PETE PIKE

Thursday, March 19, 2009


Five tunes here from the late Pete Pike. Pike was a Virginian who spent many years recording and playing with the legendary bluegrass mandolinist Buzz Busby. Indeed, Pete Pike is most often remembered as a bluegrasser, however his performances here are pure honky tonk. These tracks are all taken from budget LP comps, and I believe they were made in connection with 4 Star records, though released originally on Coral or Decca. The sessions were all done at Ben Adleman Studios in D.C., and interestingly are from some of the same sessions as many of Busby's classic sides.

Click here for a great site with a very comprehensive biography of Pete Pike!

UPDATE! - May 20, 2011 - The above link is now dead, but much of the same information is available at this great blog. I have added three more files to the five originally posted, Pete's original "I Can See An Angel", and a couple of Rebel tracks, the requested "Cold Grey Dawn" (this and "Angel" from the above link) and a bluegrass version of "In The Pines", which is from the old Rebel LP box set.

Tracks: new tracks and info in red...

1. I'm Burning All You Letters (4 Star - rec. June 7, 1955)
2. I'm Walking Alone (4 Star - rec. June 7, 1955)
3. All Because Of My Jealous Heart (4 Star - rec. 1956)
4. In The House Of The Lord (4 Star - rec. September 2, 1954)
5. It's Just Between Us Two (or "Just Between The Two of Us") (4 Star - rec. 1956)
6. I Can See An Angel (4 Star - rec. September 2, 1954)
7. Cold Grey Dawn (Rebel - rec. Fall 1958)
8. In The Pines (Rebel - rec. circa February 1963)

*download here*

7 comments:

Hrayr said...

this guy is my god. I adore him,I worship him. If anybody has another album of it please send to me, please I beg you please.
Very cool blog dude.
Keep up the good work

Hrro_7@hotmail.com

Johnny Allan said...

Thanks a million for posting this. One of my favorite songs of all time is a song called "The cold gray dawn" it was on a Rebel records 45 that sadly my dog literally ate!!

bopping said...

Hi!
I love too "Cold grey dawn" by Pete Pike! I can supply the mp3 to "Johnny" (who posted the earlier post).
Please pay me a visit at: www.bopping.org. It's in English, and devoted to Hillbilly bop andRockabilly.
Great site you have. Pity it's sleeping since 2009!
Xavier. Greetings from France

Anonymous said...

I had no clue that anyone still much listened to my dad's music. I certainly do miss him a lot and I have been finding out that people still listen to his music.

My dad had a lot of songs I really loved. Of course growing up around music you could not help it. I think Cold Grey Dawn was one of my absolute favorites.

Thanks for the post about my dad.

Lester L. Pike, Jr. (Pete Jr.)

rrahjayh said...

Good Music for sure. I use to hear Eddie Stubbs play one of Pete's songs on his WSM radio show back a few years ago. "I Can See An Angel Walking" As of todays date that record can be heard at
http://www.mister78.com/turntable.html
I don't know how long he keeps his songs on his turntable

Anonymous said...

phiseLester. I first saw your dad at the Old Dominion Barn Dance in the early 1960's. A while back I EMailed him and asked him when he figuring on putting out a CD with "Cold Grey Dawn". He wrote back and said it would be on his next CD and a few weeks later I saw his Obituary in the Richmond Times Dispatch. He was a talent that was never fully recognized in my opinion.
God bless you for posting here.

Dawnmarie's Life said...

I just stumbled across a video of Pete Pike doing Cold Grey Dawn. My grandpa Olan Hicks wrote that song which is why I found it. Thought he did a nice job with it. . . .