Pete Welding

Who was Pete Welding?

Pete Welding was an American blues historian, archivist and record producer.

Born Peter J. Welding in Philadelphia, he worked as a journalist for Down Beat magazine and occasionally freelanced for other publications including Rolling Stone. In 1962 he moved to Chicago and, inspired by Bob Koester at Delmark Records, founded Testament Records in 1963 to issue recordings of blues and black folk song. Starting with singers Bill Jackson and Connie Williams, he moved on to record Big Joe Williams, Robert Nighthawk, Peg Leg Howell, Doctor Ross, Fred McDowell, J. B. Hutto and many others.

As a producer, Pete Welding was known for discovering talent in unusual places. In 1961, while doing research for a prospective album on Philadelphia street singers, he was approached by Herb Gart, who found blues singer Doug Quattlebaum "driving a "Mister Softee" ice cream truck—with his guitar plugged into the truck's amplification system, entertaining the kids with his blues!" resulting in an album financed by Moe of Manny, Moe and Jack eventually titled "Softee Man Blues"

In 1993 he was nominated for a Grammy with Lawrence Cohn for the liner notes to "Roots 'n' Blues the Retrospective".