The Dustin Pittsley Band

Excerpt from an article in the Urban Tulsa about one of Dustin's many side projects, Higher Education.
For the entire article, copy and paste this web link:
http://members.cox.net/dpband/Higher%20Education.html

"During the past decade, Dustin Pittsley has developed from young gun guitar prodigy to probably the best blues-rock axe slinger in Tulsa, if not the entire state. And I'll be damned if he doesn't have the perfectly warm and rich baritone voice to go with it. Is it fair that someone be blessed with both? Nevertheless, look up "stone cold badass" in the Tulsa Music Dictionary and you'll find his picture instead of words."

By G.K. Hizer - Urban Tulsa

"Dustin is a very energetic and animated performer," says (Donnie) Wood. "But he is a very non-pretentious person. He's just very consumed with playing music."
A native of Chandler, Pittsley has been described by one publication as a "whiz kid/guitar god." His vocal delivery is smooth yet distinctive and fitting of his musical stylings. Though he had only been playing guitar for a year or two, Pittsley won a southwestern guitar showcase contest hosted by Kenny Wayne Shepherd when he was just 16. He recorded some solo material-including cuts with studio musicians in Nashville-before forming the Dustin Pittsley Band with Wood and Wehmeyer, both of whom hail from Bartlesville.
"Staring into the Sun" has been in the works for several years. Though portions of it were originally recorded in Los Angeles and Tulsa, the band rerecorded much of the material live at Wood's home studio in Bartlesville.
"We didn't want something particularly polished," says Wood. "We didn't want something that we couldn't perform live. We wanted something organic. There's no studio wizardry. Nothing has been tricked up or polished. A lot of it was just live in studio with minimal overdubs." - Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise

May, 2009
This Month - Artist Profile:

The local musician shares his thoughts on his influences, his new album and playing the blues.

Anyone who enjoys quality local music should be familiar with one of Tulsa’s best blues guitarists and vocalists. If you’re not, take note. After all, Dustin Pittsley has been a consistent performer in the Tulsa music scene since he was 17. Now 25, he’s torn up historic Tulsa venues such as Cain’s Ballroom and the Brady Theater and can be found weekly at local hotspots throughout the area. Whether he’s riding solo, jamming with the Dustin Pittsley Band or collaborating with other like-minded individuals during Dustin and Jesse’s Higher Education, you can be sure of three things — stellar music, high energy and a devoted fan base. And his efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. He’s won numerous Tulsa World SPOT awards and his latest CD was awarded best self-produced CD of 2008 by the Blues Society of Tulsa. Pittsley says he’s recently re-embraced his blues roots and his fans can expect a live album later this year.

You’ve been playing music professionally in the Tulsa area since you were 17; how did you get your start? How have you matured as an artist since then?
I started off playing in Oklahoma City and heard a lot of good things about the Tulsa music scene. I ended up playing the Tulsa Blues Festival and started gaining friends from that — it was one of my big breaks. And since then I’ve tried to dive into different types of music besides just blues. I was labeled the blues kid when I came into town and tried to get away from that for a long time, so I did rock, country and bluegrass. It allowed me to get better as a guitarist and singer. I’ve come back to blues since then.

You must have encountered many local musicians who influenced you. Who has been your biggest inspiration?
Honestly, local guys are a bigger influence on me than a lot of the big names out there. Steve Pryor is at the top of the list and Brad James, as far as guitarists go. It’s unexplainable. He (Steve Pryor) is just amazing. I try to pick up as many licks from him as I can. I always strive to be as good as him. As far as songwriting, Tom Skinner and Don Morris just blow me away.

Your new album, “Staring Into the Sun,” features a mix of rock, blues, jam and folk — what motivated such a diverse sound?
Playing with so many different people around Tulsa. The scene here is so cool; everyone is helping out and playing together a lot. I didn’t go into it saying I was going to make that kind of CD. I didn’t go into it thinking I was going to make a blues record or a rock record or anything like that. It just ended up being what it is — an eclectic mix of quite a few different things.

What’s the album about lyrically?
There’s not really a theme to it at all. It comes from quite a few different experiences. Some of it was about me trying to get back to my roots as far as playing blues and thinking of music differently. I actually wrote some with other people, so it’s some of their experiences. I did a Randy Crouch song that when I first heard it I felt really strongly about, and that’s why I got it in there.

