Pat Bergeson Interview

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• published: 12 Feb 2013
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Pat Bergeson was born in Batavia, 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 at William Paterson University and worked in New York for ten years. After hearing him on a demo tape made by Robert Lee Castleman, Chet Atkins invited Bergeson to play on his record Sneakin' Around with Jerry Reed. Upon Atkins' request Bergeson moved to Nashville and soon established himself as a sought after session and live musician. Equally at home in fingerstyle and flatpicking guitar playing as well as 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 worked with Shelby Lynne and Wynonna Judd. His recording credits include albums by such diverse artists as Chuck Loeb, Sixpence None the Richer, Trace Adkins, Randy Travis, Emmylou Harris, Bill Evans, Jon Randall, Jeff Coffin, Michael McDonald, Martin Taylor, Jo Dee Messina, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss, Asleep At The Wheel, Jesse Winchester, Martina McBride, Gail Davies, Bill Frisell and Jill Sobule. Bergeson also contributed to various movie soundtracks, including Ratatouille: What's Cooking?, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Dr. T & the Women, Two If by Sea 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)[3] and Jeff Coffin (The Evil Boweevil with Coffin, Tom Giampietro and Derek Jones for the album Bloom). He has recently toured worldwide with singer Madeleine Peyroux, playing electric guitar and mandolin, and repeatedly with Suzy Bogguss. This is Pat's Mel Bay Artist Interview with Erica Cantrell. He also teaches a Mel Bay Pro lick. Pat's DVD, "Contemporary Improvisation" is available at melbay.com, catalog number MB95388DVD www.patbergeson.com www.melbay.com Produced by Rob Haines http://www.robhainesstudio.com