• Home
  • Request a Song
  • BandCamp Recordings
  • YouTube Channel
  • Amazon Music
  • HearNow
  • EPK
  • PSP Research
  • More
    • Home
    • Request a Song
    • BandCamp Recordings
    • YouTube Channel
    • Amazon Music
    • HearNow
    • EPK
    • PSP Research
  • Sign In
  • Create Account

  • My Account
  • Signed in as:

  • filler@godaddy.com


  • My Account
  • Sign out

Signed in as:

filler@godaddy.com

  • Home
  • Request a Song
  • BandCamp Recordings
  • YouTube Channel
  • Amazon Music
  • HearNow
  • EPK
  • PSP Research

Account


  • My Account
  • Sign out


  • Sign In
  • My Account

Award-Winning Songwriter Dr. Peter "Doc" Stephenson

Electronic Press Kit

I AIN'T GOOD LOOKIN' BUT I'M SOME SWEET WOMAN'S ANGEL CHILE*

About Award-Winning Songwriter, Dr. Peter "Doc" Stephenson

Dr. Stephenson has been playing music in multiple genres since he was ten (he's 79 now). He is a multi-instrumentalist (keyboards, both electric and upright bass, 6-string, 12-string, doubleneck and harp guitars, mandolin, 8-string uke, and drums). Although he gravitates towards classic/vintage blues and Americana, he has played folk, classical, pop, rock, R & B, jazz, Hawai'ian slack key, and liturgical music. He is a song writer and music arranger and records and produces in his own home studio. He is a finger-style guitarist.


Currently, he plays regularly at venues in Rochester, and Oxford, MI. He also has played open mics and song writers nights in Nashville and Los Angeles as well as locally. While teaching at a university in Vermont, he played regularly at several university and local venues for many years. During his ten years in the US Navy, Dr. Stephenson played jazz organ and fronted a band that played regularly on base and in off-base venues.


His style is decidedly "old-school" but it is his own - he does not try to emulate any artist although many blues men and women of the 30s - 60s have influenced him considerably, particularly Jimmy Smith on jazz organ, Blind Willie McTell and Jontavious Willis for Blues (among many others), and Tyler Childers and Willie Nelson (again, among many others) for song writing.


His PhD is from Oxford Brookes University in the UK and has nothing to do with music. He has been referred to as a "colorful eccentric" which, hopefully, makes him fun, not difficult, to work with.


* From "Statesboro Blues", Blind Willie McTell, 1928

My Music On The Web - Older Recordings

Duncan & Brady - Live, Hamlin Pub

Duncan & Brady - Live, Hamlin Pub

Duncan & Brady - Live, Hamlin Pub

With Tone Devil Harp Guitar


Traditional story of a bar room gunfight first recorded in 1929

Ramblin' Blues

Duncan & Brady - Live, Hamlin Pub

Duncan & Brady - Live, Hamlin Pub

Original Recorded in 2020


On my CD, "Helpless Blues"

Warwickshire Lass

Duncan & Brady - Live, Hamlin Pub

Warwickshire Lass

One Of My First Original Songs - 2009


The ghost story related to me by the then owner of the Tudor House Inn in Warwick, England.  I wrote it in one sitting at about 3 AM many years after I heard it.  It uses honkey tonk style piano.  I played all of the instruments and sang both melody and harmony.

Stewball

Helpless Blues - 2023 Latini Songwriting Award - Detroit Blues Society

Warwickshire Lass

Traditional Folk


The traditional story of a horse and an ill-fated gambler. I play it as more of a lament than a folk song. The "Savannah Bananas Jazz Band" is a virtual band.  I play all of the instruments.

Midnight Special

Helpless Blues - 2023 Latini Songwriting Award - Detroit Blues Society

Helpless Blues - 2023 Latini Songwriting Award - Detroit Blues Society

Traditional Folk


The story of a convict in a prison that overlooks a railroad track.  The tradition has it that when the Midnight Special passes by the prison, the prisoner will be released soon if its light shines on him.

Helpless Blues - 2023 Latini Songwriting Award - Detroit Blues Society

Helpless Blues - 2023 Latini Songwriting Award - Detroit Blues Society

Helpless Blues - 2023 Latini Songwriting Award - Detroit Blues Society

An Original and the Title Track of My CD


"Helpless Blues" is the 2023 winner of the John Latini Songwriter Award by the Detroit Blues Society. 

I wrote this in about 2018. It's a lament to growing older - not always a pleasant thing. As an old colleague once told me, "getting old is not for the faint-hearted". 

My Music on the Web - Newer Recordings

All Alone - World Songwriter Awards Finalist

All Alone - World Songwriter Awards Finalist

All Alone - World Songwriter Awards Finalist

Written in 2023


 This is an original I recorded with my virtual band as backup tracks. I played all of the tracks including my Tonedevil Guitars custom double neck (6 X 12) guitar, organ and bass. Drums are a Boss RC-10R.

My wife died recently and it just seemed that I ought to pull this little blues out of moth balls and dedicate it to her. This will be one of the tracks on an EP on which I'm working called "All Alone". It also was a finalist in the World Songwriter Awards song writing competition. 


 (Image art by Aaron Andrew Ang on unsplash.com/s/photos/lonesome? )

Black Dog Rain Blues

All Alone - World Songwriter Awards Finalist

All Alone - World Songwriter Awards Finalist

Written in 2023


 This is an original I recorded as a "rough cut".  It's a scratch recording made  prior to a full recording with backup instruments and mastering.  It makes a good example of my songwriting stripped down to its basics.


As describe in the song's notes, I normally start with the words to a song and add the music.  THis time I started with just the title and then wrote the words and finally added the melody and chord progression.

Example Set Lists

Example Set List One - One Hour

Example Set List Two - One Half Hour

Example Set List Two - One Half Hour

* INDICATES AN ORIGINAL SONG


  1. Big yellow taxi 
  2. Folsom prison
  3. CC Rider
  4. In the jailhouse now 
  5. A Hundred and Ten in the Shade *
  6. Freight Train Blues 
  7. Helpless Blues *
  8. I Get the Blues When it Rains
  9. Kitty Litter Blues  *
  10. Let the Four Winds Blow
  11. Mad Dog Blues *
  12. Mother Earth
  13. Midnight Blues *
  14. You never even called me by my name 
  15. He rode all the way to Texas 

Example Set List Two - One Half Hour

Example Set List Two - One Half Hour

Example Set List Two - One Half Hour

* INDICATES AN ORIGINAL SONG


  1. Sweet Little Sixteen
  2. South Avenue Blues *
  3. Wasn't That a Party
  4. Long Way to Go *
  5. Mississippi kid 
  6. Rambling Blues *
  7. Pancho and Lefty 
  8. Night life 
  9. On My Mind


Note that these are example set lists and ordering that I may or may not use. I have well over 300 songs in my collection and I create set lists that are suitable for the particular event and audience. I am adding new songs to my collection constantly. I mix originals and covers.

This is an email I received from one of the then officers of the Paint Creek Folklore Society following their 47th annual Tin Whistle Concert at which I performed.

GaLlery - The Old Guy With Lots of Strange GUitars

Connect With Me - pstephen@DrPeterStephenson.org, Or:

Copyright © 2022 Dr. Peter Stephenson - All Rights Reserved. 

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

Accept