Singled Out: Delta Wires' Searching For a Woman

Delta Wires just released their take on "Searching For a Woman" as a tribute to Chess Records and to celebrate they tell us a little bit how the tribute came about. Here is the story:

Delta Wires band was created out of a love of the blues, its beginnings in the Mississippi Delta, and the migration to Chicago of the Delta bluesmen. Band leader, Ernie Pinata, started the band as a college project for sociology credit. It was a musical presentation with dialog, which followed the regional migration of the blues from the South [after the cotton gin came about] to Chicago, He wrote songs and received poetry credit. These studies culminated in the first performance of the Delta Wires.

It began with traditional field hollers, to Son House, Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson, along with a few of Ernie's original compositions. A Muddy Waters-style blues band (or a "Little Walter style band with a sax added") finished out the program. Ernie Pinata and his brother Stephen worked together on creating the concept and the band which performed the project, and Ernie's childhood friend, bassist Tom Gerrits, became a part of the band around this time. A three-piece horn section was added and has never left.

The band started by playing the clubs in Oakland - Esther's Orbit Room and The Continental Club, and Mandrake's and The New Orleans House in Berkeley. Around this time, Lowell Fulson sat-in with the DELTA WIRES at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, and Ernie sat in with the Freddie King Band at Mandrakes in Berkeley. This was followed by performances with Freddie King, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, and Little Milton. The Delta Wires then began to open shows for these blues greats, and continued to grow as musicians and as a band. In 2025, they are even more skilled, and still going strong.

Ernie was a blues lover and collector, and an avid fan of the "Chitlin' Circuit". He was able to see many of the blues greats when they came to the Oakland / Bay Area. The band has stuck to its roots, always influenced by Chicago Blues (with a horn section). Ernie has wanted to do Albert King's "Searching for a Woman" and wanted it to be a tribute to Chess Records, as the importance of the music that came out of Chess cannot be underestimated. He wanted to put our own spin on a Classic Chess recording - Searching for a Woman.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

Delta Wires to Tribute Chess Records With 'Searching For A Woman' Single

Singled Out: Delta Wires' If Somebody Told Me

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