Pete Berwick's new CD "AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE" has been released and is available for sale along with his 2002 album release "ONLY BLEEDING." Purchase for only $9..00 at www.peteberwick.net. Read Reviews below for both albums.
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AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE REVIEWS (2007 Shotgun Records)
Americana and alternative-country music pioneer Pete Berwick is back with the critically acclaimed AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE.. Already a favorite amongst radio programmers and music reviewers, the album has climbed to the top twenty of country satellite radio within weeks of it's release.
Keith Gordon, former writer for Creem Magazine, Rolling Stone, and The Nashville Banner has already proclaimed the album his favorite release of the year,
and The Roots Music Report awarded the hard hitting album it's highest mark
of five stars.
Pete Berwick's songs are whiskey-soaked, ragged and weathered, with a mix of
hardcore heartbreak and rock-edged attitude that dares to go unnoticed.
Berwick's been making music for three decades, and the trials and tribulations
bleed through in AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE, which serves as a soundtrack
to his hard lived lifed life story.
Berwick's straight from the hip blue collar tales of life and heartache, defeat and redemption are right in the league of Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen.
From the blistering rave up of "Rebels And Cadillacs" to the heart wrenching
and classic Dylan-esque ballad "Only Bleeding", Berwick takes the listener on
a journey through the ages, where the characters face the ups and downs of
life head on.
AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE was recorded at the famous Eleven Eleven Sound Studio, where Waylon Jennings and other Nashville legends have recorded.
Berwick's band is a lineup of some of Nashvilles finest musicians.
Pete Berwick is a well respected songwriter and live entertainer, whos energetic
and hearfelt performances are legendary. Hes has shared the stage with Charlie Daniels, Doug Kershaw, and many other country and rock legends, and has written songs for movies and television. The title track of Berwick's new album appeared in the
Paramount Pictures film The Thing Called Love starring River Phoenix.
Ain't No Train Outta Nashville is Pete Berwick's masterpiece.
An Americana snapshot of a rocking and rollicking jaunt down the back roads
and through the small towns and die-hard dreams of America.
What the critics are saying--
"A brilliant collection of hard knock tales. 'Ain't No Train Outta Nashville'
is proof that you can't keep a good man down.
--Rev. Keith A Gordon, Rolling Stone Magazine and author of "The Other Side
Of Nashville."
"Pete Berwick's sound is as unique as they come and his songwriting is even more intriguing. His music is high-spirited and definitely on the cutting edge of roots music.
Ain't No Train Outta Nashville" is more than your average album release, it's a chance to look into the soul of a man that has lived the songs he has written as he presents them to fans across the ever expanding world of roots music.--Roots Music Report
"Aint No Train Outta Nashville" is a wonderful interpretation of the city famous for country music."--Maximum Ink Magazine
"Simply Berwick's best album."--Illinois Entertainer Magazine
"Aint No Train Outta Nashville" is like a film without pictures. One can almost smell
the smoky saloons and dusty roads. American music at it's finest.'
--Baker Street Radio
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REVIEWS ON PETE BERWICK'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED 2007 ALBUM RELEASE "AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE." (Some of the following reviews are from around the world and I have translated them to the best of my ability.)
REVIEW OF "AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE" BY VINCENT WYNNE WWW.LISTENNASHVILLE.COM
Pete Berwick, Ain't No Train Outta Nashville, 2007 (Shotgun Records, Indie) (4 of 5 stars)
Anyone looking for a nostalgic hit of late 80s alt-country? Do you reminisce about the days you and your buddies planned road-trips to Nashville-town to catch Jason & the Scorchers and Steve Earle? Do Hank III and Shooter Jennings strike you as somewhat privileged? Are you wondering if alt-country is dead? "Yes," you say? Then allow me to introduce you to Pete Berwick.
Berwick is the real deal—a Jason & the Scorchers-influenced alt-country rocker continuing to churn out irreverent country-rock that speaks to the painful truths about life—and when the Nashville music industry doesn't want to listen, well hell, that doesn't make life any easier. Berwick writes about that too. Ain't No Train Outta Nashville was recorded in Nashville back in 1993, then shelved due to the record label closing its doors. In 2007, some fourteen years later, Berwick finally released the record on his own label, Shotgun Records. Slightly dated, but gloriously so, Ain't No Train Outta Nashville is a cross between Cowboy Mouth and The Georgia Satellites. With fiery guitars and Berwick's vocals walking the fine line between alt-country and cow-punk, one spin transports the listener to another time and place. But fourteen years has not softened Berwick; rather, Berwick's edge has grown sharper as he's witnessed the music industry sink to all-time lows. Now, with his own record label, Berwick's garnered enough optimism to release Ain't No Train Outta Nashville and head out on the road in support of it—like the days of old.
If any of my readers answered "yes" to the opening line of questions or if you like real shit-kickin' country music, then don't hesitate to get Pete Berwick's records. And don't miss him on his solo Fall 2008 tour of the Southeast. — Vincent Wynne, Listennashville.com, March 15, 2008
Ain't No Train Outta Nashville
By Rev. Keith A Gordon (Author of "The Other Side Of Nashville")
A few years back, legend has it, a young punk rocker followed Jason Ringenberg's trail out of Illinois and sojourned to Nashville with guitar in hand. This young man, like so many before him, was looking for fame and fortune in the Music City. He wrote the right songs, worked the right clubs and played the game like everyone told him he should but, tho' not for lack of talent or ambition, he found naught but heartache in the hallowed home of country music.
This young man found a manager, a silver-tongued fool who talked a good game but did little to advance his career. The young man recorded an album full of fine songs that nobody got to hear. After years of trying, he found himself beaten, bruised and battered, chewed up in the gears of a star-making machine that has little regard for talent, heart and soul; pissed off and pissed on, this young man left town and went back home, leaving Nashville that much darker and less interesting a place....
