Anthony Gomes puts out solid bar band blues on his debut CD. Combining solid blues based instrumentation and vocals which range from gravely voiced to smooth, this CD certainly is listenable and professionally packaged. The instrumentation is good, with enough guitar fireworks to satisfy the guitar blues lovers out there. Anthony Gomes wrote eight of the songs and co-wrote four of the songs with Jim Peterik, who is featured on the CD as a vocalist. This CD almost has a live vibe to it with songs which sounds like the band came straight out of the nearest blues club.
"Gonna Have A Party" is just that, a rockin blues party song. Screaming Fender Telecaster guitar and smokin’ leads with a fast beat.
"Bad Luck child" is a shuffle in the best Texas tradition of SRV and numerous others.
"Out of the Cathouse" is a funky blues tune with growling vocals.
"Misery Loves Company" is a slow grinding blues with some emotional guitar playing. the vocals are good enough for slow songs and this one works well even though it reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Texas Flood."
"Loves Got The Power" is another funky tune which reminds me a bit of those late 60's and early 70's funk bands.
"Hard Year For The Blues" is a basic almost bare bones Delta blues tune, lamenting the loss of so many recent blues artists in the last few years. Simple acoustic guitars and light rhythm drumming add reverence to the song and respect for the blues masters who have recently died.
"Wolf In My Henhouse" reminds me of some of the blues songs that came from artists such as the early Yardbirds, or Eric Burden and the Animals which were reflections of the American blues they heard in England.
As far as style, this CD is a bit hard to pin down. It could be considered solid Chicago blues with a dash of Texas blues, Delta blues, with some funky beats thrown in. I guess that is a good thing since that means that the music does not particularly sound like any specific artist and therefore provides some originality. I get the strong feeling that Anthony Gomes is an artist that is best appreciated live in a club setting although his debut CD is pretty strong. If I had to rate this one using the "star" method...I would rate it 4 out of five.
Anthony Gomes - Guitars & vocals
Dan "King" Kahn - guitar
Brian "BJ" Jones - Drums
Roosevelt "Hatter" Purifoy - Keyboards
Jr. Fuller - Bass
Jim Hudson, Joan Collaso & Jim Peterik - Background Vocals
Website: www.anthonygomes.com
Anthony Gomes Band
P.O. Box 0153
Chicago, IL 60690-0153
(312)-409-0201
Murf
http://home.sprynet.com/~murf01
This review is copyright © 1999 by Robert T. Murphy, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved.
