Blues singer, songwriter, guitar and bass player Country Pete McGill was born in Austin, Texas. Raised in Jasper, Texas, near the Louisiana border, he grew up in a religious family where music was a predominant influence. Nicknamed “Country Pete” while a youth, he grew up listening to the blues on the radio and seeing major artists that toured the South such as Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Milton, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Johnny Copeland and Albert Collins. Learning from various relatives and friends, Country Pete started playing the bass guitar. He moved to the Bay Area in 1969 and began working with such performers as J.J. “Bad Boy” Jones, Billy and the Thrillers, Johnny B. Goode and Cool Papa. In the early to mid 1980’s he teamed up with Louisiana-born Oakland guitarist Big Bob Deance, and together they toured northern Europe with the Mississippi Delta Blues Band, a group that at that time featured harmonica player-singer Sam Myers.

After releasing a single, Train Train/Falling In Love With You in 1991 on the Blues King label, Country Pete formed his own group to showcase his emerging talents as a singer, songwriter, and now guitar player as well. Country Pete and his Cottonfield Blues Band have appeared at numerous blues festivals, street fairs, and different venues throughout the Bay Area over the last 12 years. This includes a 10-year stint at the well-known Fifth Amendment nightclub in Oakland, where Pete was a very popular entertainer. He has been very instrumental, along with other local artists, in “keeping the blues alive” in Oakland, and has developed a reputation as a dapper entertainer and a ladies man.

Pete McGill is also leader of The Cottonfield Trio, featuring the former nucleus of the Cottonfield Blues Band, guitarist Big Bob Deance and harmonica player/singer Carlos Zialcita. The Cottonfield Trio performed at the 1994 San Francisco Blues Festival, and was a featured act at a party held in January 1995 at Yoshi’s Nitespot in Oakland for the late Brownie McGhee. In more recent years Country Pete and his Blues Band have been favorites every year at the Black Diamond Blues Festivals in Pittsburg, CA and the “Blues Alley” festival held in downtown Oakland. They have also appeared at the annual California Blues Festival held at the band shell in Golden Gate Park on Memorial Day. Country Pete has two CDs available including Baby, I’m Gone on the CPM label. This recording, release in 1997, features the songwriting and producing skills of Carroll Peery and was received very well by fans and critics alike. The CD enjoyed a lot of airplay in Europe, especially in Spain and the Netherlands, where it also received an excellent review in Block Magazine. Pete’s more recent CD, release in 1999 is Lookin’ At Me on the Red Top label.