Like too many faithful, Pete Berwick found that there ain't no train outta Nashville. Hundreds of hopefuls flock to the Music City each year, and for every Tim McGraw or Faith Hill that finds fame, there are dozens that return home to Illinois, Oklahoma and points beyond, leaving behind their dreams and a piece of their soul. How many future Hank Williams or Patsy Clines have been denied the city's embrace after spending years traipsing up and down Music Row, how many have given up their musical ambitions in the face of indifference and corporate ignorance?
In Pete Berwick's case, there's a happy ending to the story. Unlike many who give up music altogether after suffering through the traumatic experience of trying to make it…whether in Nashville, New York, Los Angeles or wherever…Berwick refuses to go quietly into that good night. Five years ago, when the urge to create new music became stronger than the beatdown he took in the Music City, Berwick wrote the songs that became Only Bleeding. A powerful album that seamlessly mixed rock and country with punk attitude unlike anybody since early Steve Earle or Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, Only Bleeding was a defiant message that Berwick's Nashville experience may have left him bloodied, but definitely unbowed.
After the release of Only Bleeding, Berwick spent a year or so banging it out on the Midwestern circuit, playing smoky clubs and funky honky-tonks before once again retreating from music. However, the muse is hard to deny, and Pete starting thinking about the "lost" album that he had recorded back in Nashville in '93, the one that nobody got to hear. Taking it down from the shelf and listening to it with fresh ears and the benefits of hindsight, Berwick decided that it was too good a bunch of songs to let go to waste, and I agree with him.
Ain't No Train Outta Nashville is a brilliant collection of hard-knock tales that reveal the Music City for the provincial small town that it remains in spite of its big city ambitions. These songs are about the lovable losers and hopeless dreamers that flee their one-horse towns every year to go somewhere, anywhere else in search of something that will break them free of their lives of quiet desperation. Although written a decade-and-a-half ago, these songs still resonate with truth and beauty and are just as true today, in the face of corporate homogenization and the "American Idolization" of music as they were when Pete wrote them between his shift at the car wash and "writer's night" at some Nashville club. Although the words here apply to many nameless travelers going down that same road, I suspect that they are also more than a little autobiographical.
Ain't No Train Outta Nashville kicks off with "Rebels And Cadillacs," a rowdy rave-up with scorching guitar and honky-tonk piano that brings a traditional edge to this blistering portrayal of musical hypocrisy (perhaps more so than when Pete first sang these words). He decries the MTV star "with a diamond ring and a pure silk scarf, singing his concern about the homeless man," adding "I couldn't help but notice his Acapulco tan." Over at CMT you'll find "more of the same, some talking hat with a common name, singing a song about the poor man's blues, while turning on the heel of his snakeskin boots," the singer boldly declaring that "I don't want to be no rebel in a Cadillac." With this opening song, Berwick has staked his turf, drawn a line in the sand that is pure punk attitude with Hank Williams' twang.
"Six Pack Town" is more than a place, it's a state of mind as well, the sort of place that people try to escape from to "find" themselves. Berwick's description of the town as a "stop and half on the road from nowhere" is deceptive because although "there ain't nothing going down," it's still home, a place where people know their neighbors and care about their neighborhood. "Six Pack Town" is working class, small-town America, the kind of place that produces soldiers and singers, dreamers and madmen…the kind of place that people have a love/hate relationship with, the kind of place that never leaves you, even when you've left it behind….
"The Years We Left Behind" is one of the most brilliant and moving songs that these ears have heard in nearly 50 years of listening to, and loving music. We're every one of us getting older, and facing down a half-century of frustration, unfulfilled promise and lost opportunity brings with it the tendency to reminisce about "the good old days" that, to be honest, were mostly anything but good. Wise beyond his years, Berwick sings:
"Everywhere I go these days, it seems I always hear;
People talk about desperation, heartache and despair.
The broken-hearted dream that died, the memory from the past;
The good old days, the glory days, the love that didn't last,
And the childhood that disappeared too fast.
Sometimes at night when all is quiet, and I am all alone;
I hear the voice of yesterday through people I have known.
Some are laughing, some are crying, some of them have died.
I always thought the grass was greener on the other side,
I guess that's why I can't kiss the past goodbye...."
"Time doesn't wait for no one," sings Berwick on the chorus, declaring that "it's not patient, it's not kind; it seems to me we see the future only through our eyes so blind," concluding that "we're living in the years we left behind." Pete's insight is both poetic and bleakly realistic – we can't escape our past, no matter how hard we try, and our future is just the sum of the experience and heartache that we've lived through. None of us is unblemished by the past yet, when facing our inevitable mortality, we hang on to those memories like a life raft as the minutes tick by ever more loudly. Berwick addresses these concerns with dazzling beauty:
"When nighttime turns to morning, still I'm clinging to the past.
I want to stop the clock some times, those hands just turn too fast.
I don't want to get old; it's a shame how fast time flies.
If heaven's what we're living for, then someone tell me why,
Why no one, why nobody, wants to die?"
You'd think that after a stroke of musical genius like "The Years We Left Behind," that Ain't No Train Outta Nashville would flicker and burn out from lack of energy. No, Berwick has lulled us into a warm, quiet remembrance only to kick us back awake with the jolting "Devil Knows His Name," an eerie, Western-tinged tale of betrayal and escape. If the protagonist of the earlier song finds comfort and solace in his memories, the figure at the heart of "Devil Knows His Name" is trying to outrun the nightmares of his past. Washes of haunted instrumentation flow through the song like a tumbleweed until the guitar explodes and the song fades into an uncertain fate….
