About Me
Pete Kennedy's "Guitarslinger" solo CD is here!
Pete Kennedy's new release, "Guitarslinger" is his first solo project since 1992, a gap of sixteen years. Taking a different direction from the jangly 12-string lush harmonies of the Kennedys' acclaimed string of CDs, the new album is a stripped down, mostly acoustic project that focuses on his incendiary solo guitar work. Longtime DC fans will recognize "19 in Vietnam", recast here on a haunting electric sitar, and "Eldorado", a favorite from Pete's band Bound For Glory. The rest of the tunes grew out of his solo tour of the south, earlier this year, with a few tributes tossed in: Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me", Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy", and Pete's arrangement of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". Maura joins in on a raucous version of "Not Fade Away", previously only available to fan club members. There are alos two jaw-dropping nods to the great Les Paul, with Pete recreating Les' patented tape speed manipulations, but in real time! In many ways, the album is an homage to the heyday of the roots music scene in DC, when guitar giants like Roy Buchanon and Danny Gatton were stalking the local clubs. Guitarslinger? Sure. That's the tradition Pete grew up in, and with this long-awaited solo CD, he show's 'em how it's done. See merchantile, below, for ordering information. $15.00
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**I've been playing in a duo with my wife, Maura Kennedy, since 1993. We tour all over the US, especially in the Northeast, playing clubs and festivals, and we've put together a few bands along the way, most notably the Strangelings and The Stringbusters. Prior to that, we were both members of Nanci Griffith's Blue Moon Orchestra. I played with Nanci from 1991 through 1993, and did a lot of the lead guitar work on her CD, "Other Voices, Other Rooms", on Warner Brothers. I shared the lead guitar duties on the album with Frank Christian, Leo Kottke, and Chet Atkins. Other guests on the album included Bob Dylan, Bela Fleck, John Prine, The Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, and lots of others.
Before joining Nanci's band, I toured the US with Mary-Chapin Carpenter. That was another great experience, especially playing the Telluride Festival for the first time, and traveling footloose and fancy free around the country in a Silver Eagle tour bus.
In my hometown of Washington DC, I freelanced with anyone and everyone, including the Danny Gatton Band, the Nighthawks, the Rosslyn Mountain Boys, Rent's Due, and my own bands; Bound for Glory, Good Rockin' Tonight, and Front Porch Swing. I also did "legit" gigs, wearing a tuxedo, with the National Symphony, and in the pit orchestras at the Kennedy Center, the National Theatre, and Ford's Theatre. In that capacity, I played lots of touring Broadway shows, including "Cats", "Evita", "42nd Street", "Zorba", and "Man of La Mancha", and also backed up a great number of artists like Eartha Kitt, Bob Hope, Joel Gray, and Ginger Rogers. Some of the most memorable gigs from that period include Leonard Bernstein's 60th birthday gala at Wolf Trap, the world premiere of Duke Ellington's symphonic suite, "Three Black Kings", and the TV special "That's What Friends are
For", when I got to strum away in the orchestra while Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Elton John, Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder staged a battle of the vocal riffs a few feet in front of me.
One of the best ongoing gigs was as a house musician at the Birchmere, a great venue in Alexandria, VA. There, I played with songwriters like Kate Wolf, Tom Paxton, John Stewart, Bob Gibson, and John Starling, and with great instrumentalists including Mike Auldridge, Tony Rice, John Jennings, Buddy Emmons, Jethro Burns, and Al Petteway. During this time, the late '70's and early 80's, I also played in a swing guitar duo with Tom Principato, and we were lucky enough to do lots of shows as an opening act for Danny Gatton and Buddy Emmons' band, the Redneck Jazz Explosion.
Having produced ten albums for the Kennedys, ten solo albums of my own, and a half dozen CDs for other acts, I feel lucky to have spent most of my life on stage or in the recording studio.
I'm also lucky to have learned a lot from some great guitarists who showed me things along the way, including Gatton and Rice, Doc Watson, and jazz greats Charlie Byrd, Joe Pass, and Johnny Smith. i picked up a lot from each of them, and they helped me to achieve my goal of never having a real job...except for playing the guitar.