As a group (the Dustin Pittsley Band), how do you compose and combine the different styles of each band member?
Everything we’ve done previously to this (the band’s current album), I wrote all of it. We don’t ever get together to practice; we try out the stuff live at our shows. This next CD, we’re all gonna lock ourselves in a studio, write it together and see how it works out. We’ve never really tried that before.

For readers who have never been to one of your shows, what can they expect?
A lot of high energy, hopefully. We just hope to do good music and make people happy.

What’s in your CD player right now?
Yonder Mountain String Band or the Derek Trucks Band.





- Tulsa People Magazine

"Dustin Pittsley is already a star. Half an hour ago Brad Absher, once king in his adopted hometown, played this stage to a smattering of applause. Now Pittsley, all of 18, commands a threatening throng that blocks the festival gates. They're here to see this young hot-shot set his guitar on fire. He doesn't do that literally, like Hendrix, but he takes Hendrix's finesse--opens his set with 'Hey Joe', no less--and hokey tricks (scratching an itch by playing an entire jam behind his head). Pittsley's liable to kick Lenny Kravitz off MTV and show the world what real rockin' soul sounds like." - Tulsa World, May 7th 2002

"At this or any other great music event, the surest way to find great performers is to follow the performers. See the shows the musicians see, and your eyes and ears will rarely be sore. Case in point: the crowd for Dustin Pittsley was practically half the festival roster." - Tulsa World, July 17th 2001

"Word on the streets is there's a new young gun in town aiming to knock Steve Pryor off his throne as local blues guitar god. As a testament to the attention this 21 year old has been getting in past years, his newly formed group is comprised of several well known and seasoned Oklahoma musicians from the Red Dirt veins around Stillwater. Bassist Donnie Wood and drummer Doug Wehmeyer both have a longtime history with the genre but most recently had been backing Stoney LaRue until auditioning Pittsley for the touring band behind LaRue led them to change course and become the backbone of Pittsley's new high-power ensemble.

Throughout the disc, Pittsley shows that he is definitley a student of the blues, but proves to the free spirit of the class that's ready to jump outside of the box and challenge all the rules. His eclectic style and disregard for boundaries should easily draw favorable comparisions to Ian Moore.

Overall, this is a fantastic debut for a modern blues artist just beginning his journey. Let's hope that his free spirit and willingness to experiment and expand the blues envelope continues on." - Urban Tulsa 2004

Take that short drive up to B'ville to watch one of Tulsa's youngest blues legends. Discovered as a whiz kid/guitar god when he was only 15, Pittsley has added a level of maturity and polish to his performance, while leavening his beloved blues with major doses of folk, rock, and sprinklings of red dirt. Friday he will celebrate the release of his CD, "Staring into the Sun". - Tulsa World

I am a Dustin Pittsley super-fan, and like the rest of us who enjoy his live performances, we've been waiting forever for this cd. It was well worth the wait. First of all I was blown away by Dustin's vocals. The mix of acoustic and electric was a great decision. Donnie Wood is one of the best bass players, bar none. Doug Wehmeyer sets the pace and it's a rocking pace on most of the songs. Together they are one of the tightest 3-piece bands around anywhere! Dustin wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 11 songs on this cd. That's very unusual for a 24 year old, and I know he has plenty more songs in him. - Blues News (Blues Society of Tulsa)

In conjunction with the International Blues Challenge, the Beale Street Merchants Association awarded one band this past weekend with the title of Beale Street Blues Kings.

Bands and solo/duo acts came from all over the world to compete on Memphis’ historic Beale Street. As this world-class challenge hosted by the Blues Foundation came to a close, each venue chose a band to represent them in Beale Street’s own competition.

Eight bands competed at The New Daisy Theatre, resulting in Levee Town, the Dustin Pittsley Band, Selwyn Birchwood, and The Sugar Thieves as the top four. Ultimately the Dustin Pittsley Band was the winner.

The Dustin Pittsley Band is from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has won several other blues awards. Being named the Beale Street Blues Kings is, of course, the most prestigious.

- By Harmony Stewart, About.com contributing writer