Eric Gales & Special Guest: Artur Menezes
Eric Gales is a blues firebrand. Over 30 years and 18 albums, his passion for the music and his boundless desire to keep it vital has never waned, even when his own light dimmed due to his substance struggles. Throughout it all, he continued to reinvigorate the art form with personal revelation in his lyrics and bold stylistic twists in his guitar playing and songwriting. Five years sober, creatively rejuvenated, and sagely insightful, Eric is ready for the fight of his career. Aptly, he calls his masterful new album, out January 2022 on Provogue/Mascot label Group, Crown. Here, Eric opens like never before, sharing his struggles with substance abuse, his hopes about a new era of sobriety and unbridled creativity, and his personal reflections on racism. The songs are delivered with clarity and feature Eric’s personal experiences and hope for positive change. In addition, the 16-track collection boasts his finest singing, songwriting, and his signature guitar playing that burns throughout. Produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, this is Eric at his most boldly vulnerable, uncompromisingly political, and unflinchingly confident.
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Join Joanne Shaw Taylor and her stellar band performing songs from her critically acclaimed studio album, Nobody’s Fool, as well as songs from the upcoming new album. Her guitar prowess, vocal abilities, and songwriting talents reach new heights as she presents a bold slate of material at the peak of her career. Joanne will also dig deep into her rich back catalogue where she will hand-pick songs from her previous recordings along with classic blues songs. Taylor has become one of the hottest live acts on the modern Blues scene, and soon you’ll see why. You don’t want to miss Joanne Shaw Taylor in this unforgettable night of soul and blues-rock!
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
For over 30 years, The Fabulous Thunderbirds have been the quintessential American band. The group’s distinctive and powerful sound, influenced by a diversity of musical styles, manifested itself into a unique musical hybrid via such barnburners as “Tuff Enuff” and “Wrap It Up”. Co-founder Kim Wilson, the sole original member, still spearheads the group as it evolves into its newest incarnation. “We started as a straight blues band”, vocalist and harmonica player Wilson says. “We now incorporate a mixture of a lot of different styles. We’re an American music band and we’re much higher energy than we were before.” “To be in the T-Birds, you need to understand the different styles of music and different ways of playing,” Wilson comments. “You have to be willing to adopt a more contemporary style. The guys we have now are able to do that.” The band continues to tour extensively, in both the U.S. and Europe. Wilson is currently writing songs on his own, with band members and other writers.
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band – Porch Stomp Tour
“Kindred spirits to Reverend Peyton are John Lee Hooker and RL Burnside.” – The Washington Post Three time BMA nominee’s The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band are “the greatest front-porch blues band in the world”. They are led by Reverend Peyton, who most consider to be the premier finger picker playing today. He has earned a reputation as both a singularly compelling performer and a persuasive evangelist for the rootsy, country blues styles that captured his imagination early in life and inspired him and his band to make pilgrimages to Clarksdale, Mississippi to study under such blues masters as T-Model Ford, Robert Belfour and David “Honeyboy” Edwards. Their latest record Dance Songs For Hard Times went #1 on the Billboard, iTunes and Sirius XM Blues Charts and was produced by Grammy winner Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton). The record is critically acclaimed by Rolling Stone, Relix, Popmatters, Guitar World, American Songwriter, No Depression, Glide, Wide Open Country, Paste, American Blues Scene and many more!
