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Opportunity keeps knocking for Mt. Lebanon musician

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 5 min read
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Just before Thanksgiving and pretty much out of the blue, a representative of Drusky Entertainment contacted Mt. Lebanon resident Pierce Dipner about performing at Pittsburgh’s Hard Rock Café.

“I was talking to him about it, and then he said, ‘Oh, yeah. The act you’re opening up for is Brandon ‘Taz’ Niederauer,'” Pierce recalled. “And I just kind of didn’t really believe it, because I’ve been following him for a couple of years. He’s a really big name, and I kind of take inspiration from some of his stuff, being a younger guy doing the blues.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Pierce Dipner performs in June during a “Blues & Brews” event at Houlihan’s in Mt. Lebanon.

He and Taz, who has made several appearances on national television while drawing high praise from the likes of Dead & Company guitarist John Mayer, happen to be the same age: 15. So it will be a night for the next generation when they take the Hard Rock stage on Feb. 17.

That’s just a few weeks after Pierce, a Mt. Lebanon High School freshman, returns from the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn., where he is representing the Blues Society of Western Pennsylvania in the event’s Youth Showcase, on Jan. 25. The society, which tipped off Drusky about Pierce, also sent him to Memphis two years ago.

And at some point during the winter, he’ll be working with producer and Crack the Sky guitarist Rick Witkowski on Pierce’s contribution to WYEP’s Reimagination Project. Now in its sixth year, the project has younger musicians work with veterans to record original material for a compilation to be released in May.

Pierce was selected in November after submitting a video of him performing his composition “Roamin’ Woman.”

“I kind of just tried to write a standard blues song, one of the ones where the the first part of the verse repeats twice and you have something at the end, just to see if I could,” he said, and as for what he’ll work on with Reimagination: “I’m thinking about maybe writing a new one and putting more into it than just a basic blues, to experiment with new stuff and see what I can do.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Harry Funk / The Almanac

“Sudden” Steve Binsberger, an alumnus of the Keystone Rhythm Band, accompanies Pierce Dipner at Houlihan’s.

With his band Pierce Dipner and the Shades of Blue, with Pittsburgh music scene veterans Keith Gamble on bass and Kevin Hindes on drums, he has been exploring avenues beyond straight blues, especially more soul and R&B.

The trio came together after an invitation from the Blues Society of Western Pennsylvania – Jonnye Weber, the group’s president, supports him to the fullest – for Pierce to perform at the Blues in the Square events planned during the past summer at Pittsburgh’s Market Square.

“They reached out to me to do an acoustic set there, and I noticed that the other people playing there were in bands, mostly,” he said. “It was a couple of months in advance, so I asked if I could do it with a band if I could get one together.”

Also in the summer, Pierce was a frequent guest at the “Blues & Brews” events held by the society at Houlihan’s in Mt. Lebanon, where he had further opportunity to perform with well-established musicians.

“Pretty much every musician in Pittsburgh I’ve either gone out and seen or met has always been really supportive, and most of the bands out there really, really support the younger guys,” he asserted. “They’ll get them up during their shows and try to teach them whatever they can, and I think that’s really beneficial.”

During the fall, he had the experience of playing in the band for the production of “American Idiot” at Comtra Theatre in Cranberry Township. The musical is based on the 2004 concept album by Green Day.

“They were actually one of the first bands I listened to,” Pierce said. “I kind of started off with the whole punk thing, and slowly worked my way into a bunch of different styles and sort of landed with blues, and now soul.”

For the Comtra performances, he worked with another guitarist along with a bass player, keyboard player and drummer.

“We couldn’t see the actors when we were playing, but we had to be right on time with their vocals, and we could hardly hear them,” he said. “It was kind of fun but nerve-wracking at the same time. It was kind of an adrenaline rush to keep up with them.”

While the opportunities that continue to come up for Pierce tend to keep his adrenaline going, he has a practical outlook for his future, with the idea of attending college to study facets of the music industry beyond simply performing.

“I’ve noticed there are so many great musicians who are as good, if not better, than some national acts,” he explained. “But they just didn’t find a break.”

For the Feb. 17 concert at the Hard Rock Cafe, tickets are $8 with payment to paypal.me/piercedipner.

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