The album's namesake, "Ain't No Train Outta Nashville," tells the story of every hopeful songwriter and singer that ever made their way to the Music City in search of something to build a life upon. With the lyrics set to a swinging rockabilly beat, the song's truth lies beneath Berwick's tongue-in-cheek delivery, the words summing up the songwriter's experience. Describing a staggering blur of beer, cheap motels, bad jobs and dashed hopes, he sings, "I play most times for free, and sometimes I just play to eat." There's no way to escape intact, "once you're here, you're here to stay, if you're a songwriter, they just throw the key away."
The hauntingly beautiful "Only Bleeding" ties Ain't No Train Outta Nashville with its predecessor and it fits perfectly well on either album as both recordings, in their own individual way, are primarily about the continued chase of fame in the face of constant rejection or, worse yet, lack of recognition. Displaying the same sort of defiance as Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," Berwick's Midwestern drawl sums up the intense loneliness and the darkness felt by every songwriter and poet in the face of indifference. The song's protagonist is an almost divine figure, shouldering the sins of everyman and offering salvation through his own pain, as expressed by this, and every other song that touches upon the bleak fate that befalls us all, from Springsteen's "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" to Joe Grushecky's "Blood On The Bricks." In the end, however, by forgiving those who would sin against him, the poet triumphs against those who would try to silence his or her words.
Fittingly, Ain't No Train Outta Nashville ends with the one-two punch of "Rusted Ball And Chain" and "This Used To Be A Town." Berwick searches for answers on "Rusted Ball And Chain," finding nothing but more questions. He reaffirms his commitment, however – to life, to love, to music – singing "freedom's just another word, if you ain't got a dream. Without a dream, your freedom, it just don't mean anything." And for those who doubt his efforts, he adds, "people try to put me down, and throw me off my track, but I just keep on keeping on, there ain't no turning back." Roaring down the lost highway in that ghostly Cadillac, Berwick is in it for the long run and won't be dissuaded by the obstacles that are thrown in the path of every creative person. While others would give up with a whimper, this singer carries on regardless of the weight.
In the end, the singer does escape, getting out of Nashville only to go home and discover that "This Used To Be A Town." The memories of the past have been betrayed by the unrelenting march of "progress," the kind of small-town development that tears down the past to rebuild every town in the image of every other town. "Time bulldozed it away, built a couple of malls, and they both look the same," he sings, "don't they realize the childhood that died when they tore it all down?" It's an uneasy commentary on the state of America, a sad exclamation mark on the old saying that "nothing stays the same." It's also a down song to end the album on, reinforcing, perhaps, the idea that you can't escape the past, so you may as well embrace it, protect its innocence lest somebody comes to take it away.
The best album of 2007 was actually recorded in 1993 and, surprisingly, it was so damn far ahead of its time that it sounds as fresh, dynamic and topical today as it would have fourteen years ago; maybe more so. Too rock & roll for Nashville's taste, too country for the coasts, Pete Berwick has nevertheless been on the verge of his "big break" for almost two decades now. Luckily, it hasn't kept him from making great music. Ain't No Train Outta Nashville is proof that you can't keep a good man down, and if you ain't listening to Pete Berwick, then you ain't listening to shit....
PETE BERWICK
"Ain't No Train Outta Nashville"
(Shotgun Records)
Onder het motto "Beter laat dan nooit!" pakt rebel Pete Berwick op z'n achtenveertigste na zo'n vijf jaren van sabbatsrust eindelijk weer eens uit met nieuw plaatmateriaal. Nu ja, nieuw… Het betreft daarbij eigenlijk al in 1993 gemaakte opnames. Het bankroet van zijn toenmalige werkgever Bitter Creek Records stond een release ervan echter lang in de weg. Maar nu acht Berwick de tijd dus rijp om er vooralsnog mee uit te pakken via zijn eigen label Shotgun Records. En daar kunnen we alleen maar blij om zijn, want "Ain't No Train Outta Nashville" is een bijzonder lekkere plaat. Ergens op het kruispunt tussen knapen als een Steve Earle, een Johnny Cash, een Bob Dylan, een Bruce Springsteen en een Jason Ringenberg strooit hij kwistig in het rond met liedjes van het type waarvoor die van de Blasters ooit de term "American music" uitvonden, een zinderende mélange van rock, country, Americana en blues dus. Dingen als "Six Pack Town", "Devil Knows His Name" en "Rusted Ball And Chain" herinneren zo bijvoorbeeld aan het materiaal van de Hardcore Troubadour ten tijde van "Copperhead Road", doorheen "Rebels And Cadillacs" waart waggelend als een eend de geest van Chuck Berry rond, het titelnummer en "Can't Hide The Tears" zijn jachtige countryrockertjes van het genre waarvoor Jason & The Scorchers ooit ook graag tekenden en hét absolute prijsbeest hier, het ingetogen "Only Bleeding", is een wolk van een trage op z'n Dylans. Straffe kost dus! De enige bedenking die je erbij zou kunnen hebben, is dat het geluidstechnisch niet allemaal even af klinkt, maar noem dat wat ons betreft maar detailkritiek.--CTRL ALT COUNTRY BELGIUM
Under the motto late then never "improve!" rebel unpacks Pete Berwick on his achtenveertigste after about five years of sabbatsrust at last again with new plate material. Now yes, new... It concerns thereby in fact already in 1993, made prerecordings. Bank of its then employer bitter Creek record stood in the way release of it however long. But now Berwick consider unpack the time therefore ripe as yet by means of its own label Shotgun record. And there we can be only glad for, because "Ain't No train Outta Nashville" are a particularly nice plate. Somewhere on the cross point between knapen if Steve Earle, Johnny cash, a bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Jason Ringenberg scatter he kwistig in round with songs of the type for which the that of the booklet-delicate ones ever term "American invented music", shimmering mélange of rock, country, Americana and blues therefore. Things as "Six Pack Town", "Devil Knows His nasty ones" and "Rusted Ball And Chain" reminds this way for example to the material of the Hardcore troubadour at the time of "Copperhead Road", doorheen "rebellious And Cadillacs" waart the tottering as a duck spirit of Chuck Berry around, the title number and "Can't Hide The Tears" is jachtige countryrockertjes of the genre for which Jason & The Scorchers ever also gladly signed and absolute animal here, the ingetogen "Only Bleeding" are, a cloud of slow on his Dylans. Straffe costs therefore! The only objection which could you, is that it does not sound geluidstechnisch all just as finished, but call that but what concerns us detail criticism--CTRL ALT COUNTRY BELGIUM
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Pete Berwick
Ain't No Train Outta NashvilleShotgun Records
http://www.peteberwick.net
Roots Rock -- 5 stars
Pete Berwick's sound is as unique as they come and his songwriting is even more intriguing. His music is high-spirited and definitely on the cutting edge of roots music. His vocal performance is convincing and a delight to listen to as he delivers this album of self-penned songs. "Ain't No Train Outta Nashville" is more than your average album release, it's chance to look into the soul of a man that has lived the songs he has written as he presents them to fans across the ever expanding world of roots music.----
ROOTS MUSIC REPORT
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Monday, April 02, 2007
Ain't No Train Outta Nashville by Pete Berwick
Hard edged, whiskey infused. roots rock more than a little cowpunk in there. At times the band sounds like The Blasters in their heyday. Pete sings like he's running from the law. Highlights include "Six Pack Town," "I Ain't Him," "Ain't No Train Outta Nashville," "Only Bleeding," "Can't Hide The Tears," and "This Used To Be A Town."
