Pat Bergeson: Jazz Guitar Today Video Podcast
JGT’s Bob Bakert talks to Nashville’s Pat Bergeson in this video podcast while contributor Joe Barth provides an in-depth interview.
A versatile guitarist and harmonica player, Pat’s style incorporates jazz, blues, rock, and fingerstyle guitar. He is known for his session and touring work with a variety of artists. He has recorded with Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Dolly Parton, Peter Frampton, Michael McDonald, Tommy Emmanuel, Suzy Bogguss, Bill Evans, Benny Golson, Joey DeFrancesco, and many others. He has toured with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Shelby Lynne, Suzy Bogguss, Madeleine Peyroux, Tommy Emmanuel, and is currently touring with Peter Frampton’s band. Pat has been a teacher and producer, played on many Grammy Award-winning records, and has appeared on many movie soundtracks.
JB: Growing up in Illinois, talk about when you started to play guitar and what inspired you to play jazz guitar.
PB: I started out as a blues-rock guitarist when I was around 13 years old. My older brother got a Stratocaster, and I started learning to play it. I had a rock band in high school called “The Blues Agency” in my hometown of Batavia, Illinois. We played bars and local parties and rehearsed a few nights a week. We played a lot of Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. At that time, I also played drums in the school band program, so I played in the jazz band. I was listening to jazz, and I was always very intrigued by it. I also came to jazz guitar at that time through the rock-influenced players like John Scofield, Mike Stern, and Larry Carlton. I wanted to learn to play jazz and bebop, but I didn’t really start practicing it seriously until college. My jazz guitar influences in college were mostly horn players like Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Sonny Stitt, Roy Eldridge, and other bebop players. I had a couple of Joe Pass records that I stole licks from. I still listen to Joe for inspiration.
JB: What did you appreciate most about William Paterson University and that era of your development?
PB: I moved to William Paterson in my third year of college, right after two years at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. The U of I had a great music department in the early 80’s. I was studying classical guitar and composition. I was also in the U of I Russian Folk Orchestra, a bluegrass band, and a Dixieland band while also playing drums in the U of I big band. I was also playing classical guitar at a lot of far-out new-music concerts. At night, I would stay up until 4 am practicing jazz guitar. It was a very healthy, creative musical environment at U of I. I heard about William Paterson through a friend and decided to transfer my third year because I heard they had a great jazz department run by Rufus Reid. It was an incredible experience. I spent all my money driving from New Jersey to Manhattan to go to the jazz clubs and hear all the greats play. There were only about 50 students. We all stayed up all night in the practice rooms jamming until we finally got kicked out by security. They changed the locks, and we figured out how to unlock the doors to the music building at night after the security guard left, so we could keep practicing. I was taking private lessons at William Paterson with Harry Leahey and Bucky Pizzarelli. My lessons with them have helped me to this day. I am still working on things that Harry showed me forty years ago. Barry Greene, Peter Bernstein, and Bill Stewart are a few of the great players who were in school with me at William Paterson. Barry Greene was also very influenced by Harry Leahey’s teachings.
JB: To you, in terms of your own personal development, what are three of the most influential guitar albums and why?
PB: It’s Uptown with the George Benson Quartet, George Barnes’ Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, and Joe Pass’ Intercontinental. There can’t possibly be only three favorites, of course. I also love Cal Collins, Ed Bickert, Peter Bernstein, Bruce Forman, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, Martin Taylor, Johnny Smith, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny, Freddie Green, etc. So many good ones.
JB: Reflect upon recording the Sneakin’ Around album with Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.
PB: I met Chet Atkins through songwriter Robert Lee Castleman. Chet came to the National Guitar Summer Workshop, where I was teaching a clinic in Connecticut. While he was there, Robert gave him a demo that we made called “Sneakin Around,” which Robert wrote. Chet heard me on the demo and invited me to play on the album after he recorded the song and made it the title cut. He flew me to Nashville, and I recorded in his basement studio with just Chet and Jerry Reed in attendance. It was an amazing experience. I played on three or four songs on the record. After that, I moved to Nashville about a year later and started playing in Chet’s band off and on for 7 years. He was very good to me. I don’t know where I would be now if he hadn’t helped me out at that time.
JB: What did you appreciate most about working with Lyle Lovett?
PB: I worked with Lyle Lovett from 1996 to 2002. He had an amazing band. Bassist Viktor Krauss recommended me for the gig and helped me prepare to learn a lot of material. I had about a month to do it, and I practiced all day, every day, until the first rehearsal. After we played the first song in the first rehearsal, Lyle turned to me and said, “Mighty Fine”. After that, I knew I was good to go and I have Viktor to thank for that. It was a great experience all around. The first year I was in the band, we were mostly a small group. Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, and Stewart Duncan were all in the band at that time. It was a great band.
JB: You contributed to several movie soundtracks. Which was your favorite and why?
PB: I think my favorites to work on were Dr.T and the Women and The Apostle. Both movies were tracked live at Conway Studio in Los Angeles. Dr. T and the Women was tracked with Lyle Lovett’s band at the time with Robert Altman in the studio. We were tracking for a month. It was an amazing experience to play live to the film. The Apostle was recorded live with George Duke, Jim Keltner, and some of Lyle’s bandmates. I recently played on the new movie The Protector with Milla Jovovich with the great filmmaker Don Cherel. There are several other movies where I played guitar and harmonica on the soundtrack.
JB: You and Jon Herrington often tour with singer Madeleine Peyroux. What do you appreciate most about working with Madeleine?
