Gordy Pettipas
Gordy Pettipas has captained his MoGuitar Blues Band for almost two years. Those two years have seen his trio gain many rotation gigs at many coveted music venues in his native New Hampshire. Pettipas and his trio scored a recent victory when they won the Granite State Blues Challenge last weekend, earning a chance to compete in the International Blues Competition in Memphis next January.
“I felt great about it, “ Pettipas exclaimed. “We’re looking forward to heading down to Memphis in January. We had a lot of fun up here.” Pettipas and his trio mates decided to enter the challenge, even though he’s not a fan of competitions, after many blues fans in his local area prodded them to. The Granite State Blues Challenge took place at Manchester‘s Strange Brew Tavern.
“People kept asking us and saying ‘You guys should enter. You guys should enter.’ So, we were like ‘Screw it. If they want us to do it, we might as well do it,’” Pettipas recounted.
Pettipas already has a general idea for a set list and a strategy for the Memphis competition. He and his trio mates plan to play all originals. The guitarist got a bit of a lucky break last week in that his band was the last of five to compete.
“I was able to hear what everybody else was doing,” Pettipas said. “I literally was sitting at the table writing songs while the other bands were playing. I built our set while they were playing.”
Pettipas has always had trios because he could never find a saxophone player and a keyboard player. He likes working with his current trio mates drummer Garrett Cameron and bass guitarist Chris Chesna much more than any of his previous three piece set ups. In this trio, Pettipas abandoned his straight blue approach of his previous and adapted other genres of Americana music. He also works now with players who don’t mind the habit of practicing.
“We didn’t have a whole bunch of interactiveness because we didn’t practice,” Pettipas said. “We literally never practiced once in any of my other formations up here (in New Hampshire after living in Kansas). It was pretty much ‘just give me a CD and we’ll learn the music.’ I wanted to practice but couldn’t get. In MoGuitar we’ve had some practice together. We’ve done enough shows together where we know each other pretty well. We just have fun together when we’re on stage.”
Having fun on stage is the most important thing Pettipas has learned in the last 25 years of his career. “If you’re not having fun, it ain’t worth doing any more. That’s probably the most important thing.”
The second most important thing, Pettipas has learned, is to look professionally dressed on stage. “Make sure, if you’re gigging, look what you’re worth. Know what you’re worth first, then dress like what you’re worth. A lot of bands, they go out and dress in t-shirts and ripped jeans. Is that what they think they’re worth, are they just worth a garage band look?”
During a period of huge success, when Pettipas was living and performing in the state of Kansas, he got to play with big names. He worked with Little Milton after his key associate Ray Drew took ill and a fundraiser was held to cover costs.
“Little Milton was the headliner and we were the backing band,” Pettipas said. “Once Ray got better, we did a couple more shows with him.” Pettipas had an agent who got his then band an opening slot with Pat Travers. If that weren’t good fortune enough, Pettipas was gigging at The Blue Duck restaurant in Hutchinson, Kansas when Bill Murray came into the lounge and sat in with his outfit for the entire night. “That was a lot of fun. He’s a character,” the guitarist said.
Garrett Cameron
Last year, Pettipas and his MoGuitar trio got to open for Eric Gales at Jewel nightclub in Manchester, New Hampshire. “Eric Gales had actually called me when I was living in Kansas. We talked on the phone for like an hour,” Pettipas recounted. “I had the information to get in touch with him. Then, I set it up with David Roberge from Transit Music(in Manchester, New Hampshire). David set up the concert, and we opened for them.”
When Pettipas was playing out in Kansas his primary band was called Brick River, a four piece that lasted about ten years. Hugely popular through out the mid-west, Brick River, spearheaded by Pettipas on guitar played most of the major blues venues in that region. If any of Pettipas’s friends and fans in New England ever traveled to Kansas, and frequented the blue venues there, they would find plenty of people who still recall Brick River. “People down there should know us,” Pettipas said. “I would think they’d remember us.”
Pettipas’s most important accomplishment with Brick River might have been opening for Pat Travers. Or, it might be the number of performances they gave. “We did a lot of shows, man,” he said.
A bit of good luck came Pettipas’s way when he became a guitarist for Ray Drew, a noted sideman for Bobby Blue Bland. The relationship began when Brick River went to the Roadhouse for the open mic, the venue liked us and booked us to perform and Ray Drew was at the bar the night of the show. He approached me between the third and fourth set.
“As we were packing up that night, he asked me if I’d be interested in playing guitar for him, told me who he was, and all that stuff, and I was like ‘Sure, ya know.’ I played guitar for him, off and on, for a number of years. Whenever he called me, I’d go and play with him. He wanted me to go on tour with him, but I had Brick River going, and I didn’t want to leave my guys to go on tour, not in that situation. We were doing too well at the time.”
Pettipas was waiting on supplies from his endorsers, CMG Guitars and Devilcat Amplifiers, while he was being interviewed for this article. He gained those endorsement after winning a major Blues Guitar Contest in the mid-west. Pettipas was talked into signing up for the battle by peers.
“I had a toothache and a half and I had been up all night,” he recalled. “There were three challenges. At the end of it all, they had a head cutting contest, three finalists on stage.” Pettipas found himself in direct competition with mid western blues guitar stars Gene Williams and Keith Leslie.
Despite his prowess, successes and ambition, Pettipas too can occasionally be defeated by the ebb and flow of the music scene. His recent country band, Whisky Grim, with his wife Diane Pettipas on vocals, had only played one show before they realized that nobody they work with could meet their level of commitment.
“We did one show so far and we’re doing our final show May 25th. Players just drop out because they have other stuff they want to go do. Whiskey Grim is pretty much dead after May 25th. We were having fun and it was actually a pretty decent band. People liked us even though we only played once.”
Pettipas has a decent amount of original material and will have to rely on a Go Fund Me campaign to get his songs recorded. He and MoGuitar Blues Band have only made some rough tracks at his house. But, he will find a way to get the sounds in his head into everyone’s disc player soon enough. Blues is in Pettipas’s blood.
“I’ve liked it since I was a kid,” he said. “My dad, my uncles, they all used to listen to it. So, that’s kind of what I was raised on. I spent a long time living with another family, and that’s all they listened to was blues stuff. I learned a lot from listening because I didn’t start playing guitar until ‘96.”
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