Pete Astor

Pete Astor was born in 1970 in Hammond, Indiana. He first picked up a guitar at 15, after moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma. While he owned and played a Fender Strat (to be hocked 10 years later for spending money while he studied in England at Oxford University), he enjoyed playing acoustic guitar more than electric. For one reason or another, it became the thing in the mid 80's for heavy metal guitarists to study and play classical guitar. Astor followed suit, buying a classical nylon string guitar and taking lessons. Playing classical guitar soon became his forte. He also began listening to pioneers in solo acoustic fingerstyle guitar playing, such as Alex DeGrassi, Michael Hedges, Phil Keaggy and Leo Kottke. Eventually, not fully believing he would ever play professionally, Astor went the way of all flesh and succumbed to the lure of steady income and the American Dream. After graduating high school, he attended the University of Oklahoma and studied print journalism. Ever in pursuit of the American Dream, Astor went on to law school. Astor barely took the guitar out of its dusty case during this period.

He eventually graduated law school, and went on to become a criminal defense lawyer for several years, defending the innocent and not-so-innocent. Astor nevertheless put his once musically dedicated heart into his job as trial lawyer, garnering a fair number of acquittals, again, for the innocent and not-so-innocent. But his passion for playing and creating music had not died. He picked up his guitar again. Instead of his classical guitar, he picked up his dreadnought steel string, and practiced. . . practiced . . . practiced.

As fate would have it, he joined up with a start-up indie record label and was encouraged to go beyond covering other material and compose, play and record his own compositions. Up to the challenge, Astor did just that. The rest is now history.

While Astor still practices law (civil rather than criminal), he is steadfastly pursuing a full-time career playing guitar.