Watch Deke Dickerson and Dale Watson tear up Viva Las Vegas

Deke Dickerson's Guitar Geek Show at the Orleans Hotel featuring Dale Watson was a highlight of Viva Las Vegas 2026. 

Remembering Elvis Presley on his birthday

We're remembering Elvis Presley today with Dave & Deke's tribute "In The Meadow" performed on Art Fein's Poker Party. 

Watch Deke Dickerson & The Whippersnappers' "Ridin' With The Devil" video

Check out the video for "Ridin' With The Devil" off the new album Hot Roddin' with Deke Dickerson & The Whippersnappers

Here's the scoop...

Filmed on location in the Los Angeles riverbed, Southern California, here's the BOPFLIX official music video for Californian rockabilly band DEKE DICKERSON & THE WHIPPERSNAPPERS (USA) new track 'Ridin' With The Devil (Goin’ Fast As I Can Go)' from the new release 'Hot Roddin’ With…Deke Dickerson and the Whippersnappers' on Ecco-Fonic Records. Watch the clip below. 

Available here: https://www.dekedickerson.com

"Ridin' With The Devil" stars...

Deke Dickerson - vocals / guitar / six-string bass / piano

Bert Avalos - rhythm guitar

Zander Griffith - bass

Dylan Patterson - drums

with special guest star Pinup Palmer as The Devil

Cars courtesy Bert Avalos and Abe Lugo

Deke Dickerson chats with Otis Gibbs about Merle Haggard, Grady Martin and more

Listen to guitarist and music historian Deke Dickerson tell a few stories about interviewing Merle Haggard and more.

Happy Birthday Grey DeLisle!

Celebrating the birthday of country singer and voice actor deluxe Grey DeLisle with a few songs accompanied by Deke Dickerson!

Deke Dickerson readies new"Hot Roddin'" EP for upcoming tour

Deke Dickerson & The Whippersnappers' new Hot Roddin' four-song 7" EP will be sold at their upcoming shows.

Here's the scoop from Deke...

The countdown is on!  We've got everything in the pipeline for our new release: "Hot Roddin' with Deke Dickerson and the Whippersnappers!"  If all goes to plan, we'll have these in time for our August/September nationwide tour.

This will be released as a 7-inch vinyl EP (4 songs) with a CD also enclosed in the same package.  There will be a limited edition (200 copies) blood red vinyl edition that will only be available on my website (https://dekedickerson.com/) and at our shows. 

Fantastic cover artwork by Chris Wilkinson (photo by Michelle LaValley)!

We're also gearing up for the release of the video shot by Chris Magee of Bopflix, for the lead track on the album: "Ridin' With The Devil (Goin' Fast As I Can Go)"

Exciting stuff on the horizon, stay tuned!  I just wanted to share a peek of this fantastic cover art with you....

While you're waiting for Deke's new EP and video, check out a recent interview with Deke following performances of "Honky Tonkin' Rhythm,"  "Payin' For That One Mistake" and "Bucket Of Blood" with the Whippersnappers...

Deke Dickerson sez new Untamed Youth album "Git Up & Go" on the way

Writes Deke Dickerson...

Wow, it's finally here!  The Untamed Youth's brand new album, "GIT UP & GO" (on Hi-Tide Recordings)!  Just got the CDs in the mail today, and we will be selling them on the Underground Garage Cruise this weekend.  The vinyl (and official release date for the CD and LP) will be next month.  It turned out great!  I'm really happy with the recordings, we got both Chris Montez and Tony Andreason from the Trashmen as guest artists, Chris Wilkinson did a killer job on the album cover--it's a great new album and I'm really proud of it!  Hope to see you on the Underground Garage Cruise!

I'm really looking forward to this one! Yeah, yeah--they have some great headliners. But the real action is the amazing lineup of underground cult legends that will be playing all over the boat for the next few days! I'll be playing with my own band The Untamed Youth, doing a set with Los Straitjackets, and making guest appearances with The Flamin' Groovies, The Dictators, The Neanderthals, and Lenny Kaye's Nuggets tribute! Wow, this is gonna ROCK!

