Pete Wade in 1954, the year he moved to Nashville. Soon after arriving, he joined Ray Price’s band, the Cherokee Cowboys; he went on to work with Mr. Price on and off for almost a decade. During that time, he also toured with Kitty Wells, Elvis Presley and others / Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
A member of the loose aggregation of top-flight session musicians known as the Nashville A-Team, Mr. Wade played on numerous records regarded as classics. Among the best known were Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City” (1968), Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden” (1970), Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” (1977), George Jones’s “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980) and John Anderson’s “Swingin’” (1983).
In his decades as a studio musician, Mr. Wade worked with Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, Billy Sherrill and every other major producer in Nashville, a testament to both his even temperament and his adaptability as a guitarist. He also backed a broad array of non-country artists, among them Julie Andrews, Joan Baez, Perry Como, Little Richard and Dinah Shore.
