THE BLUE HOUR LOUNGE

Miscellanous News and Reviews from the Past

(The reviews below have been edited for content.)

Yoakam's craft, tradition speak loudest of all
Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, Cal., Aug. 22, 2002
By Dan MacIntosh

The show opened with a lot of punch, especially due to Pete Anderson's guitar magic on the rockabilly of "Little Sister," and other more guitar-based selections. It lagged throughout the ballad-heavy middle section, but picked up steam again when songs with more bounce, such as "Honky Tonk Man," anchored the closing section.

By Bill Holdship
Reviewed Aug. 23, 2002.
Reuters/Variety

Yoakam's band remains one of the best in any genre, and the fact that they could basically play any genre is what makes them so terrific. Guitarist Pete Anderson, in particular, is a marvel to behold, perpetually chewing gum and switching from twang to Yardbirds riffs during the course of a song. A cross-section of material from the past 17 years was performed -- including several new tunes from a career-spanning box set due in October -- but it was essentially a greatest hits show. There may have been two huge neon martini glasses foaming Lawrence Welk-like champagne bubbles behind them onstage, but the band transformed the Greek into a beer-drenched honky-tonk for the night.

Yet when it comes to instrumental virtuosity, Dwight Yoakam's longtime lead guitarist Pete Anderson emerged as the evening's star. Anderson's inventive solos and ringing tone elevated Yoakam's well-paced 60-minute set into something more than a romp through his greatest hits.

Anderson and his Telecaster coaxed percolating arpeggios and atmospheric chords that pumped new energy into such chestnuts as "Honky Tonk Man," "Guitars, Cadillacs" and "Streets of Bakersfield."

New London (CT) Day news
Music shines at Brooks & Dunn's Neon Circus and Wild West Show
By Rick Koster - Published on 04/20/2002

A word about Yoakam's producer/lead guitarist, Pete Anderson: anyone who thinks country music is a genre that precludes guitar heroes (there have been a precious few like Chet Atkins, Danny Gatton and Junior Brown) need to seriously study how great Anderson is. Last night, he was celestial and incendiary.

Danni Leigh--A Country Girl Survives
Written by Sherry Anderson, Take Country Back, January 2002.
http://www.takecountryback.com/features/dannileigh.htm

After signing with Audium Records in March 2001, Danni headed into the studio to record her third album on as many labels. The difference - Danni now had control of her own destiny. Given more creative freedom than she's ever experienced before, the first right she exercised was choosing her producer, Pete Anderson. Danni and Pete are long time friends who share a love for many various types of music. Anderson is most widely known to the country world for his work with Dwight Yoakam, which is the main reason Danni has never been granted the opportunity to work with him on her previous two album projects.

Dubbed early in her career as the "female Dwight Yoakam," Danni was warned away from working with Anderson many times. While Danni finds these comparisons to Yoakam to be a great compliment, she doesn't find that they go far beyond the image and Bakersfield Sound.

"I cut my teeth on that East Coast Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells kinda stuff, but when I first started making music I was really into that Bakersfield thing. That's kinda where I set my roots in. I've said a lot about the Bakersfield country music, so that's a good thing. I'm really glad that people picked up on that part of it when I started talking in the beginning. But, I think for the most part, for the majority of the people, it's just a visual thing because vocally, I sound nothing like Dwight! I mean, I don't even have a nasal sound," she jokes. "But, I am quite a bit raspier and there's a lot of blues in me and it's a real different vocal sound."

Now that Danni has had the opportunity to work with Anderson, she finds irony in the fact that this album is the least Dwight-like album she's ever done. A major ingredient to the formula for making this record was Anderson's personal feelings about the constant comparisons. "It kind of made Pete a little angry just because Pete wanted people to hear me for me. 'Don't pay attention to the hillbilly hat. Listen to her music because she's not a female Dwight.' He wanted people to hear one of my records and go, 'you know, that sounds like her this time.' So, I think that's really what we got."

When asked if the comparisons have intensified since working with Anderson, Danni was quick to respond, "Not at all. I think it's only helped actually. Pete Anderson is so beyond in his talent. He's so far and above most people that he is never going to think of reproducing the same act. He's a musician. He's a lover of music. He wants to find out what each individual artist does. And that's what a producer's supposed to do. So, it's funny because I've fought it for years with people saying 'no, we don't want you to do that because of Dwight.' People saying 'you're the female Dwight' but when he and I finally got the chance to make this record, it's the least like anything Dwight does that I've ever put out."

Everything about the album and its recording process was a new experience for Danni. First of all, rather than record in Nashville, she went to Anderson's studio in Burbank, California. "His studio is small and no-nonsense. You can go in there and you make music, you can sit down and watch TV in the next room and that's about it. It was incredible."

During the song selection process, Anderson made Danni re-evaluate the way she selected her songs. "When we started listening to songs, both of us were loving the same stuff and it was amazing. And, with some of the stuff that I liked that kinda lends itself toward commercialism a little more, Pete would just come right out with it and say, 'Are you cutting this because you think radio is gonna play it or because you love the song?' All of a sudden I had to confront my own soul and go, 'You know is that what you're doing here?! Or do you really like the song?' And I realized that I was kinda doing what I didn't want to do. We sat around for a week or a week and a half just with acoustic guitars. And I stayed at his house with him and his fiance. She actually is the engineer, as well. So, it's just perfect because you're right there and you're in each other's lives and you get to know each other, and it was awesome."

Anderson made sure that Danni had the final say on which songs were recorded. "Pete did not encourage me to cut any songs. I had a hard time at first because Pete would say, 'Do you love it?' 'Well, I mean, I...yeah, ahh..' 'Well, then you don't love it. Next.' I was waiting for him to say no, you need to cut this song, but, he'd never do that. He'd put it on me. 'If you love this song, then we'll cut it. If you don't love it, then we're not gonna cut it. But you need to speak up. You need to tell me.' It's the first time that I've really been that big of a part of the recording."

Danni co-wrote two of the songs on Divide And Conquer, "Yesterday" and "Last Train To San Antone." Both songs were written prior to her first recording contract with Decca Records.

"They were two songs that I've always, always loved. I brought them in for both of the other records, but because they were a little different or just wasn't what they were looking for the record, I never got to record them." She continues, "I've always been very fond of both of these songs and when I brought them to Pete, I said, 'Look, I really like these songs and I've never been allowed to cut them.' He was like, 'Okay, well then let's cut them. What are they? Play them for me. If I don't like them, I'm gonna tell ya.' He wouldn't let me cut a song that stunk, that's for sure. Those were my two songs that hung in there with everybody else's tunes, so I was fortunate enough to get those on there. But, I only want to cut great songs, so even if I don't write them, I'm not gonna just fill up an album full of my stuff because it's my stuff."

Of all the songs she's written, Danni says that "Last Train To San Antone" is one of her favorites. She wrote it with Doug Swander about six or seven years ago and when they were done writing it, she felt like it was probably one of the best songs she'd ever written. She's always had a very strong feeling about it and knew that it was a very strong song. But, Danni reveals that the song hasn't always been what we hear on the record. "Melodically, it used to be quite different. It was a lot slower and I think that was the problem with it. The song kind of drug out a little bit the way we used to have it. When Pete heard it, he went, 'It's a great song. I wouldn't change a thing about it except for the melody. It needs to be bumped up a little bit and here's what I'm talking about.' He played my song for me in a different fashion and it just blew my mind. I mean, it just brought the song up where it needed to be, but no one else heard that in the past. But, Pete did. So I finally got to cut the song. There's been a lot of people who just love that song, so maybe it'll single. I don't know. It would be great because it's always been at the top of the heap for me as far as stuff I've done."

Once the songs were selected, Danni did not head straight to the studio to start recording the album. Instead, she and the session musicians spent three days in a rehearsal hall, letting the songs take on their own form and create themselves into the end project.

"This is really a great part of this recording process. We went into the rehearsal hall as a band and we rehearsed these songs for three days prior to ever recording. I was in there with Pete and all these guys I've waited my entire career to record with. I remember one moment when I was sitting there going, 'How did I end up here?! This is incredible!' I just lost my mind for a second, because here are all these people, my mentors, people that I've just totally admired and they're asking me my opinion," she shares. "'Well do you like it? If I play this, does that sound cool to you?' And I'm just like, 'Yeah!' 'Well how about...? What else do you wanna hear? Do you want to hear something different there?' They really liked to hear my opinions."

Most people who are familiar with Danni's previous albums, would note that there isn't as much honky-tonk and twang on Divide And Conquer as they've heard on her past projects. There is more of a diverse selection of country music ranging from Countrypolitan to blues country. It's not just one vein of country music. "Although I think that we could have filled up the record with some more honky-tonk stuff, I felt like I wanted to try some other styles of tunes. I had the capability of being with Pete and Pete not being afraid of letting me try stuff and I really, really feel good about kinda branching out a little bit into that country-rock-blues thing. I went that way with it because I would never go into that pop stuff. I will go into the blues.

Anderson challenged Danni vocally on several of the songs. "Pete really made me bump up some keys and go a couple of steps up. People had kinda gone there before with me, other producers, because I've had fabulous producers throughout, but he challenged me quite a bit and I enjoyed that. There was a whole side of me that I'd never really been able to explore only because I think that people were real concerned about whether or not radio was gonna play it. And unfortunately, and I do honestly mean this, unfortunately, I haven't had much luck at commercial radio. I wish that one day they'd just pick up one of these songs and play it a little bit. I'm not looking for a song to go flying up to number one or anything, but it just makes your life so much easier. If the masses get to hear it, then it makes everything easier, even the touring and that's really why I'm in this is to tour. That's what I love to do."

As for future projects, she's already looking forward to working with Pete Anderson on her next album. "I plan on making many more records with Pete. That's how much I enjoyed the whole process. But, I think Pete will let me get even more involved. I don't ever want to be a co-producer. I'm not really striving towards that, but I think that we'll continue to explore musical boundaries and continue to push the envelope a little bit. I'm writing a little bit and trying to get some pretty good country hard-core stuff for the next record. So, we'll probably end up blowing some minds on the next one, too. I do think that it's going to be an adventure for the next few years. Hopefully, for the next twenty years. Who knows."

Perfect Pete Anderson kept it simple and clean on lead guitar, lifting off like a rocket on tasteful but incendiary solos. Yoakam's longtime collaborator and producer let his fingers do the talking, riffing with extreme economy and grace.

(A review of the concert at Louisville Palace)
Yoakam was in stellar form and the band, led by guitarist Pete Anderson, was clearly enjoying itself...
...But Yoakam and Anderson, who produces all of Yoakam's records, have rarely missed a chance to bring a sense of adventure to country music. They respect the music's roots but don't mind a little tweaking.
...But there are also Anderson's frequent forays into the history of country and rock guitar; he can incorporate 60 years of popular music into a single solo. What's really fun is when the two go head to head. On one side of the stage there's Yoakam, inspiring squeals with every tilt of his pelvis. On the other is Anderson, banging out a solo and then presenting his guitar to the audience as if saying, "Yeah, I killed it, skinned it, and hung it on my wall. It's mine."

...but when he and his longtime collaborator Pete Anderson push the envelope a bit, the results are breathtaking. South of Heaven, West of Hell is prime-time Dwight Yoakam, who honors tradition even as he advances it and remembers always to speak directly to his listeners' hearts.
At the very least, mark this as one of the year's best. But it's so much more.

With Pete Anderson playing all manner of guitars in a variety of styles, Yoakam and his band cranked out no fewer than 26 songs, starting with his recent hit "What Do You Know About Love" and ending with a tip of his hat to former Ryman regular Hank Williams via Dave Alvin's "Long White Cadillac..."
Anderson was the focal point of Yoakam's band, adding trebly twang or beefy Danelectro runs where appropriate. It's impossible to imagine songs such as "Little Ways" without his trademark licks.

In this Yoakam article and review of Tomorrow's Sounds Today, Whiteside says, "Overall, the melodies, producer-guitarist Pete Anderson's arrangements, and the band's gleeful bite are exhilarating..."

Sonicnet.com's Amy Linden agreed, "Produced as always by Yoakam's guitarist Pete Anderson, the man behind those ripping rodeo chords and the surfing-in-the-Mississippi flair that has made Yoakam's sound palatable to retro-rockers and Nashville cats alike, Tomorrow's Sounds Today forgoes the livelier and more genre-bending studio tricks that pushed mid-"90s albums such as Gone and This Time into brave new sonic realms. This time around, as it was in the beginning, the mood is modest, the sound is sparse and sans embellishments. Dwight and band create country music that does the art form proud by refusing to play by Nashville's current set of stifling rules."

Steve Mirkin of Reuters/Variety observed that "Yoakam's band navigates the music's sharp curves with aplomb. Producer Pete Anderson's mercurial guitar continues to impress, finding the junction between Don Rich's whiny Stratocaster sound and flashy runs that echo Jeff Beck and other British guitar heroes."

Tom Surowicz (columbus.citysearch.com) thinks, "Flawless idiomatic lead guitarist/bandleader Pete Anderson is worth the price of admission by himself."

On touring... "We started our tour on April 8th, and played 60-plus markets, ranging from Los Angeles to Seattle, then on to Maine, Florida, and finally Detroit, Chicago and the Midwest. We all had a really good time -- it was a traveling revue of sorts, with my band as the core. Skip Edwards was there on keys and accordion, Taras on bass, and Jim Christie on drums. Besides the regular gigs, we played quite a few guitar clinics in Hoboken, New Jersey, another in Florida, then Bakersfield, and Fresno. They turned out really well, and I'd like to do more next time. The great thing was that all ages of people were there. I've been playing guitar a long time, and to have kids under 21 come and ask questions about my playing, to explore what it's like on the road and in this business of music...that was extremely gratifying. I enjoyed seeing these young players who are just coming up the ladder and giving them encouragement. There are lots of pitfalls, and maybe I can help them avoid some of them by relating my own past. When you're 18, and you're on your way to learning how to play, it's easy to get sidetracked."

On teaching... "I've taken my solos that I've done over the years with Dwight, and distilled them down to a booklet and accompanying CD, where you can hear the solo from "Little Sister" with guitar, bass, and drums -- then just guitar, then slow it down. You get the picture. With the accompanying tablature, you can figure out exactly what I did to get that solo on tape. There's been a handful of solos over my history with Dwight where people have asked me, "How'd you do that?" and I can't think of a better way to get it across. I also want to explore the parts of my technique that helped create these passages, so the listener can not only learn how to play the solo, but where it came from, and how to incorporate that vocabulary into his own playing. There will be some "hot licks," which are unavoidable, but some real teaching, as well. There'll be some blues, but I want to work my way through all the forms of traditional American music that I draw on in my playing. Right now, I'm working with Hal Leonard Publishing, and things seem to be going well."

Country Music People
London, UK - January 1998
"Sara Evans" by Craig Baguley
Quote by Sara Evans

Despite the success of Patty Loveless, it may be that very "mountainy" in Sara Evans' vocals that is putting up barriers between her and the radio stations. They want it country - but not too country. Pete Anderson's production of Sara's album [Three Chords and the Truth] has not met with general acclaim for that very reason, although Sara is quick to point out that Anderson was her choice of producer.

"I thought there's only a few people in Nashville that can do this, and it would be really hard to get someone to make a country record. Very few people in Nashville make country records anymore - it's all pop. Some do, like Lee Ann Womack's record is great. And there's George Strait, Alan Jackson and Patty Loveless, but I'm talking about the new artists. It's not country."

"We went to meet Pete and we just loved him. He's an extraordinary person. He is a dreamer. He can see something and he is not afraid to do anything. He'll see a vision and he's not afraid to go against the grain."

The hallmark of Anderson's productions is that you don't recognize his hand behind the controls. He brings out the best in the artist, but leaves his own imprint -- save for those tasty guitar licks -- off the records.

"If you recognized a style it would be a negative," he said. "My job is to wrap the present."

But three years ago, disgusted by what he saw as record company mistakes, Anderson took himself out of lineup.

"I got tired of being a producer-for-hire, and sitting by watching the records get mangled by the record companies," he said, pointing to the unrealized hit potential of Shocked's "Anchorage" as exhibit A. "I'm very attached to those records, and I've seen it happen with almost everybody I worked with. It was very frustrating."

Anderson looked for a solution and considered an executive position at a label where he might have greater input, but his independent spirit wouldn't allow it. The only thing left to do was start a label of his own.

The result is Little Dog, which offered Anderson full creative control. The label now boasts six acts and is about to sign a seventh. All had to personally past muster with Anderson. The entrance requirements are simple, if not easy:
Style?
"Stuff I like."
Theme?
"Good songs."
Nothing else matters, Anderson said, except an understanding that with a small label, success takes time. "The majors look for platinum out of the box, but I'll go out and promote these records myself, and I'll talk about them for a year. So I'm looking for people who are obsessed but in control, driven but focused."

In three years, Little Dog has progressed from a pup with an 800 number to a new distribution deal with industry giant Polygram. Anderson's "guerrilla staff" still handles marketing and promotion. "But all I have to do is hit one out, and I know (Polygram) will be getting me a big staff," he said.

That long fly ball might come with Anderson's own "Dogs In Heaven" album, a terrific record, dripping with choice guitar chops and oozing fun from every groove -- a tongue-in-cheek travelogue of Americana. It's almost as if Anderson -- who was raised on a steady diet of Motown and rhythm-and-blues before, then started a jug band before discovering country -- grabbed a handful of his favorite things from his old toy chest in the attic, tripped coming back down the stairs and spilled them all over the record.

