Article Contributed by Doug Deutsch
Published on October 30, 2025
The Delta Wires celebrated longtime California Blues Hall of Fame inductees, continue their tribute to Chess Records’ 75th Anniversary with the Friday, October 31 release of ‘Devil Got My Woman.’ As with the band’s previous recent single, ‘Searching for a Woman’ (also a Chess tribute), ‘Devil Got My Woman’ will be available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, and the majority of world-wide digital download and streaming sites.
“People from the South and the East came to work for the railroads and shipbuilders in the military hub of Oakland, Calif during and after the World War II,” states the Delta Wires press materials. “As a result, the the Bay Area was influenced by the music that came out of those regions, which evolved into the West Coast Blues Sound. Delta Wires was not only inspired by the blues coming out of Chicago, but also by the blues scene which developed on the West Coast.”
Band leader Ernie Pinata started Delta Wires as a college project; it was a musical presentation with dialog that followed the regional migration of the blues from the South (after the cotton gin came about) to Chicago. Pinata 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; Pinata’s childhood friend, bassist Tom Gerrits, joined the Delta Wires around this time. A three-piece horn section was added, and remains part of the Delta Wires’ sound to the present.
“Devil Got My Woman” (by Skip James, Delta Wires arrangement) is five-piece Delta Wires, without horns, more in the style of the earlier Chess recordings. It’s also the only song Delta Wires has ever recorded without the horn section; ‘Searching for a Woman’ includes the full eight-piece Delta Wires horn section.
“Devil Got My Woman” (Another Tribute to Chess Records)
Recorded January 2025 at 2200 Studios, Sausalito CA (formerly The Record Plant)
Recording and Mixing Engineer: Sean Beresford
Mastering: Jason Haxton Productions
Musicians:
Ernie Pinata: vocal, harmonica
Richard Healy: guitar
Tom Gerrits: bass guitar
Anthony Malfatti: piano
Tony Huszar: drums
More About…Delta Wires
The 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 blues-men. 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.
Delta Wires have been generating powerful blues for over thirty years, performing at festivals from Monterey to Italy, and always with monumental audience response — all of which earned them membership in California’s Blues Hall of Fame in 2012. Delta Wires were also voted “Best Live Band” in a poll by the East Bay Express and Oakland Magazine.
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 been part of the Delta Wires’ sound ever since.
Delta Wires began by playing the clubs in Oakland – Esther’s Orbit Room and The Continental Club; Mandrake’s and The New Orleans House in Berkeley. Around this time, the great, late guitarist Lowell Fulson sat in with the group at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, while Pinata sat in with the Freddie King Band at Mandrakes in Berkeley. This was followed by performances with 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. They release a critically-acclaimed album, If Somebody Told Me, in 2023. Fast-forward to 2025, they are still going strong.