For those of you on the boat, here's my schedule if you want to see me hopping on stage throughout the weekend:

FRIDAY: I'll be sitting in with the Flamin' Groovies on "Don't You Lie To Me" as they perform their classic "Shake Some Action" album in its entirety! 12:45-1:45 am, Atrium stage, Deck 7, Mid

SATURDAY: Deke & Los Straitjackets set 2:45-4 pm, Atrium Stage, Deck 7, Mid

I'll be singing a song for Lenny Kaye's "Nuggets" show, 8:00-9:15 pm, Stardust Theater

I'll be doing a tune for the Neanderthals Trashmen tribute, 9-10 pm, Magnum's, Deck 6, Mid

SUNDAY: The Untamed Youth perform 8:30-9:30 pm, Magnum's, Deck 6, Mid

MONDAY: I'll be sitting in with the Flamin' Groovies doing a number off their classic "Teenage Head" album, 2:30-3:30, Bliss stage, Deck 7, Aft

I'll be sitting in with the Dictators doing a number off their classic "Go Girl Crazy" album, 8:15-9:15 pm, Spinnaker Lounge, Deck 13, Fwd

The Untamed Youth play our 2nd and final show 9:15-10:15 pm, Atrium, Deck 7, Mid

Whew! I'm tired just typing all that out! It's going to be a busy and fun weekend--see y'all on the boat! Check out "Git Up & Go" along with some vintage Untamed Youth clips from "It's Happening" way back in 1990. 

Jon Spencer issues call to action with "Come On!" video

Jon Spencer with pals Kendall Wind, Spider Bowman and Deke Dickerson try to stir that revolutionary spirit with "Come On!" 

JON SPENCER On Tour

May 21 – Cleveland OH – Beachland Tavern

May 22 – Kalamazoo MI – Bell’s Eccentric Café –

May 23 – Chicago IL – Fitzgerald’s

May 24 – Ferndale MI – The Magic Bag

May 25 – Rochester NY – Skylark Lounge

May 31 – Bourges (FR) – Cosmic Trip Festival

June 1 – Reims (FR)- Cartonnerie Club

June 2 – Lille (FR) – L’Aeronef

June 3 – Liege (FR) – Reflektor

June 4 – Paris (FR) – La Maroquinerie

June 5 – Annecy (FR) – Le Brise Glace

June 6 – Lourmarin (FR) – Yeah! Festival

June 7 – Savona (IT) – Rain Dogs

June 8 – Reggio Emilia (IT) – Handmade Festival

June 10 – Schorndorf (DE) – Manufaktar

June 11 – Mainz (DE) – Schon Schon (Auch 13)

June 12 – Koln (DE) – Koln – Bumann & Sohn

June 13 – Munster (DE) – Gleis 22

June 14 – Dresden (DE) – Beatpol

June 15 – Berlin (DE) – Lido

June 17 – Copenhagen (DK) – Hotel Cecil

June 18 – Hamburg (DE) – Molotow

June 19 – Hanover (DE) – Café Glocksee

June 20 – Antwerp (BE) – Djingel Djangel

June 21 – Nijmegen (NL) – Kids N Billies

July 11 – Lancaster, PA – Tellus 360

July 12 – Staten Island, NY – Maker Park Festival

July 13 – New Haven, CT – Cafe Nine

July 14 – Northampton, MA – Iron Horse Music Hall

July 15 – Portland, ME – Oxbow Blending & Bottling

July 16 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground

July 17 – Troy, NY – No Fun

That time Deke Dickerson went to NYC to meet Billy Miller of Norton Records

 

Here's teenage guitar prodigy Deke with Billy Miller and Glenn "The Fang" Damato on bongos at Billy & Miriam's pad in 1986.

Here's the scoop from Deke...

"In 1986, I was working at a grocery store in my hometown of Columbia, Missouri. Columbia was unique in the state, it had a citywide can and bottle deposit law that required people to bring their empty cans and bottles back to the grocery store. 

"The summer I graduated from high school, Pepsi started a contest where you could save 1000 bottle caps and get a free round-trip plane ticket anywhere in the United States. Because of my access to the “bottle room” at the grocery store I worked at, I bent the rules (to say the least) and would leave after every shift with 40 or 50 Pepsi bottle caps stuffed into my pockets. Soon, I had 1000 bottle caps and a round-trip plane ticket in my hands. I knew where I wanted to go: I wanted to go to New York City to meet Billy and Miriam from Kicks magazine (later they wound start a record label, Norton Records).

"My mom and dad were understandably worried about letting a 17-year-old kid loose in the Big Apple with two people they had never met. Luckily, Billy and Miriam were excellent hosts, and encouraged my aspiring rock ‘n’ roll foolishness, which directly led to my music career. I stumbled across this photograph tonight, and it sure doesn’t seem like 34 years ago. That is the late, great, dearly missed Billy Miller in the Reese‘s peanut butter cups shirt, 17-year-old me posing with the acoustic guitar, and “The Fang” Glenn Damato on bongos. 

"It was complete sensory overload for a Midwest hick like myself. Records, books, pictures, posters, wild-patterned barkcloth, jukeboxes, hell they even had a little diner counter built into their Brooklyn loft! It opened my eyes, and I liked what I saw. It was like discovering the world was glorious technicolor...I had a hard time going back to tan and brown after that. 