Robert Cray Band
ROBERT CRAY BAND “Funky, cool and bad,” is how Cray describes the Grammy-nominated album, That’s What I Heard, produced by longtime collaborator, Steve Jordan, who adds, “I thought, if we could get this thing that Sam Cooke used to have, the kind of sound that early Sam Cooke records had, that we could pull this off.” “Robert Cray is not only making music, he’s making history,” writes Guitar Player Magazine. Over the past four decades, Cray has created a sound that rises from American roots, blues, soul and R&B, with five Grammy wins, 20 acclaimed studio and live albums that punctuate the Blues Hall of Famer’s career. On That’s What I Heard, Robert celebrates the music of Curtis Mayfield, Bobby “Blue” Bland, The Sensational Nightingales and more, alongside Cray’s own songs. Cray and Jordan go way back, having met during the making of the Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll, in 1987. They started working together in 1999, when Jordan produced the Grammy-winning Take Your Shoes Off, and the recent Grammy-nominated LP, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm. That’s What I Heard is their sixth album. “Once you start working with Steve, it’s kind of hard to get away from him,” said Robert. “Robert is just a great person besides being extraordinary talent,” adds Jordan. “People gravitate to his guitar playing first, but I think he’s one of the best singers I’ve heard in my life. Not only because of his singing ability, but his interpretations. He’s such an honest soul in my opinion.” Robert’s band features Richard Cousins (bass), Dover Weinberg (keyboards) and Les Falconer (drums).
TAB BENOIT and Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Louisiana flavor is coming to Kent, Ohio this December when Louisiana Music Hall of Famer Tab Benoit comes to The Kent Stage, bringing with him the unique and soulful Dirty Dozen Brass Band on Wednesday, December 13th! 2 Time BB King Entertainer of The Year and Louisiana Hall of Fame Inductee Tab Benoit has had an incredible career spanning over 3 decades. Built on the foundation of the gritty soulful Delta swamp blues, Tab has acquired a legion of devoted fans. Tab has recorded and performed with some of the top names in the music industry like Junior Wells, George Porter Jr, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Billy Joe Shaver, Maria Muldaur, James Cotton, Cyril Neville, Kenny Aronoff, Allen Toussaint, Kim Wilson, Jimmy Thackery, Charlie Musslewhite, Kenny Neal, Chris Layton, Ivan Neville, Jimmy Hall, Jim Lauderdale, Anders Osborne, and Alvin Youngblood Hart, just to name a select few. In addition to his musical accomplishments, Tab is the founder of “Voice of the Wetlands”, an organization looking to preserve the coastal waters of his home state. Tab has also found himself starring on the silver screen, starring in “Hurricane on the Bayou”, documenting the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the wetlands of LA, and calling to preserve them. With over 40 years since they were founded in 1977, the New Orleans based Dirty Dozen Brass Band has blended traditional brass band music with a plethora of genres like Bebop Jazz, Funk, and R&B/Soul, creating a unique sound that can only be described as a “musical gumbo”. This uniqueness has allowed The Dirty Dozen to tour across 5 different continents, 30 countries, and record 12 studio albums. The group has also collaborated with a vast array of artists from the likes of Modest Mouse, Widespread Panic, and Norah Jones. 4 decades into their career, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band has become a world famous music machine synonymous with genre bending romps and high-octane performances! The Band consists of Roger Lewis (Baritone Sax/Vocals), Kevin Harris (Tenor Sax/Vocals), Gregory Davis (Trumpet/Vocals). Kirk Joseph (Sousaphone), TJ Norris (Trombone/Vocals), Julian Addison (Drums), and Takeshi Shimmura (Guitar)!
