| Hundreds of keen-eared men and women all over the world have expressed their appreciation of PK's music. Here's the cream of the crop: |
| On Feb 14, 2007, in the Vintage Guitar Magazine, John Heidt wrote: |
| PK Dwyer - Healed - King Pin Head Music |
| Yes, PK is a bit odd -- he admits it. While some folks can't get past that, it's hard not to get into his whacked take on traditional blues and country. Healed is a bit different in that he uses other musicians to accompany him. You still get the slightly-off-kilter blues, great lyrics that fluctuate between funny, odd, sad, and deadly serious, and the voice from another dimension. At this point you're saying "what is he talking about?" Well, how many other blues songs do you know that start a verse with "I got the blues so bad I almost wet my pants"? it eventually works up to almost having to get a drink instead of wetting his pants, but you get the idea, and it's sung in an acoustic country-blues with hellacious guitar and harp. "At the Crossraods Mall" has Dwyer yanking our chain, with the help of some indescribably cool intertwiningacoustic guitars. The sound of "Here Comes A Parade" is charming with its country feel and anticipation. Then there are songs seemingly on the risque side; "You Fill Up My Hole" is a hot boogie with a big acoustic sound, and "Inside Out" ahs a bit of a rag feel and a goofy lyric. Dwyer also pays homage to some of the blues greats on "Mt. Baker Blues." It's fun when someone interjects something new into a genre. you might question the message, but in the case of Dwyer, you needn't question the messenger. His command of and obvious love for the music prove that he means what he says. |
| On Sep 09, 2006, in the Indie-Music.com, Dan MacIntosh wrote: |
| PK Dwyer - Healed |
| PK Dwyer is one cool blues dude. Please notice I didn't call him a cool looking dude, however. He sports a pair of side burns that are two-tone cotton candy puffs book ending each side of his face and the hair atop his head is a fully soaked sponge, I'm nearly certain of that. Experts tell us troubles like heartbreak and poverty are the primary causes of the blues. But looking goofy has to at least be top ten, which is a personality charateristic Dwyer wears proudly like a gooball and chain. Don't let Dwyer's sideburns sidetrack you, however. This man's music is as unique as his hairstyle. On the surface, Healed is an acoustic blues CD. But after closer inspection, one quickly discovers that this talented man goes out of his way to avoid writing cliched blues lyrics. The uncoventional "Them MF Blues" ought to get your immediate attention-- especially when Dwyer semi-shockingly announces, I got the blues so bad, I almost wet my pants." Yep, Dwyer is a true in-Depend-ent. This bluesman, who is pictured on the back cover dressed like the Man In Black, complains about the consequences of his dark apparel with "Black Suit Blues." "It's 95 degrees, I've got the black suit blues," it goes. Dwyer also complements his sense of humor with a strong social conscience. He complains about today's retail store cloning on "Crossroads Mall," where he worries, "I'm so afraid it's becoming a Wal-Mart worls." Then with "Fallen On Hard Times," Dwyer transforms the old TV commercial slogan, 'I've fallen, and I can't get up" into an empathetic lyric directed at poor, forgotten souls. Every car driver, which is aset that includes most everybody, can relate to Dwyer's frustration on "Gypsy Blues," where he predicts, "Pretty soon we'll need a down payment on a gallon of gas" Dwyer is a consistently effective musical communicator, even though he is no gutair slinger, nor is he the smoothest singer in the world. In fact, his voice warbles the way comedian Emo Phillips talks in a few places. But like with Phillips, once you get past his unusual vocal oddities, you realize Dwyer is a smart and insightful performer; a true talent to be reckoned with. Jump blues is Dwyer's primary style of schoice, although "Gypsy Blues" touches upon bluegrass with it's banjo part. "healed (One More Time)," on the other hand, is a quiet and acoustic flk song saturated in thankfulness, which features Alice Stuart's harmony vocals. "Healed (One More Time)" escalates into an unplugged gospel rave before this mini church service is over. There are planty of snooty alternative rock kids clogging the pages of today's music rags, causing smart, tradtional guys like Dwyer to get cruelly overlooked. But Healed is a specail CD, which will thrill most, and won't offend anyone except, perhaps, barbers. |
| On Nov 01, 2004, in the Vintage Guitar magazine, John Heidt wrote: |
| PK Dwyer: Doing Something Different |