Calvin Powers/Taproot Radio
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Pete's smoke filled gut wrenching lyrics are reminicent of Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen and John Cougar with a more decidedly country flair. --Gypsy Wing Entertainment. Franklin. Tennessee
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Cap Berwick - Ain' t No Train Outta Nashville Cap Berwick can no parting take of the music. He left found a number ago to Nashville only there of years no musical luck. Back home in Chicago began he an events desk. He remained naturally well with ties in the again for blood crawls. So quite very long ago he found not recordings that he made had in its Nashville-time. It sounded not aged and because the times have been changed and a cd bring out not so with difficulty more is, can we now enjoy Ain' t No Train Outta Nashville. There and is thus no parting only a new beginning. A beginning barstensvol clichés and as dirty as grease oil on a white blouse. Roots' n Roll, played through guitars with diesel on the strings. It is recognizable. More than that even that is within this genre not so awful. Normally the stories undergo and enjoy over drink, the devil, rust, rebels and cadillacs. Three stars. Not because of the originality, that may clear be, but splendor really once to that guitar work on Rusted Clench And Chain. (Patrick Thunders)---hanx.xom (Holland)
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Long Lost Gem
Reviewer: Steve Vansak/Recording Artist
'Ain't No Train...' is the long lost Pete Berwick album that his record company at the time foolishly let slip away. The songs are all Americana gems. You WILL be transported to that "Six Pack Town" via a Texas Cadillac with a rebel behind the wheel. The songwriting is that vivid and the performance timeless. If you are a fan of Joe Ely, Steve Earle or even Lucinda Williams, you will want to pick up this CD.
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PETE BERWICK
AIN'T NO TRAIN OUTTA NASHVILLE
Website: www.peteberwick.net
www.myspace.com
E-mail:peteberwick@yahoo.com
Info: Laurie Joulie
info@phoenixpublicity.com
Label:Shotgun Records
www.cdbaby.com
Met een stem als Steve Earle op speed, songs die herinneren aan Springsteen, Jason & The Scorchers en Mellencamp, en heel veel branie en energie stond deze jongen in 1993 met deze cd klaar om de wereld te veroveren, maar het lot besliste anders, vlak na de opnames kwam de platenfirma in de problemen en ging overkop, de opnames gingen de kast in om 13 jaar lang stof te verzamelen, ondertussen ging Pete verder met optreden en nam 5 jaar geleden een andere cd op "Only Bleeding" getiteld, die goed ontvangen werd door de Amerikaanse pers. Ondertussen 48 jaar geworden besliste hij nu om deze opnames op zijn eigen label (Shotgun Records) terug boven te halen en eindelijk uit te brengen, en terecht, na 13 jaar klinken ze nog altijd even fris en up to date. De songs zijn diep geworteld in de Amerikaanse cultuur, puur Americana vanuit de tijd dat dit nog cowpunk genoemd werd. Zijn stem, doordrenkt door whisky en tabak, is door de pers dikwijls vergeleken met die van Steve Earle en dat was inderdaad ook de eerste naam die mij te binnen schoot. Knappe songs, zoals het rockende openingsnummer "Rebels and Cadillacs" en het sterk aan Springsteen schatplichtige "Only Bleeding" dat achteraf op de gelijknamige cd ook verscheen, of de supermooie rustige afsluiter "This Used To A Town" over de teloorgang van zijn geboortestad maken van deze cd een klein juweel. Een Americana schat, opgegraven na 13 lange jaren. Weer een pleidooi voor de Indie - releases. Platenbazen, wanneer worden jullie wijzer?
(RON)
www.rootstime.be
With a voice such as Steve Earle on speed, songs which reminds to Springsteen, Jason & The Scorchers and Mellencamp, and a lot of branie and energy was ready these boy in 1993, with this cd to conquer the world, but the destiny decided differently, shortly after the prerecordings the platenfirma came in the problems and went overkop, the prerecordings will the cupboard in 13 years long collect substance, in the meantime Pete went further with action and took 5 years suffered another cd on "Only Bleeding" entitled, which it was well received by the American press. In the meantime 48 years of age reach decided he now to haul up these prerecordings on its own label (Shotgun record) and at last to bring out, and rightly, after 13 years they still even fresh and up to date sound. The songs in the American culture, pure Americana from the time has deeply rooted that this still cowpunk were called. Voice, has been impregnated whisky and tobacco, is by the press often compared to those of Steve Earle and that was indeed also the first name which me at within lap. Nice songs, as the rockende opening number "rebellious and Cadillacs" and it strongly to Springsteen schatplichtige "Only Bleeding" that appeared afterwards on the gelijknamige cd also, or the super-beautiful quiet clincher "This Used To a makes Town" concerning the destruction of its birth city of this cd a small jewel. Americana value, dug up after 13 long years. A pleading for the Indie - releases. plate bosses, when become your indicator?
