2019-It seems like, lately, life is always somehow getting away from us. The work week is longer, the weekends shorter and good old conversations have been replaced by tweets and snapchattery. We wake up early, go to bed late and all we really have to show for it is a stomach full of stress and a face full of eye bags. Maybe it’s time we slow things down a little. Enter Pie Eyed Pete & The New Dealers and a little something they call “Slowgrass.” A self-styled genre of music and a way of life. Listening to their new release is like grabbing a beer, heading out to the porch and spending an afternoon strummin’, pickin’, and fiddlin’ away the hours. The nine tunes on their new record “Songs For Sunday” show that life’s like a song: it’s not about how many notes you can cram into it, but actually all about what happens in the space between the notes. With on Cathie Van Wert Menard on Fiddle, Jim O’Donnell on Banjo, Ed Sullivan on Bass, Andon Davis on Mandolin, Peter Cimbalo on Guitar and Vocals and Sheila Cimbalo contributing tight vocal harmonies, The New Dealers style is an authentic, relaxed yet playful vibe that keeps your toes tappin’ and has you singing along by the time the chorus hits. This is a lo-fi band in a Wi-Fi world and they couldn’t arrive at a better time. Recorded by Ike Reilly at his Diamond City studios in Libertyville, IL and mastered by the great Phil Karnats in Kildeer, IL, the feel of the record is live and natural. So, while life is probably not going to slow down anytime soon, Pie Eyed Pete & The New Dealers will always be close by, playing their “Slowgrass for the people”, and reminding you to “forget your dreams, we’re going out tonight.”

2015-His seventh release, “Workingman’s Paradise” features a stable of seasoned Chicago music veterans along with a dozen rip-roarin’, beer-pourin’, leave-‘em-wantin’-more’n’ tunes.

Recorded in Libertyville, IL and Chicago IL by the supple hands of Pie Eyed Pete, Chris Harden and Ed Tinley and featuring the multi-talented John Pirruccello, guitarists Jim O’Donnell and Phil Karnats and his trusted drumming friend Phil Levin, Workingman's Paradise is a disk that is equal parts tobacco-soaked vocals and whiskey-soaked guitars, the result is a heady brew of a life lived to its limits, both with and without regrets.

2010-Lake County All-Star is chock full o’ the classic pie eyed, musical nuggets you’ve come to expect. This is a great record, it’s a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll and a whole lotta barroom sing-along. Recorded at Diamond City Studios in Libertyville, IL by the strong yet supple hands of Ed Tinley and rounded out with strong supporting performances by luminaries Ike Reilly, multi-talented John Pirruccello, long time guitarist Jim O’Donnell and drummer Phil Levin, Lake County All-Star is a disk that’ll make you want to stay up all night and drain a keg or three. Sure, you’ll wake up dehydrated and jonesin’ for a hot cup of joe but, like Pie-Eyed Pete, you wouldn’t want it to end up any other way.

2009-It started innocently enough…myself, a working dad and part-time songwriter sitting on my couch, strumming my guitar. My precocious 4 year old son, Peter John, walks up and asks, “What are you doing dad?” I answered “Playing my guitar, trying to write a song.” He replies, as all know-it-all 4 year olds do, “I can do that.” My challenging response was “Well o.k. bud, sit down, what do you want to write about?”
And so it began. We would randomly sit together, talk about what he was into that week and try to write a song about it. By the time he was 5, we had a bunch of songs that were pretty darn good. I decided, why not record them? It took a few recording sessions in Chicago to record the drums. The rest of the record was finished in a small studio in my basement. The result is this record, a snapshot of what my son was into between the ages of 4 and 6. He has since moved on to other likes and hobbies. This CD will always remind me of these great times we had together and it is unlike most kid’s recordings as it is adult rock with a child’s perspective. Any child from 3 to 10 years old will love it and you will be able to listen to it as well…enjoy!