Gary Clark Jr. later carried that tradition into a new era. Behind him came another young act from the Austin area: Glenn and Alex Peterson, known together as the Peterson Brothers.
When JamFeed spoke with the brothers in 2017, Alex was 18 and Glenn was 20. Despite their age, they had already spent close to a decade performing together.
They were, in the words of the original JamFeed report, “some of the most talented musicians I have seen come out of Austin.”
Growing up in Bastrop
Both brothers were born in Austin and raised in nearby Bastrop, Texas. Alex began with the violin at nine years old before taking up bass around the age of ten. Glenn started playing guitar when he was approximately eleven or twelve.
Music was not simply one of several childhood hobbies for long. The brothers had participated in youth sports, but once they began playing instruments together, music became the activity that stayed with them.
Their first shows came remarkably early. Alex recalled that the band began taking shape soon after he started playing bass. He was about ten at the time, while Glenn was around twelve or thirteen.
By 2017, they had already accumulated roughly eight years of live experience.
A family operation
The Peterson Brothers were the only performing musicians in their immediate family, but the band’s development involved everyone around them.
Their parents handled much of the work away from the stage. Their father drove them to performances and helped with promotion at shows. Their mother assisted with bookings, social media and the day-to-day organization required to keep the group active.
Alex and Glenn were clear about the importance of that support. The family gave them room to make their own creative decisions while providing the practical help that allowed two young musicians to perform regularly.
They also spoke warmly about their older brother. Despite the age difference between the siblings, Glenn and Alex said the three brothers had always maintained a close relationship.
Discovering blues, funk and soul
The Peterson Brothers’ sound was broader than traditional blues. Glenn described their musical foundation as a combination of blues, soul and funk.
Among the artists they listened to while growing up were B.B. King, the Isley Brothers, Earth, Wind & Fire and the Brothers Johnson. Rock music also formed part of that education.
Rather than having those records formally selected for them, the brothers explored much of the music themselves. Their growing knowledge occasionally surprised their parents, who would hear them playing older songs around the house and wonder how they had discovered them.
The live performance that made the strongest impression on Glenn was not one he attended in person. He watched footage of Jimi Hendrix performing at Woodstock and was struck by the freedom and intensity of the performance.
Learning to perform together
Alex and Glenn began playing together almost as soon as they learned their instruments. They did not first develop separate musical careers and later decide to form a band. The partnership was present from the beginning.
Years of rehearsing and performing allowed them to understand each other’s timing. Onstage, one brother could react to a change in rhythm or direction without requiring a spoken signal from the other.
That familiarity became one of the defining characteristics of a Peterson Brothers performance.
Comfort on stage
By their late teens, the brothers looked unusually comfortable in front of audiences. Years of performing explained part of that confidence, but Glenn also credited their creative independence.
No one dictated exactly how they should behave or play on stage. Their parents supported the project without controlling the performance, allowing the brothers to develop at their own pace.
That freedom helped produce the chemistry audiences saw between them. The connection was musical, but it also came from having grown up, practiced and performed together for most of their lives.
Education alongside touring
At the time of the interview, Alex was completing his senior year at Bastrop High School.
Glenn was studying at Austin Community College’s Northridge campus, where his coursework included music business and audio engineering. Those studies aligned with the band’s growing interest in recording and production.
Both brothers said they were learning more about production each day. They were working on a live album while continuing to write original material.
Building an audience beyond Austin
Austin remained the Peterson Brothers’ home base, and their regular Monday appearances at the Continental Club gave local audiences an accessible way to see them.
Their ambitions, however, extended beyond the city. They wanted to build an audience across Texas through shows in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, then spend more time touring elsewhere in the United States.
Their 2017 plans included performances on the East Coast and an appearance at Shorty Fest at the House of Blues in New Orleans, an event connected to the Trombone Shorty Foundation.
They had already performed at major events including Austin City Limits, the Texas State Fair and the Minnesota State Fair.
A memorable return to San Antonio
Asked about memorable performances, the brothers recalled opening 2017 with a show at Sam’s Burger Joint in San Antonio.
They had not staged their own San Antonio show for a long time and did not know what size of audience to expect. The enthusiastic response became one of the year’s early highlights.
For Glenn and Alex, the reaction demonstrated that their music was reaching listeners beyond their regular Austin crowd.
Music production and original material
Although live performance had been the foundation of the band, the brothers were becoming increasingly interested in the production side of music.
Their work on a live album gave them practical experience with recording, arrangement and the decisions required to transform a performance into a finished release.
They were also writing more original material. Developing their own songs was an important step toward establishing an identity that extended beyond the blues, funk and soul standards they had studied while growing up.
Where the chemistry comes from
The Peterson Brothers’ onstage communication can look almost instinctive. Years of performing together allowed each brother to anticipate where the other might take a song.
Their relationship offstage was equally important. Both said they had always gotten along, making the demands of rehearsing, traveling and running a band together considerably easier.
That combination of family support, creative independence and extensive live experience explains why the group already appeared seasoned in 2017.
The brothers were still studying, writing and learning production, but they were far from beginners. They had spent nearly half their lives working in front of audiences.
Their goal was straightforward: continue creating original music, take the live show outside Austin and introduce more listeners to their mixture of blues, funk, soul and rock.
Originally reported by JamFeed Staff on April 25, 2017. This restored edition preserves the facts and substance of the original interview in an updated editorial format.
