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from an interview with Larry Beniciewicz, edited for accuracy:Pete spent his formative years in Poughkeepsie, NY, where as luck would have it got his first full time job in a record warehouse and was influenced by such disparate artists as bluesman Junior Wells ("It's My Life Baby" was the first record he ever bought) and jazz piano giant Thelonious Monk. "My favorite musician. I started playing bass again on the day Monk died on Feb. 17, 1982. You see, i had laid off music for a few years to concentrate on school and that day i trudged in the slush down to 48th street to buy a jazz bass copy and practice amp. When i came home and turned on WKCR they announced Monk had just died. So right then and there i decided to stop playing around and get real serious about music". He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park NY in the early 80s (where he lived across from the old Atlantic records headquarters on 56th St. between Broadway & 8th) and upon graduation worked at the celebrated Hotel Carlyle. Pete credits a 1986 pilgrimage to Antone's in Austin, Texas (then on Guadalupe) as sealing his fate as a musician. "I came home from that trip and gave my boss notice pretty much right away, it affected me that much. and i have'nt looked back since".Originally starting on both bass and guitar, he had by then switched mostly to guitar and was a member of a succession of harp-led bands such as the Fat Tuesday Blues Review, Rockinitis(named for Billy Boy Arnold's 1957 Vee-Jay ..260 release, Rockin' Itis) and the Knockouts. While in the Knockouts Pete and his friends Doug Price and Scott Westergard were instrumental in the re-discovery of Little Sam Davis, at the time retired for 17 years. Sam went on to record a critically acclaimed album for Delmark Records and won the WC Handy Comeback Artist of the Year Award that year as well as the Little Walter Award in Los Angeles. By the early 90s, with this latter NY-based group and to a large degree with Steve Guyger, the Philadelphia trad harp virtuoso(who toured with the great Jimmy Rogers for 11 years)Pete was making quite a name for himself in the blues dens of the quad state area when he struck up a friendship with the great guitarist Mark Ross of Queen Bee and the Blue Hornet Band, out of State College PA. Mark brought Pete to the attention of Mark Wenner of the Nighthawks. Pete spent the next nine years as guitarist for that legendary DC band, touring relentlessly worldwide and appearing on 3 albums and one final dvd with blues icon Hubert Sumlin before departing in the beginning of 2004.
The catalyst for my leaving The Nighthawks was the formation in the summer of 2003 of The Shambells with Dave Goodfriend, Russ Beeker, Tommy Hannigan and Nick Ruggieri. Nick was replaced by Kevin Whisman and then Clark Matthews, who continues with the band today. That band was a damn wrecking crew, creating havoc all up and down the DC/Baltimore corridor all the way down to Norfolk. The band temporarily disbanded during the winter of 2005, and during that hiatus i moved to Baltimore and went back on the road. The Shambells re-formed in the fall of 2006 with my bro the great Mike Dutton taking my place and they're kickin' it just as hard as ever. I've been freelancing with a lot of people since then, both on the road and at home. So far 2007 is shaping up to be a busy year, with two band projects, production gigs, session work and freelance gigs on guitar and bass. Much more to come, and thanks for looking.