"I remember the High Point of this particular evening was calling legendary rockabilly artist Joe Clay on the phone, who at that time had been recently discovered driving a school bus in Louisiana. It didn’t seem possible—you could just call a big star like Joe Clay on the PHONE? A quarter of a century later, I backed up Joe Clay at Lincoln Center in New York City. If only that innocent 17-year old kid in the photo could have seen into the future. Miss you, Billy Miller."

That time Deke Dickerson joined The Surfrajettes on stage in Spain

Deke Dickerson tore it up with Nicole Damoff and her Surfrajettes at the Rockin' Race Jamboree in Torremolinos. 

You can catch Deke Dickerson – sans Surfrajettes – on tour with Whistle Bait in Finland this January! 

Jon Spencer collaborates with Deke Dickerson on new recording

While on tour, Jon Spencer and crew stopped by Deke Dickerson's studio to cut a couple of punk whumpers old school style.  

Here's the scoop from Deke...

"Well, that was fun and unexpected!  Jon Spencer (he of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, a quite-famous band a few years back) contacted me out of the blue a few weeks ago and asked to book a recording session at my studio, while they were on tour on the West Coast as part of a package tour with Samantha Fish and Cedric Burnside.  Of course I said yes!  I never get to record noisy, raw punk blues stuff.  This would be fun and, well, unexpected!

"I didn't know when we made plans to record that Jon also wanted ME to play on the songs.  I know the kids are all crazy about the "collabs" as they call it, so hell yes, that sounded like fun! Count me in!

"Jon and his current band (Kendall Wind, bass; and Macky Spider Bowman, drums) showed up at the house at noon, along with their road manager Dave Martin.  Within 30 minutes we were recording songs I had never heard before, and laying them DOWN.

"I think the tracks sound great!  I look forward to mixing these and seeing what happens.  I like doing stuff out of my normal wheelhouse.  Jon and the band couldn't have been nicer (or more professional, man we just got right down to work).  By 3 pm they were on the road to Ventura, where they are playing tonight at the Ventura Theater, along with Samantha Fish and Cedric Burnside.  Thanks again, Jon!  it was a pleasure!  And thanks again to Bloodshot BILL for putting Jon and I in touch!"

Watch a couple of clips from the session right here and over there. 

 

Watch The Untamed Youth tear it up at the Surf Guitar 101 Festival

The guitar rippin' of Untamed Youth's Deke Dickerson impressed just about everyone at Long Beach's Golden Sails Hotel... except Deke's daughter Evelyn. 

Happy Birthday Grey DeLisle!

Raising a glass to singer/songwriter and voice actress Grey DeLisle with performances with Dale Watson & Deke Dickerson. 

Get a copy of Grey DeLisle's "Driftless Girl" album produced by Jolie Holland right here. Visit Grey's site over here. 

That time Deke Dickerson's Untamed Youth appeared on It's Happening!

Straight outta Missouri, Deke Dickerson and his Untamed Youth crew tore it up back in 1990. Catch 'em in L.A. this weekend!

See The Untamed Youth at the three-day Surf Guitar 101 weekender in L.A. on July 27th – get tickets right here. 

R.I.P. guitar great Duane Eddy, 1938-2024

Sadly, twangy guitar legend Duane Eddy – a master of economy – has passed away at the age of 86. He'll be greatly missed. 

Grey DeLisle releases new Jolie Holland-produced album, Driftless Girl

Grey DeLisle's latest release Driftless Girl is available here. Check out two performances and some recordings from the album. 

Deke Dickerson releasing "Honky Tonkin' Rhythm" album on April 28th

For his first post-pandemic album, Deke Dickerson is knockin' out that Honky Tonkin' Rhythm on CD and LP next week.

Here's the scoop from Deke...

New album dropping April 28!  You can get it on CD (and vinyl in a few months), download, and all the streaming platforms.  Get you some "Honky Tonkin' Rhythm" NEXT WEEK! For more info on Deke's music, tour dates and more, visit his site right here https://dekedickerson.com. 

In the meantime, check out a recent performance and an interview below. 
 

Deke Dickerson lectures on "The Electric Guitar in American Culture"

Check out guitarist/historian Deke Dickerson's hour-long keynote address about the electric guitar which includes "The Clunker." 

Deke Dickerson talks about Bakersfield country great Wynn Stewart

Guitarist Deke Dickerson shares a few stories about honky tonk hero Wynn Stewart on his great new series, I Like Records! 

Deke Dickerson remembers Hollywood's Pete Korelich had the stuff

For years, the late Pete Korelich ran a record pressing/printing shop on Santa Monica Blvd frequented by Deke Dickerson.  

