Stephen Dale Petit

Stephen Dale Petit (born 19 April 1969) is an American-born guitarist, singer, songwriter and New Blues musician.

Petit's blues guitar experience started at a young age in California and continued through addiction, alcoholism, homelessness, and subsequent recovery. He went from being a performer in the London Underground to giving masterclass University lectures on blues music whilst becoming a well-known stage act.

Petit has released six albums, toured extensively around the United Kingdom and Europe, gaining critical recognition, sizeable sales and widespread radio airplay. His musical collaborators include Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood and Mick Taylor, Dr. John, Hubert Sumlin, Albert Lee, Chris Barber, The Pretty Things’ Phil May and Dick Taylor, The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, Max Middleton, Paul Jones and Shemekia Copeland.

Petit's playing style, described by Classic Rock Magazine as containing "The fire of Freddie King, the instinct of Jimmy Page and the soul of Eric Clapton" moved former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor to comment: "He’s got his own unique take on contemporary blues… I’ve heard him do a great live version of Freddie King’s "Have You Ever Loved a Woman?" It was wonderful. All his albums are very interesting, he deserves the recognition."

Beginnings

Stephen Dale Petit was born in the California desert, near Joshua Tree National Park and grew up in Huntington Beach, California which was then a small surf town south of Los Angeles. At the age of seven he received his first guitar, an acoustic. Petit could often be seen at the Huntington Beach landmark venue, The Golden Bear, which hosted such acts as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, as well as Blues legends Albert King, B.B. King and John Mayall. Petit's exposure, from a young age, to some of these artists and guitar talents would have a major impact on his personal creative development and future musical career.

Meeting with Albert King and early California performances

Petit began his musical career at a young age. By his mid-teens he was performing in bars and clubs across California, including The Golden Bear, five nights a week with bands ten years his senior, alongside such musicians as Randy Rhoads. During this time, Petit met and was influenced by musician Albert King. He also met and briefly jammed with blues musician B.B. King.

Major early influences on Petit's musical style included early Twentieth Century Blues pioneers B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King, blues front man Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Tampa Red, Lead Belly and Son House. Petit also cites British blues pioneers Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies as having influenced his teenage musical sensibilities.

Early career in the UK

In the mid-1980s, inspired by the British blues boom of the 1960s and 1970s, Petit moved from California to London. Petit believes that British blues had as much impact on the genre as that of its African American pioneers: "The British contribution to the blues is equal, in my eyes, to what Robert Johnson did, Blind Lemon Jefferson ... all of those guys all the way through to Muddy Waters. I think it is a certainty that without the British blues boom the music (blues) would not have anything remotely like the profile it does."

During his initial years in the UK, Petit toured London's Leicester Square and Little Venice over a 9-month period in Phil May of The Pretty Things "Friends Band" alongside May, himself, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Ian Stewart of The Rolling Stones. During this time Petit became acquainted with, and performed with, Eric Clapton. Petit believes Clapton's influence on guitar and blues is immense, saying that Clapton builds "solos like a well written speech".

Busking on the London Underground

In late 2003, Petit began busking intensively on the London Underground as part of the Transport for London Licensed Busking Scheme, with Clapton describing this as "really admirable". Speaking to Blues Matters magazine on his time spent busking Petit commented: "Knowing that Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson etc all did it, made what is essentially doing it the hard way feel like it was the only right way to start" "I know from playing below The Astoria that even death metal heads, goths, punks ... and skateboard kids like the Blues. Sometimes the metal kids upstairs would come down and say 'you're better than the band we just paid £15 to see,' that sort of stuff makes an impression on you." he further stated. Petit soon attracted media attention from BBC
...