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A brilliant album that stands as a rock.--The Country Startpage
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PETE BERWICK is a personage to leaves, one of the last Outlaw. For proof, this measured album of Rock N Roll bathed by the Country of the Rebel ones has nothing to do with the soup sirupeuse and commercial of Nashville. If his group is called the Renegades, there is a reason! That guy surely must resemble a fly in a milk bowl to Nashville! Too good, too rebels, not rather commercial for the city that makes hit parades American. And this is well there that the system is mistaken! Nevertheless the one that was the Capital of the Music American by excellence always remains a fantasizes, an icon, a dream carried by the Big Ole Opry and the ghosts of its former tenants.
Berwick continues to maintain the flame, the one that does to relive the old iron ways, the stinking saloons of the sweat of the easy girls and sticky hands of the card players, the dusty roads, the forgotten bleds of the end melts America where still remain standing old honky-tonks shaking.
The most unusual one in all that, this is than Pete Berwick does not come from Tennessee, but regions bordering the illinois.
Ain't No Train Outta Nashville.
This album is not other that a film, without pictures, if this is not the one that come naturally you flasher the spirit. In the texts of the songwriter, one is seized by this unverified rage of the broken heart that looks for his redemption.
Rebels & Cadillacs opens the album. Immediately itself done day envies it of some to unstitch with of old glories of the Rock N Roll. More far, Devil Knows His Name on which one attends the escape forward despaired of a wrinkle, with as alone road companion a faithful and benevolent moon of the nights to wander without precise goal, otherwise the secret hope to put itself a day in an approximate comfort.
My preference will go towards the compulsive I Ain't Him. Once again distress linked to the betrayed passion calls for the respect of the pain.
The project would have of the to see the light of day in 1993, but for obscure reasons, the label that the had to produce will not go more far than the recording. Berwick leaves then on of other trips, on another road, with a lively skinned other [Craig Wright that one rediscovers on I'S Ain't Him, the drummer of Billy Joe Shaver and of Steve Earle] to record a mini album.
What the road of the cure is long when one is called Pete Berwick!
25 years of career and of multiples participations with the major artists of the americana, it becomes to the trust time to the Rock one (and no to the Country!) of Nashville this that Jack Daniels is at the whisky. Essential!
Definitively, I like the fellow, its injuries and its pains, I like its texts, I like his disc all simply, without catégorisation if this is not the one of the Pure American Music.
I's Ain't Him … I am not Him, and this is well there my big regret!
If I had manuscript of the songs, I would have liked to write the one of Ain't No train Outta Nashville...
PETE BERWICK - Ain't No Train Outta Nashville - Shot Gun Records
Delta Man / May 2007 for Blues &
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PETE BERWICK
"Ain't No Train Outta Nashville"
(Shotgun Records)
Pete Berwick's gritty Tennessee vocals drive home an elixir of southern rock and roll with mellow harmonica, orchestral violins, and harmonious rhythm. His melodic and rolling guitar lines sound eerily reminiscent of The Smiths at times. Berwick's style of playing transitions frequently, and he's very adept at everything from SRV-style Blues to country jams, which are characteristic of the Nashville jam scene: everything is the rock and roll sound. It a smattering of everything that "Six Pack Town" describes; the philosophy of a good majority of the Midwest, and leans towards an almost electrified alt-country twang. The harmonica is minimalist and sharp; wonderfully placed and almost underplayed. "Aint No Train Outta Nashville" is a wonderful interpretation of the city famous for country music. www.peteberwick.com (Brett Lemke) Maxumum Ink Magazine
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Pete Berwick's Ain't No Train Outta Nashville was in label purgatory for more than a decade before Berwick acquired the masters and rehabed, remastered, and refreshed them. Though his voice sounds a bit thin compared to live, Ain't No Train is easily his best album. With elements of early alt-country bands like Rank And File as a blueprint, Berwick rips through the title track and a re-worked version of the Dylan-esque "Only Bleeding" and shows a valid, though well-worn, disdain for commercial country on "Rebels & Cadillacs." Yet, despite his tough-guy demeanor, he shows a twangy and tender side on "The Years We Left Behind." (www.peteberwick.net)
– David Gedge, Illinois Entertainer Magazine
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"Nashville and Chicago based renegade Pete Berwick' s music suggests hard livin ', honkytonks, endless highways and lost love "(Tony Engelhart, Crud Magazine) …or preferred this, that is all a program: "Like Steve The on crack" (garageband. com). Therefore we see if I put together all of the pieces: Pete Berwick is a rocker from the fierce look and agghindato like a biker, grown at the school of the hard, which a day decided to do the luggage from the illinois to direct itself in the mecca of the country, Nashville. From those parts, first years ninety, found a contract discografico with the Bitter Creek: of day wrote songs for third account, to the evening recorded those that would have done part of Ain' t No rain Outta Nashville. Well then itself, to how much it seems a lost record it is not denied it to no: so, after almost fifteen years of purgatorio, those engravings see the light for the personal Shotgun more label than records in the meanwhile Berwick exploited to publish its more recent disk, Only Bleeding (2002). If thought that of Ain' t No rain Outta Nashville if of it also could do to except for, that certainly no the garments for this will be ripped object forgotten, have your reasons, but lasciatemi to say that if was gone out really in 1993 some possibility between the b would be played-records of the period. Berwick is perhaps a character a little one from postcard, but the stories that tells, in all fund