Peter Gelling

Peter Gelling (1960-2018), Australian blues guitarist/musician and songwriter, based in Canberra until October 1996 before moving back to Adelaide, then returning to Canberra in 2015. In 1988 he was a founding member of the Canberra-based blues band Blind Freddy, who also regularly performed in Sydney, and who established a strong local reputation and supported many international artists including Albert King, Junior Wells, Canned Heat, Jon Cleary and John Hammond. His album Bluestime (Bent Notes, 1999) was nominated for the 2000 ARIA Award for Best Blues & Roots Album. In 2003, he won the Musicoz award in the Blues and Roots category for his song 'If It Wasn't For The Blues'. Also in 2003, his song 'Strong Medicine', from his album Fortune (Bent Notes, 2003), came second in the blues category of the International Songwriters Competition held at Nashville. As a music teacher and author, he had more than 130 instructional manuals published from 1997 onwards, for a range of instruments and styles. Peter took pride in the ‘bluesman’ label but began as a student of classical guitar. He bought his first guitar with money earned as a Parks & Gardens labourer. In 1984, he studied Jazz at the Canberra School of Music. His skills and passions eventually encompassed jazz, soul, funk, gospel, world music and rock as well as classical and blues. The instruments he mastered included guitar, harmonica, bass, piano, keyboards, banjo, bazouki, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone and percussion. He loved innovating with loops, samples and soundscapes too.