Tag Archives: Peter Neri

Love Is Like The Sea on AMC tonight




This Pulse tune is featured tonight in the first episode of the AMC series Lucky Hank. The track is all Peter, with the exception of the high harmony, which is me. It was originally recorded for the second Pulse album.

Blues You Can Use






Not for the feint of heart. An unrelenting trip through some of the best guitar solos of the late 60s and early 70s (some actually recorded later), with a few respites, notably some pysch blues-rock and N’Awlins tunes from Dr. John. Otherwise an onslaught of blues-rock guitar solos to quench your appetite.

The Flash – Another Woman





My song Another Woman from the Pulse album appeared in Season 7, episode 6 of the CW series The Flash during 2021. Short but sweet.

The Best of ’60s Blues-Rock





Rough Edges for a Smooth Acoustic Guitarist




Peter Neri is a storyteller. He tells his tales with his acoustic guitar.

He’s an impressionist. His music evokes emotions and thoughts that are indicated by the mood of each of his solo guitar pieces. The mood is tied to the titles of each of the nine tracks on Neri’s latest album release Rough Edges, his first since 2002.

On Rough Edges, Neri takes the listener on short journeys through places that conjure every thing from a drippy faucet to the expanse of a cruise down the Amazon to a hot rod running on moonshine that is probably running moonshine in the dark hills and valleys of West Virginia. It’s achieved by virtuoso performances that put all of Neri’s talents on display from single string, partial chording and finger-style to Neri’s own self-described slam-punk finger-style.

He continually shows his adeptness at establishing a main theme and then interjecting adjacent passages that enhance the piece and carry the listener to the further reaches of his imagination.

Neri says he is more interested in “capturing the energy needed to express the nature of the song rather than trying for technically pristine takes.” Don’t worry there is abundant technique on display and the emotionally charged performances never sacrifice virtuoso ability for spontaneity. It’s all here.

The title track isn’t exactly chicken pickin’ but more like chicken pluckin’, as Neri describes it. The pluckin’ moves the tune along at a nice pace as you picture yourself strutting in the barnyard. He then segues to a delicate reverie that suspends time before coming back to the theme. Neri slips in an alternative playing of the main theme and another quiet diversion before bringing the tune to an end. All in 2:07.

The Sad, Sad Demise of the Underwood 5 refers to the long-gone and lamented typewriter. Neri uses the sound effect of the mechanical typewriter in the intro (and outro) of the track and then sets a hurried yet even tempo as he plays through the short, packed sections of this concise composition.

Perhaps the most elegant and lovely melody, adorned with jungle sound effects, is Journey up the Amazon, during which you can easily envision lightly gliding down the expansive river, taking in its myriad delights and majestic dark shadings. The aforementioned track with the leaky faucet, Faucet Still Dripping, moves at the pace of a plip-plop, drip-drop of that stubborn fixture and Celtic Vision lets you imagine dancers running through their steps to a lilting Irish-flavored melody.

The Question?, with its Latin leanings, and The Answer!, finger-picking balladry, seem perfectly fitted for two parts of a whole but each stands on its own as an individual statement, and Sneaky Pete illustrates Neri’s penchant for interjecting various quiet passages to his main themes.

The CD ends with Moonshine in the Gas Tank, a high powered slide guitar workout that envelops the listener in blues-oriented phrases and an adeptly executed country blues-rock feel.

In all, Neri returns with another volume of impressionist musical stories, along with previous releases Night Visions and Dreaming of Home, that carry you along on another glorious trip through the workings of a singular talent.

It’s available on CD at CDBaby or www.peterneriguitar.com/contact. Streaming versions of the album are on CDBaby, Spotify, Apple iTunes, Amazon, Deezer and many others streaming services.

