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Sound Advice: Eric Gales to Bring Transformational Blues to Cincinnati's Ludlow Garage

On his latest album Crown, Gales blends genres like blues, rock, soul and even rap.

Feb 8, 2023 at 5:26 am

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Photo: Chris Hakkens, Wikimedia Commons

Eric Gales

This story is featured in CityBeat's Feb. 8 print issue.

Whether the blues are being listened to or played, this most American of music genres has the power to transform. Veteran blues guitarist Eric Gales embodies the genre’s healing grace as he credits this music with saving him from mid life self-destruction.

The Memphis native began playing guitar at age four. Despite being right-handed, Gales learned to play left-handed by copying the style of his older brother – “Little Jimmy King,” who also was an acclaimed guitarist – and became a prodigy. Between his Memphis birthright and left-handed, upside-down virtuosity, Gales’ future seemed magically set as a Jimi Hendrix/Albert King-inspired bluesman. He released his debut record at age 16 back in 1991, eventually developing a loyal audience and rep for being one of his generation’s finest blues players. But a 30-year drug addiction and brief prison sentence derailed some of these plans, not to mention career momentum.

“I strayed away, but the music never left me. I’m lucky that I had that to hold onto. There are many young people today who have nothing to hold onto,” Gales told Songbirds Foundation.

Since being clean for the last five years, Gales has released two records. Last year’s Crown was nominated for a Grammy Award and stands as a career peak in terms of his composite songwriting, singing and playing. Produced by his friends and peer guitarists Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, Crown epitomizes Gales’ dynamic strengths: emotionally intense expression, the willingness and craft to blend genres like blues, rock, soul and even rap, and energetic swagger.

Crown’s fervent opener “Death of Me” highlights Gales’ fluid ease slipping back and forth between genres as this blues rock mash features horns, a spoken rap and reconciliation with his past burned into the grooves. As he sings, “If you don’t learn from your mistakes, it will be the death of me,” this ushers in a new era for Eric Gales.

Eric Gales plays Ludlow Garage at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22. Doors open at 6 p.m. Ally Venable will open the show. Info: ludlowgaragecincinnati.com.

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