Pete Herzog, a rather unknown person in the world of music. Eight years old he was, when his first tones came from a lap-steel guitar. Of course this wasn’t a ‘cool’ instrument, so Pete chose the guitar. After playing in bands for several years he decided to call it a day. Because the bands he played in brought him too much trouble, he didn’t play in public for many years, but now he’s an old and wise man and is back and present himself to the audience as a solo artist. Bottleneck, open tuning and discovering the blues in all it diversity. We can hear all this on his album ‘Homestyle’, a cd that contains no less then eighteen songs. A ‘live’ album, no overdubbing, all songs recorded in one take. Pete is using a slide guitar and an old Gibson with one pickup for these recordings. ‘Woman That I Love’ is the first song on this cd. We hear a slide passing by and know it is Pete playing all by himself, but it sounds like there is a second guitar player. In the song ‘Coqui Blues’, we hear a pick touch the strings, not really in the tradition of the acoustic blues, but because of the use of the slide licks, he gets away with it. Eighteen songs, of which also the ‘traditionals’ get his own interpretation. ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, we recognize the famous intro. Pete sings and plays the song sober way. All in his own style, as we heard it in the previous songs. ‘November First’, a song he wrote on October 1, 2004, in America, when the news broke that John Kerry was beaten with a difference of two votes by G.W. Bush. Robert Johnson wrote the song ‘Hellhound On My Trail’, Skip James wrote ‘Devil Got My Woman’, also about danger. That’s is exactly the message Pete likes to spreads with the song ‘November First’. With a voice, oiled in a good Gin, we are dealing with an artist, who knows very well how it must have been in the Mississippi Delta. No, no foot stomping beats, no bass and drums. A unique style, strong vocals en ditto lyrics, who are breathing the past, the present and the future.

Translation by: Ton Kok