| PK Dwyer didn't take the normal route to the blues. It wasn't until he was in his late 40's that his obsession started. "I was looking for a Jimmy Reed guitar, but couldn't find one," he recalls. "So I started carrying around one of his CD's because I figured showing a picture would be easier than trying to describe it. I hadn't heard Jimmy since my teens, but one day I stuck the CD in the player. It was like an instant conversion. I thought 'Oh, I've been drifting too far from shore."' At that point, Dwyer says, he was 3/4 of the way through the recording a CD with his band. But he disbanded the group and stopped recording. "I cut my hair off, started wearing a suit, and started writing all these blues songs," he says. Dwyer had a trio, but it became to expensive to support the whole band. "My wife and I decided I should just do a solo thing, he said. "She quit her job to book and manage me, we bought a little motor home, and we and the two dogs are on the road all the time." They travel mostly the Pacific Northwest and the I-5 corridor to L.A. Like many American artists who perform roots music, he also does well in Europe. "I'd like to move there someday. You can make incredible amounts of money playing the music you love. Any American roots music. I've seen 200 people on a street corner watching a guy do a bad version of "Hotel California," and they just love it!" But you won't see Dwyer doing Eagles tunes. In fact, he does mostly original blues, but with a definite twist. His "$800" is one of the best post-millenium blues tune by ANYONE, with an amazing lyric that harkens back, looks forward, makes you laugh, and yet conveys a serious message. "Humor always seems to pop up, no matter what I write," he notes. "I've written all kinds of tunes - rock, country, blues. It just seems to be in the words." As for guitars, every one Dwyer now owns came from the pages of Vintage Guitar magazine. "Of course, I only have four right now. I got rid of a bunch of stuff because we're on the road so much and I don't feel comfortable leaving stuff at home. I was constantly carting stuff to friends' houses." One of the last guitarrs he "got rid of" was his first favorite - a '52 Martin D-18 he'd had for 30 years. He has also played a lot of Teles and Strats; his main band guitar in the '80s was a '61 Strat. His current stage guitar is a '98 Gibson Custom Shop J-200 with a Sunrise soudhole pickup and a Pick Up the World sound board pickup runs through a Pick Up the World Power Blender. He uses several guitars to record, including a '33 Gibson L-00 witha an EMG under-saddle pick up and a Bill Lawrence soundhole pick up. He recently bought a '47 Martin 000-18. "I'm trying to learn to play slide on it," he laughs. The cover of Up To My Balls In The Blues has what he calls "a pretty interesting guitar" - a '44 Epiphone electric archtop prototype he bought from dealer/VG contributer Dave Hussong. "My guitar book says there were only two made like it. It's a great guitar. I used it on the album and ran it through a tweed Fender Deluxe." Dwyer, as you'd expect, is looking to inspiration these days from some older guys. "I've been picking up lots of stuff, like the Reverend Gary Davis and Lightin' Hopkins. I also love Ernie Hawkins, and my wife has turned me on to a lot of old jazz, like Charlie Parker and Chet Baker. I love Gypsy music, and old hillbilly music. Usually, I listen to music that is old. Although I do like the White Stripes. (They) give me faith that the younger generation might come up with something." Dwyer's current plans call for staying on the road and doing more recording. "The next album's going to be pretty much acoustic. I just keeep getting deeper and deeper into it." If his recent records are any indication, while he keeps getting deeper and deeper into it, Dwyer will remain a unique artist. Like he says, "If you're not doing something different, why bother?" - John Hiedt
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| On Apr 02, 2004, in the VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE, John Heidt wrote: |
| PK Dwyer - Blues Guy Now - Self-distributed |
| This is good stuff. I know nothing about PK Dwyer, but what I've been able to figure from his press release and web site is that he's somewhat of a fixture on the Seattle music scene, and he's been around playing various styles of music. Well, here he has taken to the blues, and, as they say, the blues have taken to him. PK says in the title cut he was told in a dream by Jimmy Reed that he's a blues guy now. Believe it or don't, but the guitars intertwining make believers of lots of folks. One's loud and distorted, the other clean and sweet on this altered boogie. Throw in his high-pitched, almost other-worldly vocals, and you've got the makings of a killer tune. That goes for a lot on this album. On some cuts, like "Celebration Blues," Dwyer plays harp and