Pete Drake was one of the busiest Music Men in "Music City" in
the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. His duties as a business
executive, record producer and musician kept him constantly on
the go. Pete was the president of the Pete Drake Music
Group which consisted of the Window Music Publishing Company,
Tomake Music Publishing, Petewood Music and the record label
First Generation Records. He was also in high demand for recording
sessions. When he wasn't playing steel guitar for another producer,
he could be found in his own studio "Pete's Place" at 809 18th
Avenue South producing artists for his First Generation
Record label.
Pete was born Roddis Franklin Drake in Augusta, Georgia, on
October 8, 1932 to Nora Blevins Drake and John Drake. His dad,
Brother Johnny, was a Pentecostal preacher and his mother Nora was
a housewife. His brothers, Bill and Jack Drake, sang mostly in
churches in the Atlanta area and were known as The Drake
Brothers. Jack Drake left Atlanta and moved to
Nashville to play upright bass for
Ernest Tubb and became a Texas
Troubadour, a position he kept for 24 years. Bill followed soon
afterwards but grew tired of the road and decided to move to
California where he played guitar in clubs and became a DJ.
During Pete's visits to Nashville at the age of
18, he was fascinated by the steel guitar sounds of
Jerry Byrd. He returned to
Atlanta and built his own steel guitar, and later bought a
used single neck for $38 in the local pawn shop and began to
teach himself to play. By the age of 19, he was working as a bread
truck driver, a grocery store manager and learning to play the
guitar in his spare time. Further inspiration came a few years
later from hearing
Webb Pierce's 1953 recording of
"Slowly," on which steel guitarist
Bud Issacs achieved note bending
effects with a pedal-activated, pitch-altering mechanism on his
guitar. Fashioning his own pedal guitar, Pete became of one
Atlanta's first pedal steel guitarists. A year later, he started
playing professionally with his own band, "The Sons of the South"
in the 1950s. Pete and his band were featured on WLWA in
Atlanta and WTJH in East Point, Georgia. Drake's melodic steel
guitar playing made him one of Atlanta's top young
instrumentalists. The Sons of the South included future country
music superstars
Jerry Reed,
Doug Kershaw,
Roger Miller,
Joe South,
Jack Greene and sometimes Dick Van
Dyke.
Pete moved to Nashville in 1959 leaving the family in
Atlanta until he got established in Nashville. After
almost starving for more than a year, he got a job
playing on the road with Audrey Williams,
Wilma Lee,
Stoney Cooper and
Marty Robbins. After a 31 day tour
with Marty and sleeping in a bed only a couple of nights, he
decided it was time to stay in Nashville and try to become session
musician.
Like so many of those who achieved success in Music City, Pete
Drake's career in Nashville began at the Grand Ole Opry, America's greatest
Country Music institution. He accompanied a wide range of artists
on the Opry while establishing himself as one of the leading steel
guitarists in all genres of the music business.
The turning point came when singer
Roy Drusky heard him one night
playing at the Opry, and was impressed with the individuality of
his style, and invited Pete to record his next session with
him. The result was Roy Drusky's 1960 hit " Anymore." Another chart
hit,
George Hamilton IV's " Loveliness All Around Me/Before This Day Ends" soon followed and
Pete's career as a Nashville session player was in high gear. In
the late 1960's Pete described the pace as "15 sessions per week,
usually three a day."
In 1962, he partnered with
Tommy Hill,
Jerry Shook, Ralph Davis and Jack
Drake, and for a short time
Ralph Emery to form Window
Music Publishing and Tomake Music to take care of his downtime
between sessions. In 1962, there were only a few publishing
companies on Music Row and new writers coming to town needed a
writing home. The first writers he signed were
Ed Bruce and
Bill and Dottie West. Window Music became
successful in the first year when "Is This Me," recorded by Jim
Reeves written by Bill and Dottie West, became their first number
one record.
Pete and his staff built one of the most successful independent
publishing companies in Nashville. At one point during
the 1960's, Window Music accomplished getting a song a
day recorded. He helped develop the writing careers of
David Allan Coe ,
Frank Dycus , Rory Bourke,
Linda Hargrove, Jeff Tweel, Sonny
Throckmorton, Susan Longacre, Larry Kingston,
Pam Rose,
Mary Ann Kennedy, Buzz Rabin, Rick Beresford, Lathan
Hudson, Michael Clark and
countless others.
