Pete Special

Pete Special plays “American Music” whether you call it blues, folk, soul or rock & roll , it all bears his unmistakable sound and it all comes from the heart. With his electrifying solo performances or with a small back-up group, the experience is always the same- unforgettable. Pete’s colorful musical history includes the founding of legendary rhythm & blues band, “Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows”and a stint playing with Bob Dylan’s legendary back-up group “The Band.” His current CD “Blue Telephone”is a critically acclaimed work featuring solo acoustic performances and collaborations with some of Chicago’s legendary musicians, including Corky Siegel, Michael Smith, Jeff Thomas, Mike Casey and others.Review: CD Baby
“Sometimes you know exactly what you want no matter how hard it is to get. If it’s some hearty, unforgiving blues you’re after, hold on. This full-throated gut-wrenching, southern Mississippi Blues, Soul and R&B from the man who founded “Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows”and played a stint with “The Band”, is now set to revolutionize the execution of Chicago Blues, and will hit the spot like nothing before. Grab a fork!”
What Dan Aykroyd says about Pete Special:
“Pete Special is an originator and professor of the fat,funkified, urban R&B sound that influences and now spills out from the regional bar bands in America’s great northern cities: Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, MO. He continues the pedigree, which he established with the breakthrough band, “Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows”, and is one of the leaders of the new millennium blues & folk movement. Pete Special will be laying down the future of classic American music for years to come.”
-Dan Aykroyd ( a.k.a.Elwood Blues and founder of the House of Blues)
Chicago Blues Access Magazine says:
“Special is a guitar-playing hipster. A little rock, a little soul, a little blues.”
The Chicago Blues Review :
“The CD is by far the best music to come out of Chicago-based artist in a long time.”
Review of one of Pete Special’s Live Performances in the U.K.
Diane Gillard of “Blues Matters Magazine”( the most read and respected publication dedicated to Blues in the U.K.) writes:
“Word was out in the city that there was this great guy playing in several of the Bristol Blues watering holes that week. Now I had heard about him and saw his name on the Colne R&B line-up but not had the privilege of having seen him or heard any of his music! So not having any prior engagements that evening Laurie Rob and I went over the water as it were to catch this man they were all talking about.
As we walked - no pushed our way into the crowded “L” shaped bar, the harp player was giving it all and the percussionist was sorting out the beat tidily. Then, before I could get the beers in, the VOICE happened! It hit me from behind and I reeled forward into the woman who sat on the high bar stool next to me. Sledge hammer in its ferocity it began to beat my senses not just auditory functioning but every other one as well. I spun around to get a look at this human ( well! I was hoping it was human!) oral projectile and salvo dispenser of music and to my surprise saw it was a white guy, medium in stature, pale of face with a pork pie hat. I looked at my friend Laurie and shouted across “What a VOICE!!!”
Now the Duke is the world renown home of Jazz in the city of Bristol. Some of the city’s best eateries are around here too and so the area this night was full of people. Meanwhile in the Duke everyone was sweating it out and enjoying this amazing Pete Special giving forth loud and clear from the little stage set in the bay window of the pub.
His musical menu was diverse and often obscure and what was amazing was the number of teen and twenty-somethings that packed in there and enjoyed themselves along with us mature persons and old gits. I could hardly believe it but there were these young ones singing along to Louis Armstrong’s classic hit “Wonderful World”and they knew ALL the words! It was whilst this was in full flow that a Punk replete with safety pin suiting and facial/body piercing, tattoos and the regulation spiked high hairdo of green and yellow hues produced a tube of soap bubbles and blew them around and over the band. From where I was standing and the lighting from there it all looked ( and sounded ) so surreal!
Now most Blues people will compare this guys voice to that of Mr. Chester Burnett and say he’s just like “The Wolf” but I would describe it more like that of a Wolverine - a far more dangerous creature than a wolf! So Beware! If you go to see this man Pete Special- be on your guard. He’s wild, raucous and please do not stand too close to the speakers! Having said all this about him listen out too for his version of Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands.” It is beautiful! Different but beautiful!! “Diane GillardThis is Pete Special. Music that matters.