acoustic, and with that voice sounds like someone recorded 50 or 60 years ago. But he also plugs in on plenty of cuts and lets her rip. "Please Don't Make Me Beg" is a rocker, pure and simple. The electric, fingerpicked blues-by-way-of-rockabilly guitar of "$800" drives a song that has one of my favorite lyrics in a long time; "If I had $800, I'd tell you what I'd do. Buy me some whiskey and spend the rest on you." Followed closely by "If I had $800, we'd be Vegas bound. If I had $800, we'd be Vegas bound. Get married by Elivs, and then we'd settle down." A blues lyric for the new millenium. Speaking of lyrics, PK likes to have fun. In fact, it took a listen or two to figure out he's a unique lyricist not bound by the conventions of blues singers. He does his own thing, and it makes him stand out in a world of folks trying to do this music. All the music here is fine. Dwyer's guitar playing, whether self-accompanied acoustic guitar, or stinging electric leads and slide, is hot as hell. His vocals are perfect and unique and the songs are all good. -JH
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| On Feb 05, 2004, in the F5: Wichita's Alt News, Jedd Beaudoin wrote: |
| BLUES GUY NOW- PK DWYER King Pin Head Records, 2003 |
| With a low, buzzy guitar sound reminiscent of Billy Gibbons buzzsaw articulations in ZZ Top and a voice that suggests a David Lee Roth who never went to a party or lit a cigarette, PK Dwyer gives us, on "Blues Guy Now," a group of songs that don't as much change our lives as they make our lives a little better. But you wouldn't expect much different from a guy who can handle the end of an affair (Or is it the passing of a hangover?) with such ease ("Easter Sunday"), would you? While calling this album a blues record would probably send a purist or two on a midnight pilgrimage to Memphis just to purge their mind of such blasphemy, regular folks will afix happy memories to Dwyer's outing, remembering the easygoing nature of "Keep On Walkin'," "Trouble Here At Home" and "No Longer My Girlfriend" and the filthy pleasure of "$800" and "Celebration Blues." Backed by Pete Pendras (guitar), Paul Black (drums and other percussion pieces) and Dave Hutchison on bass, Dwyer has certainly scored a handsome prize with this mercifully short and mercifully upbeat journey into the land of da blooze. |
| On Sep 13, 2003, in the ROOTS MUSIC REPORT, http://www.rootsmusicreport.com/CDreviews/pkdwyer.php3 wrote: |
| 5 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR BLUES GUY NOW |
| Blues Guy Now has that great rockin' blues feel; and PK Dwyer has his own unique way of delivering a song that will grab the listener by the ear and not let go. This is an enjoyable listen, full of twists and turns. The drummer playing a cardboard box is a special touch that not many records receive today. Blues Guy Now is honest, and is definitely a unique blues album. |
| On Sep 01, 2003, in the BLUE SUEDE NEWS #64 ~ Fall 2003, Marc Bristol wrote: |
| PK Dwyer/Blues Guy Now/KPH7 |
| In the first song the ghost of Jimmy Reed comes to Dwyer and tells him to be a blues guy now, which PK figures out on his own is a good idea becuase it's OK to be old and a blues guy. PK Dwyer's take on things is usually a little different or twisted, which is exactly what makes him interesting. But the music stands on its own, too, he's got good players in his band - particularly former Gail Davies sideman (but with Dwyer before that too!) Pete Pendras on lead guitar. On his versoin of the "No Longer My Girlfriend" concept, it's because she's now his fiance and they're headed to Vegas to be married by Elvis in another song ($800). "Please Don't Make Me Beg" appears to be a song where the protagonist is asking for free sex from a prostitute, but it might be metaphorical somehow. On "Easter Sunday" he's "gonna rise from the dead." I used that line on a girlfriend once, and I meant it too! If out of the ordinary, interesting twists on the blues concept are your bag, you ought to check out PK Dwyer. He plays around Seattle, but also has occasional gigs down around L.A., where he lived for a few years. Or you can get this CD and more info at www.pkdwyer.com -MB |
| On July 07, 2001, in the BLUE SUEDE NEWS #55, Marc Bristol wrote: |
| PK Dwyer Trio/Up To My Balls In The Blues/P&G Records 7504 |
