Patrick Bergeson (born March 11, 1961) is an American guitarist, harmonica player and occasional songwriter. Based in
Nashville, he is best known for his live and session work with
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music ...
,
Lyle Lovett,
Suzy Bogguss and
Les Brers.
Biography
Bergeson was born in
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
, Illinois, and first started playing drums and later picked up the guitar and the harmonica. He studied music at the University of Illinois in Urbana and then moved to New York City, studied
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
at
William Paterson University
William Paterson University, officially William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ), is a public university in Wayne, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education.
Founded in 1855 and was named after American ju ...
and worked in New York for ten years. After hearing him on a demo tape made by
Robert Lee Castleman
Robert Lee Castleman (born July 14, 1952) is a Nashville singer and songwriter.
He released his debut album, ''Crazy as Me,'' on Rounder Records in 2000. At the Grammy Award in 2002, he won Best Country Song category as the writer of the song ...
, Chet Atkins invited Bergeson to play on his record ''
Sneakin' Around'' with
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Guitar Man", " U.S. Male", "A Thi ...
. Upon Atkins' request Bergeson moved to Nashville and soon established himself as a sought after session and live musician.
Equally at home with guitar and diatonic and chromatic harmonica styles, Bergeson toured and recorded with Atkins for several years and afterwards became a member of Lyle Lovett's band and also toured with
Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne (born Shelby Lynn Moorer, October 22, 1968) is an American singer and songwriter and the older sister of singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. The success of her pop rock album '' I Am Shelby Lynne'' (1999) led to her winning the Grammy ...
. His recording credits include albums by such diverse artists as Chet Atkins,
Chuck Loeb,
Sixpence None the Richer
Sixpence None the Richer (also known as Sixpence) is an American Christian alternative rock band that formed in New Braunfels, Texas, and eventually settled in Nashville, Tennessee. They are best known for their songs " Kiss Me" and "Breathe Yo ...
,
Randy Travis,
Emmylou Harris, Bill Evans,
Jon Randall
Jon Randall Stewart (born February 17, 1969) is an American producer, songwriter, and musician.
His career began as a guitarist for Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers with whom he won his first Grammy for their ''Live at the Ryman'' album in 1992. B ...
,
Jeff Coffin
Jeff Coffin (born August 5, 1965) is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. He is a three-time Grammy Award winner as a member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he performed from 1997 until 2010. In July 2008, Coffin began t ...
,
Michael McDonald,
Martin Taylor,
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted m ...
,
Suzy Bogguss,
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...
,
Asleep at the Wheel,
Jesse Winchester
James Ridout "Jesse" Winchester Jr. (May 17, 1944 – April 11, 2014) was an American-Canadian musician and songwriter. He was born and raised in the southern United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he moved to Canada in 1967 to avoid b ...
,
Martina McBride
Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, born July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record producer. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material.
McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and reloc ...
,
Gail Davies,
Bill Frisell
William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...
, Lyle Lovett, and
Jill Sobule
Jill Sobule (born January 16, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single "I Kissed a Girl", and "Supermodel" from the soundtrack of the 1995 film ''Clueless''. Her folk-inflected compositions alternate between ironic, ...
and Annie Sellick. Bergeson also contributed to various movie soundtracks, including ''
Ratatouille: What's Cooking?'', ''
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
''Diary of a Mad Black Woman'' is a 2005 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Darren Grant and written by Tyler Perry. Inspired by the play of the same name, it marks the debut feature film of Perry, in addition to being the first ...
'', ''
Dr. T & the Women'', ''
Two If by Sea
''Two If by Sea'' (also known in the United Kingdom as ''Stolen Hearts'') is a 1996 American romantic comedy film directed by Bill Bennett, and starring Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary. The screenplay, written by Leary and Mike Armstrong, is based ...
'' and ''
Michael''.
Bergeson co-wrote songs for artists like Chet Atkins (''Mountains of Illinois'' with Atkins himself and ''Take a Look at Her Now'' with R.L. Kass aka Robert Lee Castleman for the album ''
Read My Licks''), Alison Krauss (''That Kind of Love'' with Michael McDonald for the album ''
Forget About It'') and Jeff Coffin (''The Evil Boweevil'' with Coffin, Tom Giampietro and Derek Jones for the album ''
Bloom'').
Under his own name, Bergeson has released three CDs with New York vibraphonist
Steve Shapiro as well as "Country Gentleman" (A tribute to Chet Atkins) on Green Hill Records, Also "Hippy dance" released in 2011, and a
Mel Bay
Mel Bay (February 25, 1913 – May 14, 1997) was an American musician and publisher best known for his series of music education books. His '' Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords'' remains a bestseller.
Biography
Early life
Melbourne E. Bay was bo ...
instructional video/DVD for jazz guitar titled ''Contemporary Improvisation''.
Bergeson is also a member of the Hot Club of Nashville with renowned fiddler
Stuart Duncan and guitarist
Richard Smith among others.
He has recently toured worldwide with singer
Madeleine Peyroux, playing electric guitar and
mandolin, and repeatedly with
Suzy Bogguss.
In 2015 he joined
Les Brers, a band led by original
Allman Brothers Band Allman may refer to:
Music
*The Allman Brothers Band, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame southern rock band, formed by Duane and Gregg Allman
*The Allman Joys, an early band formed by Duane and Gregg Allman
*The Gregg Allman Band
People
*Allman (surnam ...
drummer
Butch Trucks
Claude Hudson "Butch" Trucks (May 11, 1947 – January 24, 2017) was an American drummer. He was best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Trucks was born ...
. The band also includes other Allman Brothers alumni Jaimoe, Oteil Burbridge, Jack Pearson and Marc Quinones along with Bruce Katz and Lamar Williams jr.
Personal life
In 1997, he married musician
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...
; they divorced in 2001. They had one child, born in 1999.
Discography
Recordings under his own name:
* ''Xylophobia'' (Curious/Sons of Sound), with Steve Shapiro,
Marc Johnson, Danny Gottlieb, Kevin Hays, Tim Ries, Mike Davis, Jim Hynes (2002)
* ''Low Standards'' (Sons of Sound), with Steve Shapiro, Doug Weiss, Scott Kreitzer, Jeff Williams, Annie Sellick (2005)
* ''Country Gentleman – A Tribute To Chet Atkins feat. Pat Bergeson'' (Green Hill), with
Tommy Emmanuel
William Thomas Emmanuel (born 31 May 1955) is an Australian guitarist. Regarded as one of the greatest acoustic guitarists of all time, he is known for his complex fingerstyle technique, energetic performances and use of percussive effects on ...
, Suzy Bogguss, Richard Smith, Paul Yandell and others (2007)
* ''Backward Compatible'' (Apria), with Steve Shapiro, Annie Sellick, Marc Johnson and others (2008)
* ''Contemporary Improvisation'' (Mel Bay), instructional DVD for jazz guitar
* ''Hippy Dance'' (Angelbutt), with Dan Anderson, Tom Roady, Jeff Coffin, Steve Shapiro and others (2011)
References
External links
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergeson, Pat
American harmonica players
Songwriters from Illinois
1961 births
Living people
People from Batavia, Illinois
Guitarists from Illinois
20th-century American guitarists
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band members