Peter Karp

Considered one of the finest contemporary singer/songwriters of Americana and blues/roots music working internationally today, Peter Karp has carved out his own unique niche. Known by reputation as a forceful singer, a searing guitarist, a powerhouse pianist, a passionate performer, who writes with an unmistakable lyrical style that reflects tales of life's journey. Spawned by passion and personal experience, blues, folk, Americana, and rock and roll all find common ground within his musical bag. His propensity for dynamic performances and has made him a remarkably rare
talent in American roots music.

Peter Karp was born in Leonia, New Jersey, a town of culture and arts, wedged between the tough working-class river towns along the Hudson
River, one mile across from NYC. Karp was introduced to live music at the early age of 7. His family would take him across the Hudson River to NYC to see the most popular and iconic musicians of the 1960s. The Beatles, the British Invasion, and the slick and soulful sounds of the touring
Motown acts became a weekly pilgrimage for Karp. At 9 years old, he went to live with his dad in a trailer park in rural Enterprise, Alabama, where he became aware of the musicians who laid the seeds for the seminal sounds of the blues. Sun House, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and Howlin' Wolf blared on a little transistor radio in kitchen of their mobile home.

An early indie album by Karp brought him to Mick Taylor’s (The Rolling Stones) attention. Taylor subsequently flew to the States to play on Karp’s next effort, The Turning Point. Then the two embarked on a tour together. As a result, Karp continued to accumulate a national following, and in 2007, he released a follow-up which cracked Billboard’s top 5, Shadows and Cracks, his first record for the respected blues label Blind Pig Records. He Said -- She Said, which found him partnering with Canadian singer/songwriter Sue Foley, released in 2010 and also made it into Billboard’s Top Five. The duo’s follow-up, Beyond the Crossroads, came soon after and was cited by Alternate Roots Magazine as the #1 CD of the Year for 2012. In 2016, Karp released The Arson’s Match, a series of recordings made with Mick Taylor at New York’s Bottom Line. Nominated for 3 Blues Blast awards the profits from the project were donated to a charity in his wife’s memory. Three albums followed on his own label to critical acclaim in 2017, 2018, 2020: Alabama Town, The Blue Flame and Magnificent Heart. Due to his reputation as a writer and a performer, and despite his lack of any formal education, Karp was awarded a Masters degree in Composition by the Vermont College of Fine Arts.