Featured Artist:
Billy Peterson, Bass
In the mid 1970s he pop career of bassist
Billy Peterson was fllourishing. In 1974 Billy met Leo
Kottke, the great folk guitarist, and was the bassist
on Kottke's three albums for Capitol Records and Chrysalis:
Ice Water, Dreams and All that Stuff, and Chewing Pine.
Billy was also the electric and upright bassist on Bob
Dylan's legendary multi-platinum recording Blood On The
Tracks for Columbia Records. The single 'Tangled up in
Blue' topped the pop charts in 1975 and was ranked 49
on the Top 100 Rock and Roll Songs ever recorded in the
December, 2000 issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1976 Billy was asked to join the Gibson
guitar staff. This association allowed him the opportunity
to conduct clinics and perform with guitar legends BB
King, Johnny Smith, Lenny Breau, Les Paul, and the late
Howard Roberts. It was also during this decade when record
producer and engineer David Rifkin (aka David Z, who produced
Prince in the 80's) introduced Billy to keyboardist Ben
Sidran (Steve Miller Band, Rolling Stones). That was the
beginning of an inspiring musical partnership that has
remained strong to this day.
The late seventies and early eighties
were totally consumed with music from all angles. Billy
released his solo album Threshold of Surrender in 1981
on Celebration Records. He continued to tour Europe with
various artists and was also the in-house bassist for
the Sound 80 recording studio in Minneapolis. During that
time he recorded many albums plus national radio and television
commercials. His performances ranged from solo bass to
playing with a full symphony orchestra.
In 1986 Ben Sidran was hired to produce
an album for Steve Miller on Capitol Records. Ben immediately
hired Billy to play bass on the recording Born to be Blu
and Steve Miller asked Billy to join the band as his bassist.
Billy toured with the Steve Miller Band from 1987 to 2000
during the spring and summer months and played the bass
on the Born to Be Blue (Capitol), Steve Miller Band Box
Set (Capitol), and Wide River (Polydor) recordings. He
also continued to tour Europe and Japan in the fall and
winter months with Ben Sidran.
In 1990 Ben introduced Billy to the Go
Jazz record label. Billy became a Go Jazz artist, staff
producer and arranger. He worked on numerous recordings
with Ben Sidran, pianist and vocalist Georgie Fame, and
guitarist Phil Upchurch. Shortly after this time, The
Artist formerly known as Prince asked Billy to create
a string arrangement for the New Power Generation's dynamo
maven, Rosie Gaines.
Billy has been called a chameleon and
at home in any 'bag' of music weather it be jazz, rock,
pop, R&B or country. You can catch Billy performing
with various artists in different genres of music. He
played with Carlos Santana and Neil Young at the 1993
Earthquake Relief in San Francisco. He played with folk-singer/songwriter
Pete Seager on the Smithsonian Folkways recording Well
May the World Go, which he also produced. He performs
frequently with jazzers Benny Carter, Mose Allison, Dave
Leibman, Dewey Redman, Lew Tabakin, Slyde Hampton, Clark
Terry, and feels fortunate to have performed with the
late Harry ÒSweetsÓ Edison and the late
Jack MacDuff.
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