autobiographical, have a true and its taste roots rock is involving, a mix between the country outlaw of the seventies and the rock' n' roll stradaiolo of the eighties, a little Joe Ely (that electric and pimpante), a little Steve Them (is not then so I live for air the comparison You discuss it rather true outsiders remembered me like Mark Germino or Will T Massey. With a pair of agile guitarists (Kevin Woods and Brain Vance) and a sound king, without frills, Berwick goes from the most pure rock' n' American roll of Rebels and Cadillacs, THE Ain' t Him and Can' t Hide the Tears, worthy stuff of a race on a Harley Davidson, to danced more calmed and deep (The Years We Left Behind, Only Bleeding), from the cow punk of Six Pack Town Scorchers) to the rockabilly of Ain' t No Train Outta Nashville (with the plan of Jamie Bowles in obviousness) until the pure heartland rock of Rusted Ball and Chain, piece that does hear you the air in face and the road that runs under the wheels. The production is of second hand, even if the sound is not perfect and I would not dream me ever of descrivervi Ain' t No rain Outta Nashville like a jewlery to recover, but if loved these characters, the America of province, and have desire of a little one of amarcord this disk could not go out for several days from the reader cd of your car. (Davide Albini) www.rootshighway.it/index.htm
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Pete Berwick? Never hear the name before? This is not unusual! Even considering that this is already Pete's second album. His song „Ain't No Train Outta Nashville" walks along the well-known old way of Honkytonk Music. Listening to „Rebels and Cadillacs" could give you the first impression of what is to be expected from the other songs. But listening to „When I'm Gone" proves that Pete Berwick does not particularly pocess the voice for slow songs. This is compensated for by „I Ain't Him". This man simply has Rock N' Roll in his veins. In summary – if there were only uptempo songs on htis album it would be hard to take it off the CD player.
Christian Lamitschka ( Ch.Lamitschka@t-online.de )
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Pete Berwick has been around the block
a time or two and is very much a throwback
to the 1970s outlaw movement rather than
today's country mainstream. Though recorded
in Nashville, on this album, he's the embodiment
of everything that all those chin-out, tough-guy
country young 'uns on CMT would try to become
if they borrowed a clue from Hank Jr. or any of
the other real dudes.
His songs are dark, sad, funny, spooky, hell-raising,
fascinating and always interesting. The titles give it
away: Rebels And Cadillacs, Only Bleeding, Devil
Knows His Name and Rusted Ball And Chain.
He opens up with "Rebels And Cadillacs" a real
kicker and a great upbeat tune. An out-and-out
rural rocker with a chuck Berry inspired lead guitar
and in-your-face vocal onslaught. "When I'm Gone",
"The Years We Left Behind", and "This Used To
Be A Town" might seem either abrasive or
unconvincing if voiced by someone with a less
muscular and rich delivery. "Can't Hide The Tears"
recalls the hey-day of Jason & The Scorchers---
cowpunk with attitude and soul.
Cutting edge electric lead guitars, sawing fiddles,
haunting harmonicas, a solid bass-and-drum rhythm
section and rough' n' ready vocals that spit out real
life experiences. There's nothing pretty or ordinary
about this. Pity there ain't no train outta Nashville,
it could have taken all those country wimps to Vegas
or Branson and left Music Row to the likes of Pete
Berwick and instilled some much needed guts, soul and
reality into today's country.----
AC (MAVERICK MAGAZINE. The new voice of country music)
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Chicago born Pete Berwick started out his career in the early eighties fronting various Chicago punk bands before moving south and absorbing the sounds of his adopted new home town of Nashville. Combining both the big city punk influence and the country sounds of Nashville, Berwick has made one of the best pieces of American rock'n'roll with attitude I've ever heard. Think Steve Earle, meets The Georgia Satellites meets Chuck Berry while the lyrics bring small town Midwest America alive very much in the way Springsteen brought working class Jersey to life. If your looking for a perfect piece of Americana then this is it.
John Murphy, Shite n' Onions (shitenonions.com)
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Pete Berwick - Ain't No Train Out Of Nashville
Nancy Montgomery
If Steve Earle ever decides to vocally clone himself, he would most likely end up listening to this CD and wondering when he recorded it. That's not a bad thing-he happens to be one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters. Its just that comparison's are going to begin as soon as anyone who is familiar with Earle's music listens to Illinois native Pete Berwick's self produced new CD, Ain't No Train Out Of Nashville.
Unfortunately, unlike Steve Earle, many of the tracks on this record sound the same. Song after song of similar tempos, similar driving guitars and just enough of Berwicks cool vibey vocals buried in the mix that I kept thinking to myself- I can't understand what he's saying. And that's a pity because what does come thru loud and clear is this 48 year old artists earnest passion and conviction of what he is singing about.
With ruggedly handsome striking looks, Pete looks like he belongs on a movie set. Its clear by the cover photo and his writing that this is a guy who has probably spent many heartbreakingly frustrating years struggling to find his place in the controlled by demographics music scene that is the norm here in Nashville. That's a shame because one listen thru and you know this guy is the real deal. I only wish someone had helped him produce this record, because in my humble opinion, very few artists can distance themselves enough from their binding perspective of what they are trying to create. And usually what gets lost is the lyrics and Berwick is truly a lyric driven artist.
Best song on the record to me is the made for a movie soundtrack, This Use To Be A Town. Tinged with sadness it is a song that reminds us things twice remembered are never the same. What makes this stand out from the others? The slow tempo and sparse track makes his vocals clearly understood. Hence the beauty of his lyrics shine.
