Pete Mayes

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Pete Mayes grew up in the Houston blues club scene, the same scene that spawned the birth of Don Robey's Duke/Peacock label as well noted bluesmen like Lightnin' Hopkins, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Mayes was raised in the small town of Double Bayou, situated between Houston and Beaumont, near where the Trinity River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Double Bayou was home to a dancehall of the same name, which drew people from miles around. As a young teenager, he began sitting in on guitar with various bands at the dancehall in the early '50s. Several years later he began leading his own group, opening up shows for touring acts, and much later (1983), he took over ownership of the dancehall from an uncle. He continued to play guitar throughout his tenure in the military. Mayes learned all he could by watching masters like T-Bone Walker and Gatemouth Brown, and he cited Walker as a major influence on his subsequent sound. It was Walker who first brought Mayes on-stage to sit in with him one night when Mayes was 16. Mayes also credits B.B. King, Wes Montgomery, Lowell Fulson, and Kenny Burrell as influencing his style. Mayes moved to Houston in 1960 and quickly immersed himself in that city's then-burgeoning nightclub scene. Not long after this, Mayes, Albert Collins, Joe "Guitar" Hughes, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, and vocalist Frankie Lee were all recognized as among the top artists on the Houston blues club scene. In the 1960s, he performed and/or recorded with Fulson, Big Joe Turner, Percy Mayfield, Bill Doggett, and others who were around the scene in those days, including Junior Parker. He carefully honed his own style while on regional tours with Parker and others, and he recorded three albums under his...