In 1961 and 1962, Pete recorded several albums for Don Pierce's
Starday Records produced by Tommy Hill.
In 1963, Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy signed Pete to a
recording contract with Smash Records, a division of Mercury
Records. He recorded several albums, including his hit record
" Forever" which earned him the
nickname of "King of the Talking Steel Guitar" due to his unique
way of vocalizing along with the strings of the steel guitar. He
also released the solo album " Steel Away" of pop/gospel standards
for Word Records. In addition, he worked on the Dick Clark Caravan
Show, appeared on national television shows. He also appeared in
the movie filmed in Nashville " Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar".
In 1964, he was voted "Instrumentalist of the Year" by Cash Box
magazine and "Fastest Climbing Instrumentalists' by Record World
and "Instrumentalist of the Year" by the Country Music Association.
In 1970, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of
Fame's "Walkway of Stars." In 1987, he was awarded the
Nashville Entertainment Association's "Master Award" and inducted
into the International Steel
Guitar Hall of Fame. Pete was also inducted into the Atlanta
Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990 and Musicians Hall of
Fame in 2007.
Charlie Daniels gave Pete's number to
George Harrison. Pete went to England to record on the "All Things
Music Pass" album. Later
George Harrison remixed and re-recorded
some of the songs on this album, but left Pete's steel parts on all
the new versions.
During the sessions with George Harrison, he
met
Peter Frampton. Peter was so intrigued
by the sounds of the Talking Steel Guitar that Pete actually gave
Frampton his "Talking Music Actuator" as a gift.
While working with George at the Abbey Road studio, he met
Ringo Starr, who was a huge country
music fan. Ringo wanted to record a country album, and in a few
weeks Pete produced "
Beaucoups of Blues" for Ringo using
Nashville musicians.
Pete produced
Melba Montgomery's hit "No Charge" at his own Pete's Place
Studio "B" on Music Row, as well as multiple hits with
International artist
Slim Whitman.
Pete guided
BJ Thomas country and gospel
career to the top with number one records, winning a Dove Award and
Grammy Award in 1981, with the "Amazing Grace" album.
He loved producing all genres of talent from
Tommy James,
Otis Williams,
Leon Russell,
The Four Freshmen, and
Bobby Vinton to
Boxcar Willie and Stars of the Grand
Ole Opry. In 1983, he traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa with
his chosen group of Nashville musicians to produce the Top 10 South
African Country Artist. The album was back ordered "Gold" before it
was completed.
Even as Drake's career grew to encompass production, publishing,
and a highly successful studio, his heart still remained with the
Grand Ole Opry members.
When
Ernest Tubb left MCA Records after a
thirty-five year affiliation, Drake jumped at the opportunity to
fulfill a life-long dream to produce Tubb. After Tubb was
turned down by all the major labels in Nashville, Pete and Rose
Trimble (his long time assistant and business partner) launched
their own record label, First Generation Records and on March 21, 1977,
Drake signed
Ernest Tubb .
The pairing of artist and producer gave birth to the classic
album "Ernest
Tubb: The Legend and the Legacy." Drake recorded 20 of Tubb's
greatest hits. As a special surprise, while the Texas Troubadour
was on the road, Drake invited Willie Nelson to sing and play on
the album. Willie brought along Waylon Jennings and Johnny Paycheck
who also lent their talents to the album. Soon Charlie Daniel,
Conway Twitty, Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Rich, Vern
Gosdin, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and many other
artists and musicians were invited to join in, resulting in one of
the greatest musical tributes ever recorded. The "Legend and
Legacy" was presented to Ernest Tubb for his sixty-fifth birthday
party at the Exit Inn.
Developing emphysema after 40 years of smoking, Pete's health
started declining in 1985, the Drake's built a recording studio in
their home in Brentwood, Tennessee where he continued to work
everyday until he lost his long battle on July 29, 1988 at the age
of 56.
Pete Drake will always be recognized as one of the truly
innovative geniuses of the Nashville Sound, A-team studio musician
and a lover of all genres of music.
