Eric Gales

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eric Gales

Eric Gales (born 29. October 1974 in Memphis (Tennessee) ) also known as Raw Dawg , is an American blues rock - guitarist , originally hailed as a prodigy. As of 2018, Gales has recorded 17 albums for major record labels, doing sessions and tribute work. He has also contributed vocals on several records for the Memphis rap groups Prophet Posse and Three 6 Mafia under the name Lil E.

Career

Gales took an interest in guitar playing at the age of four. His older siblings, Eugene and Manuel (Little Jimmy King), taught him songs and licks at a young age in the style of Jimi Hendrix , Albert King , BB King and others. In 1985, the young Gales began playing in blues competitions with his brother Eugene, who supported him on bass. Although Gales plays a right-handed guitar “upside down” (that is, with the bass E string on the underside), he is not inherently left-handed; he was so tutored by his left-handed brother and never questioned this unconventional technique.

In late 1990, Eric and Eugene Gales signed a contract with Elektra Records and released The Eric Gales Band (1991) and Picture of a Thousand Faces (1993) with drummer Hubert Crawford . In 1991, a reader survey by Guitar World magazine named Eric “Best New Talent”. During this time he had two rock radio hits, Sign of the Storm (number 9, US mainstream rock) and Paralyzed (number 31, US mainstream rock).

In 1994 Gales performed with Carlos Santana at Woodstock 94. In 1995, Gales teamed up with his two brothers to record an album, Left Hand Brand (released in 1996). In 2001 Gales released his album That's What I Am . The albums Crystal Vision (2006) and The Story of My Life and Layin (2008) followed. Down the Blues (2009), Relentless (2010), Transformation (2011) and Live (2012) followed. In 2004 he contributed a cover of May This Be Love to the album Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix . In 2008, he and other guitarists took part in the tour in honor of Jimi Hendrix, Experience Hendrix. Musicians on the tour included Billy Cox , Eric Johnson , Chris Layton, Doyle Bramhall II , Brad Whitford and Mitch Mitchell (it was the last tour Mitchell played on).

In the winter of 2010 Gales toured Europe with TM Stevens on bass and Keith LeBlanc on drums. The tour was known as VooDoo Chile and included works by Jimi Hendrix as well as original material by Gales and Stevens.

In February 2013, Magna Carta Records released the album Pinnick Gales Pridgen , produced by Mike Varney and featuring Gales on guitar and vocals, Doug Pinnick on bass and vocals, and Thomas Pridgen on drums. The 13-track album included a cover song, Sunshine of Your Love , originally by Cream , a short instrumental based on Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise . The rest of the songs were written by a combination of Pinnick, Gales, Pridgen and Varney. The follow-up album PGP2 was released in July 2014.

In 2017, Gales released his latest and fifteenth studio work, Middle of the Road , which featured numerous artists including Gary Clark Jr., Lauryn Hill . His brother and mother are also represented on it.

style

Like some other guitarists (Albert King or Doyle Bramhall ) he plays the guitar willfully; like a left-hander, but with the strings drawn upside down. The preferred instrument is the Fender model Stratocaster ; like Jimi Hendrix, he prefers Marshall amplifiers.

Markus Baro described the style of the debut album in Break Out as "flawless bluesy hard rock ". He made comparisons with Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower and Jeff Beck . It also sounds like Dan Reed's debut in parts , but minus the funk component.

In the Musikexpress of 1991 Andreas Kraatz tried Eric Clapton , Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower as a comparison. In 1993 Werner Theurich said that Gales presented “voluminous, playful rock pomp from a virtuoso perspective […] somewhere between Hendrix and hard rock, not without brilliance, but with the vain pose of precocious near-perfection.” Peter Felkel wrote in 1996 that he had “steamy [n " Soul- Blues-Rock", consisting of elements from Sly & The Family Stone , Robert Cray , Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Guitar Watson .

The 2006 album Crystal Vision was reviewed by Alan Tepper in Eclipsed . In retrospect he said: "Eric Gales was traded as the successor to Jimi Hendrix at the beginning of the 90s, but that was probably a little too high." The album is rocky, bluesy and funky, the "guitar sound [but] so heavy, that hardly any nuances can be heard ”. And finally: "Gale's solos are convincing along the entire length of quieter songs, but when it gets harder, he loses himself all too quickly in complacency."

The lyrics do not convey any messages, for example of a political nature, because people would not notice this anyway, said 16-year-old Gales. It is enough to create a positive mood.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Gales | Biography & History. Retrieved January 5, 2019 (American English).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Markus Baro: Eric Gales Band. The signs point to a storm . In: Break Out . The Heavy Rock Magazine. No. 10/91 , October 1991, pp. 14 .
  3. ↑ a b Markus Baro: The Eric Gales Band. The Eric Gales Band . In: Break Out . The Heavy Rock Magazine. No. 9/91 , September 1991, newcomer proposal, p. 31 .
  4. ↑ A [ndreas] K [Raatz]: The Eric Gales band . In: Musikexpress / Sounds . No. 427 , Aug 1991, Rock, Pop, pp. 73 .
  5. ↑ W [erner] T [Heurich]: Eric Gales band. Pictures of a Thousand Faces . In: Musikexpress / Sounds . No. 452 , September 1993, Rock, Pop, pp. 64 .
  6. ↑ P [eter] F [elkel]: Various . In: Musikexpress / Sounds . No. 486 , July 1996, panels from A - Z, p. 58 .
  7. ↑ A [lan] T [epper]: Eric Gales. "Crystal Vision" . In: Eclipsed . Rock magazine. Art, