Guitar Pete

Guitar Pete - Burning Bridges - 1998 - Tangible Music

Guitar Pete is one of the ultimate electric blues shredders to step out from New York’s smoky club scene. Within six months of picking up the guitar in high school he was playing topless bars and considered one of the best players on the circuit. After school he drifted from New York to Memphis, released three heavy metal records as Guitar Pete’s Axe Attack and signed a deal with Giant records with his Guns and Roses-styled band Snakeyed Su. His first solo release, Burning Bridges (1998) did exactly that as he cut his ties from Heavy Metal to concentrate on his hard-hitting electric blues. The record featured a rip-roaring version of “Mustang Sally” and his tribute to big-bottom girls in the swampy “Jellyfish.” The disc now sells for an amazing $150 on eBay. © Todd K. Smith (September 2008), www.thecutting-edge.net

“One of the first things to make an impression when listening to Burning Bridges for the first time is the unusually deep, clear voice of vocalist/guitarist Guitar Pete. His vocal style sounds to be more like that of a smooth & soulful R&B singer, especially on the slower ballads. Pete counters this vocal style with blues-rock guitar leads, as he runs through a set of 9 originals and one cover tune, Mustang Sally. The songs range from slow blues and ballads, to pop and shuffles, sometimes reminicent of ZZ-Top. The mix of harder, blues-rock guitar oriented material to more melodic music and ballads is about even. I enjoy a good ballad every now and again, but would would have enjoyed a couple more hard blues or upbeat songs…” © ElectricBlues

A good old-style blues album from the little known Guitar Pete (Pete Brasino). This album is straight-up blues, played with real feeling. and played by a real bluesman. His technique and imagination are the equal of many a more famous guitarist. Pete has played as a sideman for David Bowie, and other lesser known artists, and the guy deserves more recognition. Pete wrote nine of the tracks here, and his cover of "Mustang Sally" will really rock you. Some reviews, (like the one above), have a minor quibble about there being more ballads than hard blues, but most of the tracks on the album should please any blues rock fan. Pete's vocals and guitar are first class, and the back up musicians are ace. If you need a bigger injection of "kickass" heavy gut-wrenching blues rock, then buy Guitar Pete's "Mean Streets" album, which has been described as an album that "revolves around everything from Southern-fried Bayou rock to Flowers of Evil Mountain and State of Shock-era Nugent".

TRACKS

1. Turnin' Off
2. Jellyfish
3. Mustang Sally - Sir Mack Rice
4. Do You Hear the Rain
5. J.B. Shuffle
6. Drifting
7. Makes No Sense
8. Chillin'
9. Rainmaker - Anthony Bernardo, Pete Brasino
10. Gasoline
All songs composed by Guitar Pete (Pete Brasino), except where stated

MUSICIANS

Guitar Pete (vocals, guitar)
Marc B. Gilman, Ray Arias (bass)
Charlie Giordano (keyboards)
Anthony Bernardo (drums)
Michael DeGrotte (saxophone)
Rich Johnson (harmonica)
Debbie McGriff, Diane Cameron (background vocals)

REVIEWS

From topless bars to MTV, from New York City to Memphis, from studio jam sessions to extended touring performances, from heavy metal bashing to smoldering blues riffs, “Guitar Pete” Brasino has experienced everything in the recording industry…except fame and fortune. Burning Bridges should provide a lot of the first and ought to provide more of the latter. This fascinating disc highlights louder-than-loud instrumental artistry on the “J.B. Shuffle” and the Freddie King-influenced “Chillin’.” The lyrics and thunder-and-lightning likes on “Do You Hear The Rain” are also outstanding. And while the lead cut “Turning Off” really roars, it is the updated, upbeat, uppity version of Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” that demonstrates Guitar Pete’s soul rockin’ credentials. There is nothing subtle about this performance. Wow! Intensity, thy name is Pete! B. © Lee Cooper, Ph.D., © ROCK & BLUES MAGAZINE

