Although the music was before his time, Pete Carroll was first introduced to the music of Buddy Holly & The Crickets whilst on a Secondary School holiday trip to Melrose, in the Scottish Borders when he was a youngster. Although Pete’s parents bought him an acoustic guitar some years before as well as an electronic keyboard, he never quite got the message to take up music. Not until seven years later, when the universe gave him a prod, well, more of a kick, by bringing the music of Buddy Holly & The Crickets back into his life. He was blown away with what he heard by the band that pretty much gave us the format still being used today: self-contained, writing, recording/producing & performing their own material and who gave us Rock & Roll classics from That’ll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, to Oh Boy, Rave On (both penned by Sonny West) and I Fought The Law (one of the finest Rock & Roll songs of the past 50 years, penned by the great Sonny Curtis). Pete saw The Crickets play live in Glasgow with Bobby Vee in 1988.Pete remembered he still had the old acoustic sitting in the attic. He brought it down and stringed it using fishing gut and taught himself to play Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Rave On, learning one string at a time, following the chord progressions, adding in string by string once he got used to chord shapes, until finally being able to play all 6 strings in a given chord – this took hours of practice everyday (pardon the pun) for almost two years. Other influences from that era are The Everly Brothers, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, early Elvis, Fats Domino, Little Richard….etc…..Since then, Pete has been a huge fan and took the format of The Crickets band, Buddy’s & Sonny’s melody style and vocal phrasing, the songwriting style, the dynamic guitar playing of Buddy, Sonny Curtis & Tommy Allsup (one of the best clean sound guitar solo’s of the past 50 years is Tommy’s lick on The Crickets It’s So Easy) and applied it to the bands/music he’s been involved in over the years.Pete initially started out as a Lead Guitarist with local bands, playing in gigs in the live scene in and around Glasgow. Over the years, he’s been involved in jamming with Rockabilly and Punk bands in the early days, has played in Rock/Blues, Country Rock, Brit Pop, Indie, Indie Rock, Grunge & Metal bands (with guitarist influences in those genres - Buddy Holly, Sonny Curtis, Tommy Allsup, Chuck Berry, Hendrix, Robert Cray, Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Page, Steve Vai, Foo Fighters, The Manic Street Preachers) adding in backing vocals to his role as Lead guitarist, then eventually fronting his own three-piece combos and writing his own material. Although he has guitar/musical influences in other styles, Pete’s main source and reference for musical quality has and always will be Buddy Holly & The Crickets (including post late 58 Crickets). As his passion for music grew, inspired by the Studio/Sound Recording/Production techniques Norman Petty used on Crickets songs, recorded at his Clovis Studios in New Mexico, Pete got onto a Sound Recording Course at a local college in the early 90’s, following that up the next year with another course in Music Technology.In the early 2000’s, Pete took a break from live music, studying other styles/guitar techniques (Cllassical/Spanish, Appalachian styles, Country & Bluesgrass, American Folk) and nurturing an interest for Film Score/Instrumentals. In 2004, he was accepted into the 2nd year of a Composing Music for Film & TV degree Course at the University of Hertfordshire in England, but sadly after moving to the University town of Hatfield, this fell through just before the course began. But shortly after moving back to Glasgow, his interest in Recording took hold again and he started composing Instrumental pieces. In 2005, after learning to use Cubase, Reason 3, Soundforge, Music Production Software on the PC, he set up his home studio and started recording his new material – he got back into songwriting and started on a path of Producing himself, playing all the instruments himself. After 22 years of being a Buddy Holly & The Crickets fan, Pete had learned enough about recording and music to record the songs that inspired him to pick up an old guitar and spend everyday learning to play it.In Summer 2006 he began. The Crickets Sound Project was born ! It took approx 5-6 months for Pete to learn and Record/Mix all the Bass Guitar parts, Piano parts (Think It Over/Rave On), 2-3 way Vocal Harmonies, Drum patterns, String Arrangements (Raining In My Heart/True Love Ways), Organ pieces (Take Your Time), the Guitar and Lead Vocal parts came naturally as he had 22 years of practice. By the end of it, Pete had a real insight into the mechanics of Buddy Holly/Crickets songs (also recording Buddy’s guitar instrumental Honky Tonk, Bob Montgomery’s Flower of My Heart and Mona, a Bo Diddley track which a few outtakes exist of The Crickets rehearsing it at Norman Petty’s studio, Buddy’s That’s What They Tell Me, That’s What They Say giving it a full band sound and a Bluegrass’esque version of It Doesn’t Matter Anymore) and that has proved beneficial to him by late 2007.After recording around 25 Buddy/Crickets songs, Pete had also began to Record/Produce demos for local artists as well as concentrating on Writing, Recording & Producing his own material and by late 2007 had signed 4 Music Publishing Contracts with US Music Publishers in Nashville (Big Wedge Music Inc-ASCAP) and in Wisconsin (Brandon Hills Music – BMI/Heath Brown Music - ASCAP). Two of the songs we’re co-written by Pete’s songwriting partner Pam Messick, an excellent songwriter and superb vocalist based in New York State, with whom he has a great working relationship with. Those songs are "Lonely, Sad & Blue" and "Christmas Dreams Come True", a swing song (see myspace.com/messickcarroll). Ironically, Pete’s great-grandfather was born in New Jersey and Pam’s great-grandparents were from Lewis, in The Western Isles of Scotland. Pam arranged & Produced and Arranged the final, signed version of "Lonely, Sad & Blue". Pete made a vow to prove to the world that the music of Buddy Holly/The Crickets is still as valid today as it ever was, and, is still influencing contemporary musicians, the proof in the pudding being 4 US Publishing Contracts signed, with more on the way. "This Life" & "Somebody Like You" are signed to Brandon Hills/Heth Brown Music in Wisconsin. From a songwriting viewpoint, his songwriting influences range greatly from Buddy, Sonny Curtis, Hank Williams, Ray Charles, Brian Wilson, to Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Springsteen, Prefab Sprout, Damien Rice, Neil Young and Crosby, Stills & Nash and more recently Woodie Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen’s "Pete Seeger Sessions", The BBC Transatlantic Sessions, Scots/Irish/Gaelic modern folk. So in effect, Pete’s musical influences span 60 years of music, in every decade since the music of the 40’s.The songs on this my space and Pete’s other Buddy/Crickets my space sites (see Friends List below) are a personal tribute to one of the most influential Rock & Roll bands of the past 60 years and Pete’s heroes this is a big thank you to them for shaping Pete’s musical life. It’s also a thank you to early West Texas/New Mexico Rock & Roll/Western Bop/Country music and musicians. Pete is now putting a combo together and will be playing these songs live around the UK and beyond, possibly the USA, contributing in keeping the spirit of all the Buddy/Crickets songs alive and in keeping with the sound of the original recordings.Pete is also currently writing 12 or so new songs, which are very heavily influenced by Buddy/The Crickets and is hoping to record and release a CD Album by Summer 2008, which will include cover versions of Buddy’s/Crickets songs, possibly Ray Charles’s Drown In My Own Tears, Bobby Fuller’s A New Shade of Blue, as well as Pete’s own material. It’s sure to be the best Holly/Crickets related album in years !!! – Watch this space - Gig dates for The Crickets Sound Project to be announced soon – Well Alright !! - (Pete & Pam continue to write and pitch their songs in the US market place and cultivating their relationship with their Publishers). Pete’s family Surname of Carroll can be traced back to 13th Century Ireland, where a very distant ancestor was deemed "Chief Minstrel of Ireland & Scotland". ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ..............