COCO MONTOYA
COCO MONTOYA “Montoya is a show-stopper…heartfelt singing and merciless guitar with a wicked icy burn. He is one of the truly gifted blues artists of his generation.” –Living Blues “’Just play what you feel, be real about it, and enjoy yourself.’ That’s what Albert Collins taught me,” says the award-winning guitar virtuoso and soul-deep singer Coco Montoya. The self-taught, left-handed Montoya mastered his craft under Collins’ tutelage. Incorporating lessons learned from his mentors, the iconic Collins (for whom he originally drummed), and UK legend John Mayall, Montoya puts his own stamp onto every song he performs. Since his first solo album in 1995 (which won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist), Montoya’s endlessly inventive guitar work and passionate, hard-hitting vocals have kept him at the top of the blues world. With his new Alligator Records album, Writing On The Wall (his sixth for the label), Montoya delivers what he is already calling one of the best records he’s ever made.Henry “Coco” Montoya was born in Santa Monica, California, on October 2, 1951, and raised in a working-class family. Growing up, Coco immersed himself in his parents’ record collection. He listened to big band jazz, salsa, doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll. His first love was drums; he acquired a kit at age 11. He got a guitar two years later. Montoya turned his love of drumming into his profession, playing in a number of area rock bands while still in his teens. In 1969, Montoya saw Albert King opening a Creedence Clearwater Revival/Iron Butterfly concert. He was transformed. “After King got done playing,” says Montoya, “my life was changed. When he played, the music went right into my soul. It grabbed me so emotionally that I had tears welling up in my eyes. Nothing had ever affected me to this level. He showed me what music and playing the blues were all about. I knew that was what I wanted to do.” The next chapter of Montoya’s story was kick-started by a chance meeting in the mid-1970s with legendary bluesman Albert Collins. Montoya says, “Albert was coming through Los Angeles and needed to borrow my drum set. I went down to see his show that night and it just tore my head off. The thing that I had seen and felt with Albert King came pouring back on me when I saw Albert Collins.” A short time later, Collins hired Montoya as his band’s drummer. With Albert mentoring Coco on the guitar during the band’s downtime, Coco soon became Collins’ second guitarist. “We’d sit in hotel rooms for hours and play guitar,” remembers Montoya. “He’d play that beautiful rhythm of his and just have me play along. He was always saying, ‘Don’t think about it, just feel it.’ He was like a father to me,” says Coco. When Collins declared Montoya his “son,” it was the highest praise and affection he could offer. In return, Montoya learned everything he could from the legendary Master of the Telecaster. Needing a regular paycheck, Montoya left Collins’ band after two years and took a job tending bar, jamming on weekends at Los Angeles clubs. One day, legendary British musician John Mayall heard Coco playing onstage. Soon after, Mayall called on Montoya to join his famous Bluesbreakers. For the next ten years he toured the world and recorded with Mayall on seven albums. In 2000, Montoya’s Alligator debut, Suspicion, quickly became the best-selling album of his career, earning regular radio airplay on over 120 stations nationwide. “Montoya unleashes one career-topping performance after another,” declared the UK’s Blues Matters. Still an indefatigable road warrior, Montoya continues to tour virtually nonstop,
Eric Gales
Eric Gales is a blues firebrand. Over 30 years and 18 albums, his passion for the music and his boundless desire to keep it vital has never waned, even when his own light dimmed due to his substance struggles. Throughout it all, he continued to reinvigorate the art form with personal revelation in his lyrics and bold stylistic twists in his guitar playing and songwriting.Five years sober, creatively rejuvenated, and sagely insightful, Eric is ready for the fight of his career. Aptly, he calls his masterful new album, out January 2022 on Provogue/Mascot label Group, Crown. Here, Eric opens like never before, sharing his struggles with substance abuse, his hopes about a new era of sobriety and unbridled creativity, and his personal reflections on racism. The songs are delivered with clarity and feature Eric’s personal experiences and hope for positive change. In addition, the 16-track collection boasts his finest singing, songwriting, and his signature guitar playing that burns throughout. Produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, this is Eric at his most boldly vulnerable, uncompromisingly political, and unflinchingly confident.Crown was forged in tragedy but rises triumphantly. The day before Eric left Greensboro, North Carolina to Los Angeles, California to work with Joe and Josh, he heard the news about the George Floyd murder. As a Black man in America, he had a lot on his mind when he touched down in Music City to write songs for Crown.