PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
| ERIC GALESJUNE 2022 UK TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUEST DOM MARTIN TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM WWW.THEGIGCARTEL.COM |
| Award-winning American blues rock guitarist Eric Gales returns to the UK this week to perform six concerts. Dates include Leamington Assembly (June 2), Chester Live Rooms (June 4), York Crescent (June 5), Newcastle Cluny (June 6), Bury Met Theatre (June 7) and Basingstoke, The Haymarket (June 8). Tickets priced £25, are available from www.thegigcartel.com. Special guest on the June tour run is Irish blues guitarist and singer songwriter Dom Martin, whose new album, A Savage Life, was Classic Rock Magazine’s Blues Album of the Month. Dom won two UK Blues Awards earlier this month, including Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year and Blues Instrumentalist of the Year. Gales, who graces the front cover of this month’s edition of Guitarist Magazin, will perform songs from his recently released studio album Crown produced by and featuring Joe Bonamassa, plus tracks from his extensive back catalogue. Earlier this month, Gales won Blues Instrumentalist of the Year and the BMAs in Memphis (aka the American Blues Music Awards). Eric Gales takes his rightful place at the head of the blues-rock table with the recent release of his career-defining album Crown. On the new album, Eric shares his struggles with substance abuse, his hopes about a new era of sobriety and unbridled creativity, and his personal reflections on racism. Five years sober, creatively rejuvenated, and sagely insightful, the songs on Crown are delivered with clarity and feature Eric’s personal experiences and hope for positive change. This is Eric at his most boldly vulnerable, uncompromisingly political, and unflinchingly confident. The first single from the album, I Want My Crown, opens with a fanfare of elegant lead guitar virtuosity before slipping into a funky groove. Here, with playful bravado, Eric sings about finally getting his due while also admitting his self-sabotaging past. Clean and focused with guitar in hand, he eyes the crown and goes for it, battling powerhouse blues warrior Joe Bonamassa in a Rocky-like epic fight. Triumphant horns spur on the excitement as the pair unleash barrages of jaw-dropping blues-shred with each player’s passages feeling like the final fury of a July 4th fireworks explosion. 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. Since 1991, the Memphis-born guitarist has blazed a path reinvigorating the blues with virtuosity and rock swagger that has him heralded as the second coming of Jimi Hendrix. He was a child prodigy with bottomless talent and fierce determination. When he was 16 years old released his debut, The Eric Gales Band, on Elektra Records. He’s earned high praise by guitarists and household name axe men such as Joe Bonamassa, Carlos Santana, Dave Navarro, and Mark Tremonti. In addition, he has held his own with 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. Gales’ 2019 album The Bookends was written over a nine-month period, the album was recorded at Studio Delux, Van Nuys, California, The Doghouse, Woodland Hills, California, Blakeslee Recording, North Hollywood. Three-time Grammy-nominated and Emmy Award winning vocalist B. Slade appear on two songs, “Something’s Gotta Give” and bonus track “Pedal to the Metal.” His 2017 album, Middle of the Road, reached #1 on the iTunes Blues chart and #4 on the Billboard Blues chart. It made Classic Rock Magazine and Total Guitar albums of the year with the latter saying it was “the album that should define his career.” Classic Rock said, “the notes drip from Gales’ fretboard like warm honey,” Guitar Magazine exclaimed it’s the “the injection of danger and unpredictability that the blues-rock scene desperately needs”, Blues Matters professed “truly the man is blessed”, whilst Powerplay said, “the more you listen to it the more the brilliance of Eric Gales becomes apparent. ”Gales’ story is an incredible one, he was a child prodigy and released his debut album The Eric Gales Band in 1991 as a 16-year-old on Elektra Records. It was the first of 10 albums on a major label through a blistering career. He has released 16 studio albums in total ahead of Crown and a host of other collaborations. He has battled drink and drug issues and spent time in jail in 2009 for possession of drugs and a weapon. Gales proudly tells his story every night before every show, now over two years sober he is creating the most breath-taking music he has ever made. Talking about his approach to songwriting in this time he reflects. “I guess the songs would answer the question more or less, I definitely don’t have anything clouding my view and it’s definitely a much purer place where it’s coming from.” ERIC GALESJUNE 2022 UK TOUR TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FROM WWW.THEGIGCARTEL.COM SPECIAL GUEST DOM MARTIN LEAMINGTON ASSEMBLY THURSDAY 2 JUNE 2022 CHESTER, LIVE ROOMS SATURDAY 4 JUNE 2022 YORK, THE CRESCENT SUNDAY 5 JUNE 2022 NEWCASTLE, THE CLUNY MONDAY 6 JUNE 2022 BURY, MET THEATRE TUESDAY 7 JUNE 2022 BASINGSTOKE, THE HAYMARKET WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE 2022 Tour poster photo of Eric Gales by Katrena Wize |
New Album “Crown” Out Now“All hail the King!” Guitarist 10/10
“Eric Gales has arrived” Fireworks
“Gales rises to his own high artistic watermark…Gales establishes himself as one of the global leaders of his genre” RnR 5/5
“Immensely powerful” Blues Matters
”Time to give him his crown? This is the evidence.” Powerplay 10/10
“His masterful combination of feel and technique reaches frequent peaks, with rousing.” Classic Rock 9/10
“A superb album full of a rich spectrum of blues edged with soul and a slice of jazz – a heady cocktail.” Blues in Britain
“Eric continues to bring that fretboard fire after well over 30 years in the business” – Huey Morgan, BBC Radio 2
