PK Mayo is Making a Scene

June 15, 2026

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Making a Scene Brings you an Interview with PK Mayo

PK Mayo is a native son of northern Minnesota, raised in the mining town of Eveleth, where music first found him through the airwaves of local college radio station KUMD. Born Paul Kennedy Mayasich, he absorbed a wide range of sounds as a young listener, later referring to those formative radio years as his real musical education.

His love of guitar began early and intensely. “Since the first time I heard Duane Allman’s intro to ‘Statesboro Blues’ on At Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers, I knew I wanted to play guitar,” Mayo says. As a child, he even used his mother’s broom as a pretend guitar, with an 11/16 socket as a slide, trying to imitate another early hero, Lowell George of Little Feat.

That fascination became a lifelong calling. Mayo has spent most of his life chasing the sound that first moved him, recording, gigging, and performing more than 200 nights a year. He started playing around his hometown as a teenager, working in country, polka, and rock cover bands before moving to Minneapolis, where he studied closely with seasoned R&B, soul, jazz, and blues musicians. After plenty of jamming and stage time, he quickly found his way into local bands and eventually stepped forward to lead projects of his own.

Over the years, PK Mayo has earned a long list of honors, including induction into both the Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Rock & Country Hall of Fame. As a member of Blue Chamber, the backing band for Big John Dickerson, he won the Minnesota Music Award for Best Blues Recording for “Arms of the Blues,” a song he also wrote.

Mayo’s career has placed him on stage and in the studio with an extraordinary range of rock, blues, and jazz artists. He has performed alongside or behind Jonny Lang, Tracy Nelson, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Shannon Curfman, Dinah Washington, Jack McDuff, Terry Evans, Big Walter Smith, Bernard Allison, Leland Sklar, and Mark Naftalin, among many others. His music has taken him around the world, from festivals, theaters, nightclubs, and concert halls in Greece and Belgium to stages across the United States, from New York to San Francisco and everywhere in between.

In recent years, Mayo has also become a go-to slide guitarist for Grammy-winning artist Bowe, further cementing his reputation as one of the most expressive and reliable players in the field.

Decades of touring and performance have sharpened Mayo’s guitar work to a razor’s edge. His slide playing, both acoustic and electric, is marked by rare touch, feel, tone, and emotional power. Combined with his original songwriting and soulful vocals, PK Mayo is the complete package: a musician with deep roots, wide range, and a sound that feels fully lived in.

His music is best described as an Americana quilt, stitched together from country, rock ’n’ roll, blues, folk, soul, and roots music. Shaken, stirred, and delivered with grit and grace, PK Mayo’s sound is a rich musical brew from an artist who has spent a lifetime earning every note.

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