Derrick Dove & The Peacekeepers return to Hutchinson’s The Red Shed for a performance Saturday.
The Georgia-based group recently won the 2026 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, where Dove also took home the Best Guitarist prize.
The outfit’s soul-inflected sound is perhaps at the core of their appeal, with a heavy emphasis on what the legendary Grand Funk Railroad referred to as good singin’ and good playin’, as evidenced on the outfit’s most recent album, “Burn It Down.”
Dove recently spoke about the group’s IBC experience and recounted the moment that he left behind his first love -- the drums -- for the guitar.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The band recently won the top prize in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, and you won Best Guitarist. That’s a pretty big deal.
I think there were over 150 bands, worldwide. We saw bands from France, Croatia, Australia, Italy, South Korea. Beale Street was slap full of bands every night for four nights. I hate the word competition because, to me, music is not a competition. But it was a fantastic networking thing, to meet other bands. We’re always playing, always on the road, so you don’t get to see other people.
A lot of big blues names have gone through there, including Susan Tedeschi. I don’t think she won the year she competed. Michael Burks, Sean Costello, Selwyn Birchwood, Mr. Sipp, so many great blues artists [performed in the competition over the years]. It’s kind of a catapult, such a great networking event.
But we competed and each night we kept getting picked to go to the next round. It was, like, “OK. This is nice. This is really cool.” We made it to the finals and we said, “Oh. OK.” It was so crazy! We played, did our thing on the final stage, and I thought that was the worst we played all week! [Laughs.]
[Laughs.]
I said, “Noooo! I messed it up!” But we ended up winning and it still blows my mind just thinking about it. They called out so many great guitar players that week too. A dime a dozen. I was standing on the side of the stage, drinking a Coke, anxious to see who won best guitar player and about that time they said my name and I said, “Oh!” and threw my Diet Coke at my keyboard player. He was, like, “What the?” It was really, cool, though, man, it was a great experience.
That’s pretty amazing and it’s cool too because I understand that you started off as a drummer.
Yeah, yeah. My dad was a character, I should say. [Laughs.] Life of the party. So, growing up, my dad had a band. He was a radio DJ and jack of all trades kind of guy. We had a big living room, it was an old two-car garage that was closed in, and the band would just leave their stuff set up in there. So if they didn’t have a gig on a Saturday night, they would just show up at the house and rehearse, but it was just a show. All the wives [and people in] the neighborhood and friends would all be hanging out.
My dad didn’t do anything small. He would have the whole PA set up in the living room. Big stack of speakers, everything. It was hilarious. There’s pictures of me falling asleep in guitar cases. Just a regular Saturday night in south Georgia.
There was always a drum [kit] set up in the house and when I was little I really loved the drums. I started playing drums in his band, sitting in on a couple of songs, then his drummer couldn’t make it and I did a gig. We actually had a little duo where he played guitar and I played drums. We both sang. We would go around and do Elks Lodges and Moose Lodges, teen nights. Whatever.
I was very fortunate that my dad was, like, “You know what? Let’s go do this.” I got my feet wet real early.
Then I remember watching TV, which I think was between the bass amp and the drum set in the living room. [Laughs.] I said, “Dad! There’s this great guitar player on TV, you gotta come check this guy out!” He comes in there and goes, “Son. Let me introduce you. That’s Stevie Ray Vaughan.” [Laughs.] I was, like, “Oh! OK. I don’t want to play drums anymore, Daddy. I wanna do that!”
Santa Claus got me a Squire Tele for Christmas that year!
You’re coming back to The Red Shed in Hutchison and in talking to you I suspect that’s a place you enjoy playing. There’s a sense of community in that room.
Man, that venue’s so cool. We got there and said, “This is awesome,” and everybody was so nice. We had a great turnout. We might have ended up talking to people more than we played! [Laughs.] Just getting to know people. That’s the beauty of being on the road. I love seeing things. I never get tired of meeting people and hearing stories. To me, it’s a personal thing.