There is funky jazz/ fusion (the title track), "Blood on the Tracks" -era Dylan ("110 in the Shade"), gut-bucket Delta blues ("Feels Like Mississippi") and even a lounge-perfect cover of The Four Seasons' ("Sherry").

"I guess I needed to exorcise something inside of me," Anderson said. "But once I had it out, I realized it was really fun. Sometimes my guitar playing makes me laugh, too. I'm not sure where I'm going, but I pull it out at the last minute. It's like I get in a flow -- a feed-back loop between my mind and the sound coming out of my guitar."

Anderson attributes part of the album's success to the fact that -- surprise -- he didn't produce it himself.

"It's impossible to do a good job producing your-self," he said. "You can't be objective. And besides, I wanted to be in one of those self-indulgent artist modes, where you hang back and play and let everyone else worry about microphone placement and click tracks."

With the recording out, Anderson is back to business, dividing his time between recording and touring with Yoakam, producing a few outside projects "when they really blow me away," running Little Dog and producing records for the label -- a hectic schedule you'd think might leave him, uh, dog tired. As soon as we hung up, Anderson was headed off to the studio to record Sheryl Crow adding duet vocals to the new Yoakam album, comprised of unusual covers. She's singing on a version of Sonny & Cher's "Baby Don't Go.").

But there's always time for pickin' the old six-string.

"There's nothing better than playing your guitar in front of people who came to hear you play your guitar," Anderson says, "When I get to do that, I'm a very happy camper."

As for Little Dog's chances for making it in the dog-eat-dog world of country music, where major record labels rule the roost, Anderson is encouraged by recent developments such as the rise of alternative country acts such as Wilco, Son Volt and the Scud Mountain Boys.

"They're playing a lot of independent music, which is great for us," he said. "Mainstream country (radio) is nearly impossible to get on Take any artist out on an independent (record) label, he wouldn't normally be played. Hopefully that's something that we'll be able to change."

Pete took time out of his busy touring schedule to talk with BFC about the "Dogs In Heaven" tour. "On this new record, I allowed the songs to stand on their own. I needed less of an agenda. Being the artist, and not the producer, makes it hard to be objective about yourself. You find yourself second-guessing the producer. On this record, Gary White (of Portland) was instrumental in working with me on the vocals. I trust and respect his opinion. Gary knows my playing, and I'm the only person harder on me than Gary. He pushed me to that spot where I got the best out of myself. This was a big step vocally from the first record. I wasn't afraid to have this be produced. The first record was more casual, but we paid more attention to detail on this one," Pete told BFC.

Pete Anderson just wants his music back. "They've robbed the name," he lamented last week. "They" are the Nashville powers-that-be whose tepid blend of pop, rock and country often seems to rule the country charts. As far as Anderson is concerned, there is a truth-in advertising deal at issue here.

"I wish they would call it 'countrypolitan,' and then let us say that we play 'country' music, and everyone would know what that was," he continued. "But now, we've got to say it's twang, it's alt-country, it's traditional. It's country music, man, and it's understood by everybody from Texas to Detroit to New York City. People in America know."

Pete Anderson is probably the only record company president in America who heads out on the road with his roster, playing small clubs, driving the interstates and staying 30 miles outside of bigger cities to save a little money on motels.

"The road is not for everybody, but at the level we're at, you've gotta tour," Anderson said. "The only avenue open to us that we can somewhat control is touring. We can't control radio; we can't control TV or videos. So people have gotta know about these records. I'm having fun. I love to play the guitar, and in the smaller places, you get to meet everybody."

Anderson, in his late 40s, is on the road to promote the Lonesome Strangers and singer-songwriter Jeff Finlin, acts on Anderson's Little Dog label, as well as his new album, "Dogs In Heaven." His second solo release, Anderson says during a preshow interview from Orlando, is an eclectic mix of songs that showcase his bluesy roots and guitar-playing. Anderson says the music is being pitched toward the folk-rock Americana radio format, but he concedes that "Dogs In Heaven" likely will be filed under "county" by retailers.

"It's not really twangy or alternative country," Anderson says, "and, hopefully, it'll appeal to people with pretty broad tastes." But one place it won't wind up is in the tape deck of the van hauling Anderson from gig to gig. "I can't listen to stuff I've produced after it's done," Anderson says, "and I have a really hard time listening to albums I've recorded."