Bentley's Bandstand
There are a handful of guitarists who make the music we listen to sound like it does. Of course, everyone would have a different list but a name sure to show up on a lot of them would be Pete Anderson. He helped rescue country music from itself in the mid-‘80s when he performed with and produced Dwight Yoakam's one-man revolutionary assault on the charts and bandstands. There is no doubt Anderson did many, many things both before and after that tenure, but his guitar playing and production abilities then went a long way to turn the Nashville sound completely around, at least for awhile. What a lot of people might not realize is the man is also a monster on his own albums. Even Things Up should even that out, because there is such a thrilling range of styles and sounds on these twelve songs, the listener feels like they're taking an audio trip through a lot of different landscapes. Rock, blues, soul, Latin, jazz, country, New Orleans and a few other odds and ends all work their way into the fabric of this music, never sounding less than totally knocked-out and natural. That may be because the tone of the guitars is so right-on. The notes cut through the air at the same time they soothe us, too. It's a tricky proposition, and not many players have figured it out. Anderson is a Detroiter, which means he discovered young that you have to get the sound across. It can't be telegraphed or implied. That is steel town, and no nambie bambies need apply. In the early ‘80s he played a Sunday night gig in Santa Monica with the Blue Monkeys, whose drummer just happened to be Jim Gordon, previously of Derek & the Dominos and soon to be of the California State Hospital for the Criminally Insane after he killed his mother with a hammer. It takes an inspired journeyman to switch from beach bar R&B to hardcore country so deftly, which is exactly the reason Anderson sounds so free today. If you can't find something to groove to on this album, it might be time to sell the stereo. His guitar and vocals are stripped-down but never lacking, the band behind him is bad to the bone and the whole affair should be taught in schools where students really want to learn how to play music that matters. Pete Anderson, truth be told, is the Paladin of today's sound: Have Guitar Will Travel. Book that trip now.
