Biography
Growing up amid the Chicago suburbs, Peter Berwick absorbed the sounds of George Jones and Johnny Cash from an early age. His initial group, the Generics, came together in 1978 and soon worked the local bar scene, where their power pop melodies drew strong critical notices. Two of those tracks, one being “There She Goes Again,” were nevertheless kept off the airwaves. The Generics disbanded in 1983, after which Berwick joined the End as guitarist the following year. That outfit issued a lone album and supported Hüsker Dü and the Minutemen on the road before dissolving in 1985, just shy of a planned West Coast trek. In 1986 Berwick started the cowpunk outfit Peter Berwick & Interstate and issued the albums Decisions in 1987 and Six Pack Town. By 1990 he had moved to Nashville’s Music Row, where Bitter Creek Records signed him as a staff songwriter; one result, “The Thing Called Love,” found its way into a River Phoenix film. An album he cut during the same period, Rebels and Cadillacs, remained unreleased. He next assembled the cowpunk band the Nashville Underground, which earned an opening slot with the Charlie Daniels Band before splitting after its tour run. Berwick’s roots-rock effort Hell to Pay appeared in 1996, echoing the style of Steve Earle. After returning to Chicago in 1999 he put out a children’s album, then followed it in 2002 with his second roots-rock collection, Only Bleeding. Observers have called him “too raw, too rough-edged, and too damn talented,” and he has shared bills with Doug Kershaw and Joe Sun.
Albums