| The first time I ever heard PK Dwyer it was a small club off 15th Ave. in Seattle, bottom of Queen Anne Hill. He got up and sat in with Bruce & Eli, and sang a very rockabilly version of "North To Alaska", and I was impressed. He's had a variety of incarnations over the years, including a duo with Donna Beck, a band called The Live Wires that played the streets before that was legal in Seattle, the Jitters (not the more recent San Diego band by that name), Hollywood Dick Doll Revue, and Boy George Michael Jackson Browne. Maybe you get the picture, he's a very talented and clever fellow, who hasn't quite caught on big with any of these things, but has entertained a bunch of folks along the way. The last several years he's sported a look that seems kinda like that psychedelic Bob Dylan poster that came with the first Dylan Greatest Hits LP, only better and more. He's what Dylan might look like now if he were good looking. Anyhow, I hope you get the drift that to me Dwyer is one of the more colorful and interesting figures of the Seattle music scene since I've been a part of it starting in 1971. Before that he used to pick up my partner Doug Bright and go down to Seattle Center to play Sonny & Brownie style blues, and now he's kinda come full circle putting out a blues album here. He's kinda like Seattle's Mojo Nixon or Mack Stevens, but lately without as many gimmicks - though they've been part of his thing before. His songwriting has often had a bit of a psycho or wacky edge, and it surfaces here and there on this CD, such as on "Better Tip My Baby" and the title song. But for the most part this CD has a wide variety of influences from straight blues to T-Rex, psychedelic era blues/rock, and even folk/blues. For anyone who likes things that are a bit wacky, but still soulful and groovy, PK Dwyer is somebody you should check out. |
| On June 21, 2001, in the BLUES ACCESS MAGAZINE #46, STEVE KNOPPER wrote: |
| HOME BREW GIVES "UP TO MY BALLS..." 3 1/2 OUT OF 4 STARS! |
| As a soul singer, PK Dwyer is up there with pop-music giants such as Weird Al Yankovich. But the dweeby longtime Seattle bandleader redeems his lack of raw talent on "Up to My Balls in the Blues" (P&G Records) with a sort of existential David Byrne pain in his voice; his roots-rock trio matches his anybody-can-do-it spirit with barely any frills at all. (Well, except for Dwyer's hair, which is sort of a taller, furrier and more rockabilly adaptation of Kramer from "Seinfeld.") Whining proudly and strumming pretty melodies on an electric guitar, he frets over lost love (the acoustic "Lookin' For A Woman"), psychosis ("Is Your Mind Playing Tricks On You") and general anxiety ("Up to My Balls in the Blues"). Then he blatantly hits on every waitress in the greater Seattle area with "Better Tip My Baby." Who knows why guys like this get the blues? Maybe their palm pilots run out of batteries. (Pitch & Groove Records, pkdwyer.com) |
| On Mar 15, 2001, in the CALIFORNIA AGGIE, Jeff Speckels wrote: |
| PK DWYER TRIO GETS 4 OUT 0F 5 STARS . . . (PITCH & GROOVE RECORDS) |
| The PK Dwyer Trio's latest album is called "Up To My Balls In The Blues." Go ahead, laugh. It's funny. The best thing about this great album's title is that PK Dwyer is right. Even if his music doesn't own solely to the blues - he incorporates folk textures into his music, too - his vocals do. The attitude of this album is so perfectly blues and the music so perfectly supportive and blues-tinted it makes you want to cry out "Why haven't I ever heard of PK Dwyer before?!" Coming from a disheveled old man with a balding backing band, it is great to hear an elder sing it and mean it. Dwyer has obviously been kicking around basements, back rooms and bottles of booze for decades, which means that he actually has something to say about growing old, being alone and having the blues. That doesn't mean that he has the blues and he yells about it, it simply means he tells it like it is-calmly. Up To My Balls... gets things started with "Please Tell Me," a number about looking for a woman. The next cut is the slow, more folky "Time To Try," an outstanding ballad about a faltering relationship which simply yearns, "I don't know if there's time to turn it around/but I guess there's time to try." Somehow, Dwyer manages to make this simple old story new and heartfelt, complete with great, simple guitar work and nice backing vocals. The album's title track "Up To My Balls In The Blues" is Dwyer's most blues-oriented tune. Dwyer is also in excellent form in his original compositions "Better Tip My Baby" and "Mumbo Jumbo." Some of the songs don't sound as inspired as others, but those that do shine among them. One of the best tracks on the album is "Looking For A Woman," the most obviously autobiographical tune wherein Dwyer addresses age and loneliness. With only nine tracks, Up To My Balls... is effortlessly short. Dwyer's compositions are great blues numbers full of hearfelt elegance. Listen to this with a heavy heart, and it just might speak to you. |
| On Mar 07, 2001, in the bumpNgrind Radio, Midnight Rider wrote: |
| Up To My Balls In The Blues (Pitch & Groove Records, 2001) |