Deke Dickerson writes...

Here's one of the things I stumbled across in the warehouse yesterday:  Back In the 1990s I had my own record label called "Ecco-Fonic Records."  I also had a few offshoot labels like Bucket-Lid, Teen Rage, and Bop Pills.

I really disliked the way that modern records looked and felt In my hands--thin, wobbly vinyl with tapered edges, and record labels made with an offset printer.  The album covers and 45 sleeves of the 1990s were terrible things, cheaply made and would come apart after a short time.

I set out to make my records look as much like "old records" as I could.  I found that United In Nashville had one 45 RPM pressing die with a "Flat Edge," obviously something that had been leftover since the 1960s.  Much better than the tapered ones with a lip, and thicker vinyl, too.  I found that Stoughton printing In Los Angeles could make beautiful old-school record sleeves (and they still do, even though they are expensive, they look fabulous).

I was stuck on the labels, though.  I couldn't figure out why old record labels looked so GREAT and new ones looked so terrible.  I finally figured out that old record labels were done on a letterpress printing machine, and new ones were done with an offset printer.  But where to get the old style ones made?

One day I happened to notice a brand new 45 release by a piano player guy in L.A. named Bobby Mizzel.  The record label looked PERFECT.  How did he do it?  Bobby was an older guy who started In the 1950s, and he used to sell his records at the Pasadena City College swap meet.  I went to the swap meet a month or so after seeing his new 45 and I asked him where he had done the labels.  "You liked those, huh?  Boy, I hate the way new labels look.  If you want to get them old type labels, go see Pete Korelich In Hollywood."  He gave me Pete's number.

Someday I have to write a 30-page blog piece about Pete Korelich and his record operation.  It was too incredible to detail here.  When I met Pete, he was in his 70's, and still operated out of the front part of a building on Santa Monica Blvd that at one time had been a large record pressing plant.  He had a fire In the back part of the plant In the 1980s, and the back 3/4 of the building was open to the sky, with 20 or so record pressing machines with fire damage just sitting in the sun.  It was crazy.  The front 1/4 of the building held a mastering room, with the Neumann lathe that used to be at Motown Los Angeles a few blocks away, and the rest of the space was dedicated to Pete's record label making equipment.  And a lot...of junk.  I mean, a hoarder's delight world of the best stuff ever!

Back In the day before I even knew what that stuff was, I would walk past racks of Pultec EQ's, Universal Audio compressors, Westrex cutting amps, I barely remember them but he had THE STUFF.  And it was all covered In piles of records, record labels, covers, and random detritus from the last 60 years.

I befriended Pete and wound up doing a bunch of record labels with him.  Good lord, they turned out FABULOUS.  Nothing made me happier than going to visit Pete In his world of junk, and seeing him fire up the linotype machine from the 1800's to produce type for the letterpress machines to make labels.  He'd be up there in steam-punk operators chair, typing on the linotype machine's small typewriter keyboard.  "WHAT DO YOU WANT IT TO SAY?" He would yell, in his Polish accent, over the din of the machines.  "ECCO-FONIC HIGH FIDELITY ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE HOLE, 45 RPM AND EF-1004 ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE HOLE, LINES ABOVE AND BELOW EACH ONE!"  I would yell.  It was the mid-1990s, but it was like going Into a time machine.  It was the greatest thing In the whole world.

Eventually, Pete died, and his valuable slice of Santa Monica Blvd real estate needed to be emptied.  I got a phone call from a guy who asked me if I wanted to haul off the 20 Finebuilt record pressing machines FOR FREE and I said no...*&%&(!!!!  (at the time, we all thought vinyl records were going the way of the dodo birds, nobody had any idea that record pressing machines would be worth their weight In gold during the boom of the last few years.  I don't know what happened to Pete's machines, but I hope that they got saved and not melted down).  I did ask the guy, however, "could I come and get my linotype for future pressings?"  Come on over, he said.

Quickly, I grabbed what I could of my own record's linotype, and also a bunch of stuff I knew was bound for the dumpster: the original linotype for "Hollywood Records" from the 50's, and "TOPS" Records from the 50's, and a few others.  Then I took one last look at the majestic cacophony of Pete Korelich's operation and said goodbye.

Last night, I stumbled across these trays of linotype and all the memories came flooding back.  I still put out vinyl records, but the labels have looked terrible since ol' Pete Korelich died.  Letterpress record labels (and all the fabulous label paper that was used In the process--but that's another long story that Involved me driving all over Los Angeles to get the last remaining stock of "flint glazed paper" and the old Chess and King-style blue and maroon record label paper, which I still have) are one of the things from the past that are truly dead, and that's a shame.  I'm glad that I caught the tail end of it.