“What made George Floyd any different than me?,” Eric asks. “As I began to chat about this to Joe and Josh during preproduction, raw and unnerved emotion came out of me, and Joe furiously scribbled down notes about it all. These songs came from those outpourings. They’re about my life, and what’s happening in the world right now. When it came time to sing, I had to take breaks between vocals to cry and let it out. I was sharing my experiences as a Black man, and my private struggles. This is me letting the world know what I’ve been through.”Since 1991, the Memphis-born guitarist has blazed a path reinvigorating the blues with a virtuosity and rock swagger that have him being heralded as the second coming of Jimi Hendrix. He was a child prodigy with bottomless talent and fierce determination, and at just 16 years-old released his debut, The Eric Gales Band, on Elektra Records. He’s earned high praise by guitarists’ guitarist and household name axe men such as Joe Bonamassa, Carlos Santana, Dave Navarro, and Mark Tremonti. In addition, he has held his own with some of the greatest guitarists in the world, including Carlos Santana at Woodstock 1994, Zakk Wylde, Eric Johnson, and a posse of others as a featured guest touring with the Experience Hendrix Tour.The story behind Crown dates back to the early 1990s when as teenagers Eric and Joe were both hailed as blues wunderkinds and torchbearers. Eric is three years older than Joe, and Joe used to open for Eric. The pair went on to very different lives and careers, but Eric’s full potential was hampered by his substance abuse issues. “While I was dealing with my affliction, Joe’s career skyrocketed. I put myself in the backseat through my drug addiction. The world knows me, but the world doesn’t know me,” he says. In 2009, Eric hit bottom and served jail time at Shelby County Correction Center for possession of drugs and a weapon.Eric and Joe reconnected grandly in 2019 when Joe invited Eric to play with him onstage at a blues cruise encore performance. It was the first time the guys had played live together onstage in 25 years, and it has since been named one of the most explosive guitar duels ever, amassing over 3 million plays on YouTube.
BLOOD BROTHERS – Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia
Gulf Coast Records’ Blues Music Award-Winners Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia bond as Blood Brothers on new CD coming early 2023. Blood Brothers was produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith and recorded at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana. Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia are true “Blood Brothers” in life and in the music they create both individually and collectively, joining forces in a collaborative effort of songwriting and performances to create a total listening experience greater than the sum of its parts. Added to that process are the talents of producers Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, who brought fresh ideas to the recording sessions, pushing Mike and Albert creatively and musically to present their best work to date. “Mike and Albert have a special chemistry together when they plug in and play that few have. They finish each other’s sentences musically,” award-winning guitarist Joe Bonamassa said about the sessions. “Great tunes, great people, great hang! What’s not to like? It was an honor to be involved in this project.” “Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia have done something special,” added co-producer Josh Smith. “They have both found their musical confidante. Most solo artists never even look – let alone find – theirs. They have brought together a real ‘band’ using members of each’s solo acts. The sum of all these parts added with a tremendous effort to both write and perform the strongest record of their respective careers has paid off in a special album. Blood Brothers indeed! Joe and I are proud that these brothers trusted our partnership to produce this special album!” Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia will be hitting the road again in support of the new Blood Brothers album. They will bring together their two powerhouse bands, featuring Matt Johnson: drums; Ephraim Lowell: drums; Doug Byrkit: bass; and Lewis Stephens: piano/organ. Both Mike and Albert will be onstage performing together for the entire show, so fans can enjoy the amazing chemistry and creativity that these two musicians share with each other – and the audience. In addition to their own rock, blues and roots individual tunes, the set will feature a number of songs from the Blood Brothers album. https://www.bloodbrothersband.com/
Ana Popovic
The award-winning guitar player, singer, and songwriter, recently celebrated 20 years as a touring musician with the release of Live for LIVE. An exciting concert video and live album that demonstrates why she’s proudly looking back at a career of thousands of shows worldwide. Popovic’s passion on stage is evident and the title sums it up, this IS what she lives for. Today, you’ll find Popovic in a select group of excellent modern blues guitar players. One reason could be the fact that she’s always willing to work a little harder and travel a little further to master her craft. That dedication has resulted in 12 albums, two DVDs, and six nationwide Experience Hendrix tours. She’s been nominated for seven Blues Music Awards, and appeared on the covers of Vintage Guitar and Guitar Player magazine. Her albums Can You Stand the Heat and Unconditional were USA Today Picks-Of-The-Week and featured on NPR Weekend Edition. Nearly all of Popovic’s albums reached the top of the Billboard Blues Charts. She and her phenomenal 6-piece band tour tirelessly, sharing stages with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa and many others.