Guitar Pete Brasino is one of the leading “rockin’ blues” players around; his technique and imagination are the equal of many a more famous guitarist. Best known as a sideman with David Bowie, Tears for Fears and Michael Monroe and as a regular on MTV’s Summershare, he deserves his moment in the sun. It would be easy for Brasino to follow the template of Stevie Ray Vaughan, but this thirtysomething New Yorker plays with his own musical personality. To that end, his approach to the electric guitar is varied and resourceful. The power he packs into "J B Shuffle” is balanced by the thoughtfulness with which he produces his lines in “Do You Hear The Rain?” and “Drifting,” the latter sporting a minor-key figure on guitar, evocative of Hendrix. Brasino knows muscle and velocity are exciting, yet he also understands how excitement can flow from quieter songs where patience and reserve pay dividends. Brasino is also a legitimate singer and his voice possesses a warm guttural quality that blends wry acceptance of lyrics and a natural sense of phrasing. Furthermore, his rhythm team is solid and he's a decent songwriter. © Frank-John Hadley, © EXPERIENCE HENDRIX MAGAZINE Vol. 3 / Issue 1

One of the first things to make an impression when listening to Burning Bridges for the first time is the unusually deep, clear voice of vocalist/guitarist Guitar Pete. His vocal style sounds to be more like that of a smooth & soulful R&B singer, especially on the slower ballads. Pete counters this vocal style with blues-rock guitar leads, as he runs through a set of 9 originals and one cover tune, Mustang Sally. The songs range from slow blues and ballads, to pop and shuffles, sometimes reminicent of ZZ-Top. The mix of harder, blues-rock guitar oriented material to more melodic music and ballads is about even. I enjoy a good ballad every now and again, but would would have enjoyed a couple more hard blues or upbeat songs. My favorite songs from the CD include Jellyfish, an upbeat, humorous ode to the full figured woman, Makes No Sense, the one straight blues number, Chillin', a groovin' blues-rock instrumental, and the set's closer, Gasoline, a ballad which features some nice, soulful guitar work. While the song selection includes a bit too much in the way of nice melodies and ballads for my tastes, this is my only major negative comment. I enjoy Guitar Pete's guitar playing, and after a short period of adjustment, found that his R&B flavored vocals work well with the blues. Review Published Mar 15, 1999, © Herm, © www.electricblues.com/archive/1999/burningbridges.html

Burning Bridges is a pretty apt title for Guitar Pete's incendiary solo debut. The artist keeps his namesake instrument blazing throughout the record, which essentially amounts to 43 minutes of gloriously shameless showboating. Pete is not a particularly talented vocalist; his booming, throaty bass is well-suited to the blues, but it would hardly earn him a recording deal on its own. On some tracks, he seems to give up entirely on the idea of singing, resorting instead to shouting the words rhythmically. Two of the album's best tracks ("J.B. Shuffle" and "Chillin'") are instrumental tunes that allow the guitar to wail for itself in a smoldering tizzy of dexterous showmanship. The album's sound is remarkably three dimensional for a three-piece band (Guitar Pete is joined by Anthony Bernardo on drums and Marc B. Gilman on bass guitar) playing a series of more or less run-of-the-mill Chicago-style blues songs. That's because Pete's fretwork is so dense and multi-faceted, letting more than a little '70s jam band influence to crash his ostensibly traditional blues party. This is particularly true in his explosive take on the familiar blues-rock tune "Mustang Sally" and in the smoky rhythm and blues number "Do You Hear the Rain." Burning Bridges is not a brilliant album; it has no pretensions to greatness. It is simply straightforward showmanship and as such it's a pleasure. © Evan Cater, All Music Guide

SHORT BIO

Pete Brasino has been playing his rock & roll-flavored brand of blues ever since he was in high school. He began to teach himself to play guitar as a 16-year-old and within six months he had become so proficient with the instrument that his classmates dubbed him Guitar Pete -- the nickname that would become his performing name. Another significant leftover from those early days is his playing style. Because he never had a guitar instructor, the left-handed musician never learned how to string the guitar the way a southpaw traditionally would. Instead, he plays upside down and backwards, holding the guitar lefty but using right-handed fingerings. Brasino's early heavy metal albums, released under the name Guitar Pete's Axe Attack, were not commercial successes, but they caught the attention of high-profile music industry professionals and eventually led to a 1994 recording deal for Brasino's band, Snakeyed Sue. The band's first record was produced by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiro, producers whose resumes included work with Blues Traveler, Guns N' Roses, and Aretha Franklin. Snakeyed Sue dissolved shortly after the album's release, but four years later, Guitar Pete returned with a solo effort Burning Bridges that provided a showcase for his powerhouse blues sound. © Evan Cater, All Music Guide