peermusic) in January of 1928, and rapidly signed composers in numerous genres from blues to Latin music. The elder Peer has been a longstanding member of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. The Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame has named their Publishing award in his honor and, in May, he will be inducted into the Memphis-based Blues Hall of Fame, recognizing his pioneering work in that field. It was years before the elder Peer’s son began to grasp the full scope of his work.

“He was hardly a recluse,” says Peer II of his father, “but he was a quiet individual who didn’t pine for visibility.” Peer II recalls many Saturday mornings spent with his father in the family greenhouse, where he diligently grafted camellias, a hobby that earned him the Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society. However, Peer II’s awareness of his father’s status grew throughout his childhood as then-titans of the entertainment industry became regular house guests. Walt Disney, a close friend of the elder Peers, was the first person to sign the guest book at the family’s new home in Los Angeles. Peer II came to St. Paul’s as a Second Former, having attended a weekly boarding school near his home in the years prior. In 1960, during the spring of Peer II’s Fourth Form year, his father died. The business never faltered, however, with his mother, Monique Iversen Peer, stepping in as CEO. A savvy business leader who spoke five languages fluently, Monique was integral in establishing the company’s international foothold and working with musicians and composers in varying genres, particularly the company’s Latin music artists.

The younger Peer’s involvement with the company began in his high school and college years, logging air- conditioning-free hours in the company’s music printing shop in Manhattan over the summer. It wasn’t until his uncle, the only other family member involved in the business, died that his mother pressed him on whether a career in the industry was something he would want to pursue. A business school student at the time, Peer II opted to remain with the family business.

“I was enticed to stay because it was a business that touched so many different cultures,” says Peer II. “And, even today, I feel a sense of satisfaction every morning when I see e-mails coming in from different countries inevitably dealing with some aspect of the local music scene.” In Peer II’s time at the helm, the company has opened offices in 30 countries, having built its song catalogue to more than 500,000 titles and solidified its position as the leading international independent music publishing firm. Peer II himself has become an authority in the field of copyright law, and has received numerous accolades for his work, including being named a 2018 “Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” France’s top cultural honor.

Even with all the global success experienced by peermusic, publishing songs performed by Buddy Holly and The Allman Brothers and serving as the principal publisher for Justin Bieber as well as great American Classical composers from Charles Ives to Morten Lauridsen, there remains a soft spot for country music and an appreciation for where the company got its start. Peermusic still has a vibrant Nashville location, and totaled five No. 1 songs on the country charts in 2019.

“Everyone has come to realize that the legacy we are working from is terribly important to the world of music,” says Peer II. “To have a founder who was the first person to work with that type of music commercially is a very valued heritage. We certainly work to honor that while simultaneously building for the future through publishing current hits.”