Peter hosts a radio program, One Guitar, on WFVR 96.5 FM from Royalton, Vermont, where you can stream it (https://www.royaltonradio.org/) Tuesdays at 2 p.m. He spins some of the world’s best solo acoustic guitar music. The show will also begin airing on Blues and Roots radio (https://www.bluesandrootsradio.com/homepage) on Tuesday, July 30 at 8 p.m.

 

Island album available at cdbaby, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon




When Pulse was finally finished at the end of 1970, three of the members moved to Manhattan, Beau Segal, Peter Neri and Paul Rosano. We started writing in a slightly different direction from the original blues-oriented Pulse and the quartet that followed. It’s more of a pop direction but there are elements of rock, country rock and blues, jazz and even yes Island music. We recorded these tracks at Blue Rock and Capitol and signed a publishing deal with Sam Gordon through the Grossman-Glotzer management office. Sam set up the studio time and was really quite supportive. He even managed to get Todd Rundgren to come down to Blue Rock and help us produce three of the tunes in this collection. It was a cool ride. You can purchase this album or individual tracks at cdbaby.com

The album is also available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and all of cdbaby’s digital partners.

Island album released at cdbaby




When Pulse was finally finished at the end of 1970, three of the members moved to Manhattan, Beau Segal, Peter Neri and Paul Rosano. We started writing in a slightly different direction from the original blues-oriented Pulse and the quartet that followed. It’s more of a pop direction but there are elements of rock, country rock and blues, jazz and even yes Island music. We recorded these tracks at Blue Rock and Capitol and signed a publishing deal with Sam Gordon through the Grossman-Glotzer management office. Sam set up the studio time and was really quite supportive. He even managed to get Todd Rundgren to come down to Blue Rock and help us produce three of the tunes in this collection. It was a cool ride. You can purchase this album or individual tracks at CD Baby.

Pulse album remastered with bonus tracks




The Pulse album has been released at CDBaby.com, remastered with six bonus tracks and new cover art. The bonus tracks were intended for the group’s second album. Enjoy!

After Pulse, To The Island



When Pulse was finally finished, kaput, Beau, Peter and I moved to New York, rechristened as Island. The idea of the group was to have no limits. We played in a variety of styles. Eclectic would be the best way to describe our repertoire.

Pulse Paul Rosano Portrait 6 SmallerIt impressed some and probably put others off a bit, but we did garner interest and enough studio time to record an LP’s worth of tunes.

The first track here, Good Time, is one of the first, if not the first, we recorded at the cavernous Capitol Recording Studios. The tune was written by Beau and I sang lead, one of my first. Peter is on lead guitar and harmony and the track was pretty much recorded live in the studio as we didn’t even go back and put a rhythm track on to back Peter’s incendiary solo.

Pulse Beau Segal Portrait 3 SmallerWe did a lot of acoustic auditions in the offices of managers, promoters, agents and producers in New York and we almost invariably opened up with Good Time and it almost always generated interest in the listeners. An attention-grabber.

It can only be described as power country-rock, a territory we were just delving into.

The second track, Everybody’s Jumpin’, is one of my compositions and was recorded at Blue Rock in Soho with Todd Rundgren engineering as he had on a previously

Paul, top, Beau, middle, and Peter, above. This is how we looked at the time in New York.
Paul, top, Beau, middle, and Peter, above. This is how we looked at the time in New York.

posted track Where Am I Going? This is what I mean by eclectic. The song was inspired by one of my favorite vocalists at the time. I was trying to sing something in a lower register as most everything I did at that point was either high harmonies or leads in a high register. It doesn’t sound anything like the vocalist I had in mind. The music track is totally other than what inspired it.

We always envisioned the background vocals as horn parts, and perhaps we would have added those on a master, but it kind of works this way as well with three-part harmony. Barry Flast, later of Poco, lends a hand on the keys and as you can hear we gave him pretty much free reign.

All set up by Sam Gordon (RIP) the publisher who worked for Albert Grossman and Benet Glotzer. The SoundCloud photo includes Harvey, although he wasn’t with us by this time.