The Devil Makes Three Front Man Peter Bernhard Shares How Stream of Conscious Created Latest Solo Effort

Each year, Pete Bernhard, front man for the Santa Cruz-born Americana group, The Devil Makes Three, likes to celebrate the unofficial national cannabis holiday – April 20th– with his band. Often, the trio likes to release limited edition merchandise to commemorate the occasion. But this year, Bernhard went above and beyond the annual call of duty. Since much of his music life has been put on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Bernhard decided to devote his resources to releasing a new solo record on the holiday, Harmony Ascension Division, an album that sits very much in the tradition of timeless American blues and folks LPs.

“It’s been one of the only real positive things about the forced time of unemployment,” Bernhard says. “The record was a project that I’d had on the back burner for a while, not because it didn’t feel important but because I wasn’t able to find the time to put it out.”