PB: Guitarists Jon Herrington and Shane Theriot recommended me for Madeleine’s band. I had a good time touring all over the world with her in 2009 and 2010. It was a great band.
JB: What do you appreciate most about your musical relationship with guitarist Richard Smith and performing with the Hot Club of Nashville?
PB: Richard is a good friend and one of my favorite people and guitar players. Richard is astounding on guitar. I think Richard has been playing guitar since he was old enough to make a fist. He can play just about any tune that Jerry Reed or Chet Atkins ever recorded, plus he’s a great jazz player and swings his ass off. Go see him live, he’s incredible and very entertaining. The Hot Club of Nashville was started by Richard about 25 years ago as an instrumental group with John Jorgenson, Bryan Sutton, and me, and then it evolved into Annie and The Hot Club of Nashville, with my wife, Annie Sellick, on vocals, and just Richard and me on guitar. We toured for several years and had a blast.
JB: Tell us about the CD Country Gentleman – A Tribute to Chet Atkins.
PB: I was approached by a record label in Nashville called Green Hill Records to do a Chet Atkins tribute record. I thought that would be an exciting challenge for me to pay tribute to one of my most important mentors. It was a lot of work for me to learn a lot of the songs that Chet played and to do them justice in my own way. (Richard Smith could have made the whole album in an afternoon lol) I like the way the record turned out.
JB: You were in the Les Brers group. Tell us about the impact of Duane Allman, Dickie Betts, and the Allman Brothers Band upon you.
PB: My friend and Jack Pearson asked me to be join Les Brers. I was honored to be invited to be the second guitarist in the band by Jack. He’s one of the best in the world to me. He plays things on the guitar that make me bust out laughing because it’s so good. The band was an offshoot of the Allman Brothers. It was started by the two original drummers, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe. It also had Allman Bros members Oteil Burbridge and Marc Quinones. Bruce Katz played keys and Lamar Williams Jr, the son of late Allman Bros bassist Lamar Williams. We played festivals and theaters for a couple of years, mostly on the East Coast. We had some real fun musical nights with that band. And played mostly Allman Bros material and some originals. The Allman Brothers were a musical influence on my guitar playing in high school. Southern rock was huge in the Chicago Suburbs where I grew up.
JB: Tell us about the Hippy Dance album.
PB: The Hippy dance album started in 1993 when I recorded six of the tracks with Dan Anderson on Tuba, Tom Roady on percussion, and myself on amplified harmonica. It was originally going to be a trio album with harmonica, tuba, and percussion. I decided to add overdubs with Jeff Coffin on woodwinds and some other friends, and to include guitars and a few tracks from a 2001 session. I love the way it turned out.
JB: I understand that you use a Gibson Super 4000 as well as a Fender Esquire. What do you appreciate most about those guitars that you use?
PB: I love the Gibson Super 4000 that belonged to Chet Atkins. It’s an incredible-sounding guitar. Chet had it in his office the whole time I worked with. him and he would always let me play it when I was over there. Bruce Forman and I started a duo called 100 BC. “BC” stands for Barney and Chet. They turned 100 years old recently, and he has Barney Kessel’s guitar, and I have Chet’s Guitar. We don’t know if Chet and Barney met each other, but we got their guitars together to pay tribute to them. We use those guitars on the road. I love playing with Bruce. He’s one of my favorites.
I was playing a 1967 Esquire for a while with an added neck pickup. It’s a good guitar. The Telecaster is one of my favorites because of its simplicity and versatility. I don’t play it much live anymore. I am playing a 1968 ES335 and a 1968 ES330 with the long-scale neck. Those 330’s from the late 1960’s are so good.
JB: You are a very busy Nashville guitarist, so talk about the jobs that you enjoy doing most, whether it’s here in the city or on tour.
PB: I have been touring with Peter Frampton’s band for the last couple of years. We do a few three-week tours a year, and it’s super fun. The band is so good, and Peter is a great guy and has always been one of my favorite rock musicians.I get to play through a 100-watt John Suhr PF100 amp and a 412 Bogner cabinet. The sound is awesome. I first met Peter at a party a friend was having for him in 1994, when he had just moved to Nashville. At that time, we were doing a weekly gig with Chet at a downtown club called Café Milano. Every week we had a guest, so I invited Peter to play with us. The other guest that night was James Burton. We all got to play together that night. I wish there were a recording. After that, I worked with Peter a few times in Nashville.
Also, I am playing every Saturday from noon to 2:00 at the Acme Feed & Seed in downtown Nashville with an incredible soul singer named Charles “Wigg” Walker. He will be 86 years old in June 2026, and he still sings his ass off. We have an organ trio with Charles Treadway on organ, Pete Abbott on drums, and Charles Walker on vocals. We just released a great record by Charles Wigg Walker called “This Love’s Gonna Last”. I am still doing sessions on guitar and harmonica, and I am working on a new record of songs I have written over the years. I still like being in Nashville, and I am grateful to still be playing quite a bit. I am doing a variety of musical things, including jazz gigs.
I am also teaching at guitar camps this summer. I will be teaching at the Rocky Mountain Guitar Camp in Arvada, Colorado, from July 26-30. Rockymountainguitarcamp.org The Pete Huttlinger Guitar and Fly-Fishing Camp from August 10-13 in Livingston Montana. The Martin Taylor Guitar Retreat August 24-27. Full Moon Resort, Big Indian, New York.
