PK Dwyer (born in Mill Valley, California, December 28, 1949) is an American musician specializing in Jump blues. He has also worked under the names Kevin Dwyer, Hollywood Dick Doll, and George Michael Jackson and is credited with forming the first-ever street band to busk at

Pike Place Market Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Pug ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. He formed that band, Felix & the Freelicks, shortly after arrived in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

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.PK Dwyer
''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' Seattle Noise. Accessed online 17 October 2008. Dwyer has also lived in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, the

Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee– North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ri ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

.Biography
, PK Dwyer, official site. Accessed online 20 October 2008. 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 Cowpunk (or country punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom and Southern California in the late 1970s - early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject matte ...

" 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,

Dave Van Ronk David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of Ma ...

, and Richie Havens. Havens signed Dwyer to his production company in 1983. In 1989, Seattle label PopLlama 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 Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

Vintage Guitar A vintage guitar is an older guitar usually sought after and maintained by avid collectors or musicians. The term may indicate either that an instrument is merely old, or that is sought after for its tonal quality, cosmetic appearance, or hist ...

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's reality show ''

MADE Made or MADE may refer to: Entertainment Film * ''Made'' (1972 film), United Kingdom * ''Made'' (2001 film), United States Music * ''Made'' (Big Bang album), 2016 * ''Made'' (Hawk Nelson album), 2013 * ''Made'' (Scarface album), 2007 *'' M.A.D.E. ...

''.

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)

Notes

External links

Official site

PK Dwyer: 'Healed (One More Time)'
NPR, October 12, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dwyer, PK Living people Singer-songwriters from California Singer-songwriters from Washington (state) PopLlama Records artists 1949 births