Pete Worden and the Hardtimers play “real deal rockabilly music.” Worden describes his brand of music as bop. “We're no oldies band” says Pete, “I'm writing new bop carrying on the music that the cats started in the 50s.”

A brilliant guitar slinger and vocalist, Worden delivers an exciting live show, the likes of which will have you asking yourself, ‘how does he do that?’ As you stand outside a club where Worden is working out hard inside, you will swear you’re standing on Beale Street in Memphis. An older fan with a DA and pack of smokes rolled in his sleeve says, "I was there in the 50's and those guys do it right – like some kind of time machine." Younger fans see his show and think, ‘so this is what it was like...’

Pete Worden remembers the first 45 record his parents gave him as an eight-year-old. He says it was an RCA record: Elvis's cover of “Hound Dog,” flip side “Don't Be Cruel.” When he heard those sides, his fate was sealed. “It really kicked my ass” says Pete, “that killer guitar, and beat, oh man.”

However, Worden’s early music career, the Elvis 45 notwithstanding, wouldn’t necessarily indicate his current path. He has always had a diverse taste in music, and his personal collection – ranging from jazz and classical to roots music and heavy metal – reveals not only his taste in music, but also his maturation as a musician. After playing cello and clarinet in grade school, he settled on electric bass for a large part of his early professional career. He toured nationally in the ‘80s, playing bass with hard rockers Ice Water Mansion.

When that band broke up, Worden began pursuing his love of jazz and his interest in moving from bass to guitar. He studied jazz guitar with Frank Gerard. “But to play jazz,” he says, “you really have to know blues.” So after studying the music and playing with other bands like Shakin’ Smith, he formed his own blues trio. He had always written songs, so fronting his own band gave him an opportunity to play originals alongside blues standards. One of his songs, “Christmas Time Again,” was placed in the LeeAnn Rimes movie Holiday in Your Heart, and appears in film and TV shows each season.

But he never quite forgot the thrill of that first Elvis 45. More country and rockabilly crept into his record collection and into his playing, until he formed a rockabilly trio. In 2002 they released their first CD Rock-A-Way containing 10 songs written by Worden.

In 2004 Worden formed the record label Royal Tone Records under which he has released his latest CD Catch Me if You Can. This CD contains 13 tracks, 12 original songs, including “Bazz-A-Jilly”, which is a nod toward his jazz influences, and “Heart of a Fool,” originally recorded by Eddie Cochran in the late ‘50s, but unreleased until 1982.

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