| PK Dwyer is not your average bluesman, just like Marilyn Monroe was not your average housewife. He's definitely unforgettable. On the cover of the CD "Up To My Balls In The Blues" (as if the title alone doesn't grab you right in the crotch) is a picture of a thin white man with a black suit and a very strange hairdo. sitting in a chair and playing an F-Hole Jazz guitar. That's PK Dwyer. Open up the CD and you'll find a pair of fuzzy pink slippers staring you in the face. I have no idea what it all means, except that this is some of the most innovative blues I've ever heard. Because that's what really counts... the music. And, he is singular in that area, too. He has a unique singing style which I can only describe as a cross between Bob Dylan and Fred Schneider (B-52s). The music is the thing here. And, the music is great. PK Dwyer supplies the vocals to all his own songs, as well as displaying his skill with the guitar and harmonica. Dave Hutchison provides bass and vocals, and Paul Black provides drums and vocals. Together, they are the PK Dwyer Trio. The first track, "Please Tell Me," gets your feet moving, and prepares you for the party. Then, he hits you with a mellow floater, "Time To Try," that tells you this is no ordinary blues. But, the party picks back up again with the next little boogie number (the title track), "Up To My Balls In The Blues." From there, the blues heads full force into fun. With all nine tracks having a rich attitude and a crisp, solid blues appeal, you won't be able to stop your feet from moving along. PK has built up quite a following, and not just because he's such a nice guy. His music is fresh and different, a shot in the arm for blue sof the past, and a new sound for the future of blues. |
| On Apr 01, 2000, in the NO DEPRESSION #26, GRANT ALDEN wrote: |
| JITTERS ~ self titled |
| PK Dwyer and Donna Beck were already an established duo busking around Seattle when new wave broke in the late 1970s. Grown into an electric quintet, driven by Pete Pendras' spiky guitar fingers, they somehow managed to play both the established granola circuit and the emerging punk rock clubs, though they never quite belonged to either camp. At the time they were the first and only cowpunk band I had any reason to know about. It is possible PK had caught wind of what X were doing in Los Angeles, and equally likely that the Jitters were simply the inevitable result of a folk guy surfing the new wave. Either way, they were innovators, and a joy to hear mid-pogo. As the story goes, they recorded their only album in October 1979 as a tax write-off for some medical professional; it was, consequently, a rushed affair, and the band reputedly had to be paid an hourly wage to get them in the studio at all. Twenty years later Dwyer reaquired the master tapes, fixed all the mistakes he heard (remastered, all that), dropped one song ("Alms") that nobody liked at the time, and resequenced the album. PK Dwyer was the first musician I ever interviewed. He turned me on to Television, and, flipping through my stack of LP's he was reminded enough of '60s legends the Sonics to sing "The Witch" as a closer the night the Jitters opened for Pearl Harbor & the Explosions. Damn, they were a great band that night, both of 'em. I love this record, even though nobody else I've given tapes over the years has shared my enthusiasum, even though I'm quite certain it's not the great artistic accomplishment I'd really like it to be, even though it's only nine songs long. Yes, it's true the Jitters were never the great, passionate band that Rank & File and X became - Dwyer's songs were to gimmicky ("Don't You Remember That You Are The One That Burned Down The Bridges That I Built Over The River Of Tears That I Cried Over You") - but it's also worth noting that the notion of fusing country/folk onto punk/new wave was a little more common than the encyclopedias now suggest. |
| On May 29, 1982, in the Screw Magazine, Unknown wrote: |
| Hollywood Dick Goes New York |
| The honky-tonk strip of coffee houses around MacDougal and Bleeker Streets in New York City have spawned many a strange act in its time, but few as outrageous as one currently doing the Village rounds. Supposedly a folk music act, the Hollywood Dick Doll Revue is to the usual run of folk musicians as Seka is to Cosmo girl. We saw him and his Assetts (a trio of female vocalists) recently at a combination Greek food shop/clip joint, and the act knocked us out. It may have been the contrast with the other musicians on the bill that night. They were low-keyed (to the point of rigor mortis) folkies intent on reliving the early '60s scene. If this is the recently publicized "folk music revival" give us Quaaludes any day. But Doll was something else. As an entertainer and musical humorist, we're convinced he'll be making a big noise soon. *Hollywood Dick Doll AKA PK Dwyer |