Eric Gales

I have had this for the last few weeks and it became a wrench to bring it out of my car to do the review – it hasn’t been out of the stereo since I got it.

Gales has been around for a few years, he released his first album in around ’91 as a 16 year old, and he has played for and with some huge names. He has been namecjhecked by Carlos Santana, B.B. King, Eric Clapton and no less than Keef Richards has him down as one of his favourite guitarists.
He plays hard and gutsy Blues with a soulful and funky feel to it all and you get what you would expect from a guy who has Freddie King, SRV & Hendrix as his heroes and influences.
From the first strains of ‘Bad Lawbreaker’ with its Buddy Guy feel and huge rhythm section you will get the power and raw energy of his playing and as the tempo raises for ‘A Little More Time’ his tone lifts with the pace and the guitar rips out some classic riffs.
My favourite track is ‘Block The Sun’ and here he gets dark and funk laden with an almost funereal pace emphasising the power and richness of his playing and a real psychedelic sound to his guitar – very Hendrix or possibly Trower but also very much typical of Eric Gales.

Anyone who likes a slow soulful Blues is going to love ‘On The Wings Of Rock And Roll’ as his guitar just about hangs on the edge of breaking up and his vocal arrows straight at your heart and then he finishes it all on a jazz-edged piece of fusion in ‘Universal Peacepipe’.

Every number is full of classic playing but he is always his own man and he has chops that an awful lot of other Blues-by-the-dots bar players can only dream of. He mixes styles up and plays with a heck of a lot of enjoyment as well as seriousness.
A real cracker and I will be delving into his back catalogue – this guy is real class and great Blues.