There's a lot to this artist. A lot of heart and even more soul. If your taste runs to the raw and real, this is the record for you. For me, I hope the artist reads this and finds an engineer who insists on making sure his lyrics are heard. I may not have been able to understand all his lyrics, but the one's I could were well worth it. I think you'll feel the same way too. --Nancy Montgomery,Music News Nashville
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Fallen Through the Cracks: Be Bop Deluxe to Pete Berwick
by Chuck Eddy
This column's collection of unjustly forgotten music includes country from Russia, mambo from Germany, atmospheric extreme metal from Sweden, doo-wop from the Bronx, free jazz from Syracuse ... and all sorts of stuff from jolly old England.
Be Bop Deluxe: Weird, brainy, technologically minded Brit rock band, anchored by Bill Nelson's frequently heavy guitar, made a whole bunch of good albums in the '70s. Fun fact: split the difference between prog, glam, and new wave--the latter of which didn't even exist yet! Recommended: Futurama, Modern Music, Axe Victim
Daniel Bedingfield: London lad born Down Under made unusually songful working-class blue-eyed soul-pop over "garridge" beats that Americans like me don't much understand; might have been the Limey Justin Timberlake if anybody would have let him. Fun fact: better than his sister, Natasha. Recommended: Gotta Get Thru This
Lou Bega: Skipped Mambos Nos. 1 through 4, but did not skip Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina, Sandra, Mary, or Jessica. Fun fact: actually German! (And Sicilian and Ugandan, sort of!) Recommended: "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)"
The Belmonts: Dion's old backing trio, named for their avenue in the Bronx, returned in 1972, still without instruments but with voices intact. Fun fact: "The ultimate rock'n'roll lullaby," wrote Greil Marcus in his book Stranded. "The sound of men who were forced to grow up." Highly recommended: Cigars, Acappella, Candy
The Beloved: Unusually melodic Anglo-disco unit incorporated ethnic rhythms and house-diva namedrops to give the Pet Shop Boys a run for their money at the dawn of the '90s. Fun facts: also fans of Jean-Paul Sartre and Willy Wonka. Recommended: Happiness
Bergraven: Meditative black-metal doom-sludge-gunk sluggards from Sweden. Fun fact: I keep thinking that their name is Biergarten by mistake. Recommended: Dödsvisioner
Bering Strait: Six-person Russian Fleetwood Mac fans hit No. 98 on Billboard's country album chart in 2003. Fun fact: only charting country band whose hometown is Obninsk; only one with songs titled "Oy, Moroz-Moroz" and "From Ankara to Izmir." Recommended: Pages
Tim Berne: Syracuse-reared, r&b-schooled sax whiz has been a mainstay of the more listenable edge of New York's avant-jazz circles for decades. Fun fact: liked Motown and basketball first. Recommended: The Shell Game
Pete Berwick: Illinois country roughneck on micro-indie label has too flat a voice for slow songs, but his faster ones rock right through their platitudes. Fun fact: best when singing about rebels, Cadillacs, and trains. Recommended: Ain't No Train Out of Nashville
REVIEWS ON PETE BERWICK'S 2002 ALBUM RELEASE 'ONLY BLEEDING' (2002 Shotgun Records)
Nobody wanted to review this disc. After all, any frontman-guitarists over 23 years of age is NOT worth listening to, eh? Or so our Corporate Kleptocracy would have us believe. Find em and grind em: How many one-hit wonders do the suits have to sell us before we realize that while cute young people are mandatory in soft drink and beer commercials, their presence is not mandatory in music that has soul and spirit? Old = Tired? Hardly. Pete Berwick has slapped us up with a disc of Old School Cool Kicked Up With Fresh Spunky Vitality! This veteran sounds like he's still pissed off enough to claw his way to his that late post-set-bought-by-a-converted-audience member-whiskey-shot and throw it back with a smile on his scraggly face. The guitar tones are in-your-face and organic, but the licks are anything but overindulgent. The vocals are passionate and masculine, with the patina of real-life aches and pains brought on by years of wisened experience. This is the stuff that speaks to any grizzled diehard with a couple a turns around the block, who has little patience with X-tab club kids--they don't know how fleeting youthful innocence inevitably becomes. Time for some schoolin', kiddos: Pete Berwick is onstage! (Dylan Ritlin)recordrama.com
Reviewer: Tony Engelhart
At first listen it is unclear how to categorize Pete Berwick. After a couple of times you become accustom to and even welcome the inconsistencies of this diverse disc. The all-embracing Berwick has been compared to Johnny Cash meets the Ramones. Perhaps a better description, at least for this recording, would be: The New York Dolls meet the Ramones meets Waylon Jennings meets Woody Guthrie. Convergence of rock, country, punk, and folk, Only Bleeding is an assortment of extremely deep-rooted American music.
For the past twenty-four years Pete Berwick has been writing and performing music on his terms. Beginning in the seventies, he was founder and frontman of the power-pop punk act THE GENERICS. The band blazed through Chicago clubs with intense, sweat soaked sets until the early eighties. The Berwick/Generics original composition 'There She Goes Again' was suspiciously stolen by, and turned into a hit and timeless classic for alternative rockers, THE BOO RADLEYS. By the mid-eighties Berwick turned his attention to country punk and released two acclaimed independent records, Six Pack Town and Decisions. Pete continued in the nineties by moving to Nashville and working as a staff songwriter for Kingbird Publishing. His need to sing and perform landed him a recording contract at Bitter Creek Records where he recorded Rebels and Cadillacs. While the album was never released, the single, 'Aint' No Train Outta' Nashville' was featured in the 1993 River Phoenix film, The Thing Called Love.
