PK Dwyer
Encyclopedia
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
musician credited with forming the first-ever street band to busk
Busking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
at Pike Place Market
Pike Place Market
Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States. The Market opened August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for many small farmers,...
, Seattle, Washington, USA. He formed that band, Felix & the Freelicks, shortly after he arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1971. The band evolved into various other alignments, including (successively) the Dynamic Logs, the Jitters, Throbbing Gems, the Royal Famille du Caniveaux / Gutter People of Paris, all of whom played at the Market and in many other venues.
Born in Mill Valley, California
Mill Valley, California
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. The population was 13,903 at the 2010 census.Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay...
, Dwyer has lived in a number of places, including Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Seattle, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1970, Dwyer, then a street musician in Los Angeles wrote and recorded music for the film Walk The Walk, directed by Jac Zacha. Soon after that he moved to Seattle and began performing on the streets and in the clubs with partner Donna Beck. He was a founding member and featured performer in a number of bands, including Felix & the Freelicks, the Dynamic Logs, self-described "cow punk" quintet The Jitters, Throbbing Gems, Royal Famille du Caniveaux / Gutter People of Paris, and the Hollywood Dick Doll Revue.
Dwyer won the First Annual Street Performers Competition in Paris in 1981. Shortly after that, in New York his controversial cabaret act The Hollywood Dick Doll Revue won praise from Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
, Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
, and Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
. Havens signed Dwyer to his production company in 1983.
In 1989, Seattle label PopLlama
PopLlama Records
PopLlama Records is an independent record label founded by record producer Conrad Uno in Seattle, Washington, in 1984. After making several of his own demos in his basement studio, Uno would produce the Young Fresh Fellows' debut album The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest at the bands request...
released Dwyer's album George Michael Jackson: King Of Gonzo Folk.
Since 2000, Dwyer has focused on blues, claiming inspiration from "the ghost of Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
." Vintage Guitar
Vintage Guitar
Vintage Guitar is a guitar magazine, published monthly since 1986. Writers for the magazine include Seymour W. Duncan, George Gruhn, and Wolf Marshall...
magazine (November 2004) called his 2003 album Blues Guy Now "a modern blues masterpiece". His songs "Lookin' For A Woman", "Time To Try", "Celebration Blues", and "No Longer My Girlfriend" were featured on episodes of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's reality show MADE
Made (TV series)
MTV's MADE is a self-improvement reality television series broadcast on MTV. The series follows teens who have a goal and want to be "made" into things like singers, athletes, dancers, skateboarders, etc. The teens are joined by a "Made Coach", an expert in their chosen field, who tries to help...
.
Discography
- "Dandy Annie"/"Drawbridge" (1976, single)
- The Jitters—The Jitters (Nervine Music, 1980, LP)
- After All It IS 1980 (1980, LP)
- The Dynamic Logs—The Vinyl Reunion (Dynamic Log Records, 1985, LP)
- George Michael Jackson: King Of Gonzo Folk (Popllama, 1989, LP)
- How Can I Go Wrong (1994, CD)
- Get Well (1997, CD)
- PK Dwyer & The Lowdown Payments (1999, CD)
- Up To My Balls In The Blues (King Pin Head, 2001, CD)
- Blues Guy Now (King Pin Head, 2003, CD)
- Healed (King Pin Head, 2006, CD)
External links
- Official site
- PK Dwyer: 'Healed (One More Time)', NPR, October 12, 2006