Nashville and Chicago based renegade Pete Berwick's music suggests hard livin', honkytonks, endless highways and lost love. Berwick's Jack Daniels soaked vocals are raw and rough-edged, as he sings songs from a discerning and familiar point of view. Berwick weaves his early cowpunk influences with contemporary and traditional styles to create a musical mosaic, which is diverse, yet comprehensive and extremely individual, and deeply rooted in American music.--Tony Engelhart, Crud Magazine
Only Bleeding begins with a bit of Punk. 'Must Think She Loves Me' immediately reveals Berwick's' affinity for simplistic three-chord rock. Joined by singer/wife Denise, 'Nuclear Boy' and 'Gotta Get Out Of Here' both have an X-like ambiance (tough and passionate). The metaphoric title track opens with a wailing harmonica and acoustic guitar that is reminiscent to Bruce Springsteen's classic "Backstreets". With departed love and isolation as a theme, this track is lyrically poignant and musically uncomplicated. Drawing from his cow-punk past, the artist constructs a straight-up country ballad 'Cold Steel Gun' while 'Standing At The Gates of Hell' has a Southern Rock attitude complete with steel guitar accompaniments.
The self-produced Only Bleeding is contrasting to nearly all music being released these days simply because it is impossible to categorize. Pete Berwick weaves his early punk influences with contemporary and traditional styles to create a musical mosaic, which is diverse, yet comprehensive and extremely individual.---Tony Engelheart, Crud Music Magazine
An excellent 'old school' rock n' roll piece.
Reviewer: indiemusicsite.com (click for website)
Pete Berwick's latest release, Only Bleeding is something we haven't heard in a while - good ol' fashioned rock'n roll. Being a music reviewer puts me at a different mindset than most radio listeners - we hear music that isn't 'pop' or 'made for radio'. After listening to this CD, I am actually happy to have heard it. Instrumentation on this CD is excellent. Track 5, known as Outsider showcases some excellent guitar riffs, both powerful but non evasive. Berwick's voice are shadowed by effects in some areas, but are mostly backed up by some 3rd party vocals. Outsider is a powerful song - with an abrupt ending. Abrupt, good, not bad. The ending cuts off into a slower track. This song, Outsider reminds me of listening to 104.3FM in New York City, or an old school rock'n roll station. The CD is pretty good. I would recommend it. Out of a possible 10 (highest), I would give it an 8.
A veteran of both the Nashville and Chicago music scenes, Pete Berwick's 2002 album Only Bleeding showcases all of his various influences and incarnations, the songs mixing rock, country and blues in the creation of a heady musical elixir. Read Rev. Gordon's Alt.Culture.Guide-- review of Only Bleeding [click here] or find out more about Berwick on his web site at www.peteberwick.com.
THE CRITICS RAVE ABOUT ONLY BLEEDING!
(PETE BERWICK'S 2002 ALBUM RELEASE)
"Fans of Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Jason & the Scorchers and the Georgia Satellites are going to love the hell out of Peter Berwick's latest release "Only Bleeding." -- Tom Lounges, MIDWEST BEAT MAGAZINE
"I think this was the soundtrack to a barfight the other night. Cool roadhouse rock. You can feel the bottles breaking and cigarettes burning behind these songs. Cool acoustic storytelling, but rebuilt for the bar with some electrified twang and gravel-throated delivery. Rating: 10 -- Black Bart, cdstreet.com
"Here's a guy who's been writing, performing, and recording for 24 years, and you can hear the battle scars. This is authentic Americana rock with occasional forays into punk. Imagine Bruce Springsteen performing songs by the Ramones." -- Jennifer Layton, Indie-Music.com
Only Bleeding
(Shotgun Records)
Like many a troubadour before him, Pete Berwick made his way to Nashville in search of fame and fortune. Also like many artists that walked that same road, he ended up returning home years later without much fame and even less fortune. Berwick did all the things expected of an artist in the Music City, playing his songs at "writer's nights" in local clubs at night and working a day job at the car wash while waiting for his big break. He signed a songwriting deal with a storefront publisher and hooked up with a fly-by-night indie label. What seemed like a sure thing, a track placed in the River Phoenix movie The Thing Called Love, came to naught when his manager lacked the juice to get the song included on the soundtrack album.
After his Nashville fiasco, Berwick moved back to Chicago, older, wiser and just a little worse for the wear. He gave up music for a while, playing sporadically and writing a few songs. Luckily, the story doesn't end with this tale of dashed hopes and broken dreams. The attraction of the muse is a strong one, and I've personally never met a serious artist who could be kept away from their creative outlet for long. Berwick gathered a group of grizzled Chicago rock-and-blues veterans to record one song in the studio; they ended up recording Only Bleeding, a ten-track reaffirmation of the power of rock & roll, and a fresh start for Pete Berwick. A fiercely independent songwriter and performer who has found that he doesn't need the corporate label system to make a musical statement, Berwick's fourth album is the accumulation of almost a decade of artistic trials and tribulations.
Only Bleeding showcases all of Berwick's various influences and incarnations, the songs mixing rock, country and blues in the creation of a heady musical elixir. "Must Think She Loves Me" and the hilarious "Nuclear Boy" are energetic, punk-tinged rockers while "Cold Steel Gun" is a barroom weeper complete with T.C. Furlong's delicious steel guitar and Berwick's appropriately morose vocals. With the biker anthem "Outsider" Berwick has created a new musical genre -- "metallic country" -- the song a defiant declaration of alienation that matches Nashville twang with tasty power chords. The title track is a Dylanesque country blues tune with wonderful vocals, Berwick's mournful mouth harp work and well-placed piano courtesy of Denny Daniels. The album-closing "Standing At The Gates Of Hell" is a lively rocker with brilliant imagery, the story of a poor working class loser who dies and shows up "at the gates of hell" only to find that they won't let him in. It sounds a lot like Jason & the Scorchers -- another obvious influence -- but with Berwick's Rodney Dangerfield-like lyrics and dynamic delivery it's a wonderful pairing of roots rock and honky-tonk soul.
It's with "Gotta Get Out Of Here," the centerpiece of Only Bleeding, that Berwick hits that once-in-a-lifetime adrenaline O.D. where decades of rage and frustration are expressed perfectly in a three-minute rock song. In the tradition of Eric Burdon's "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" or Bruce Springsteen's &q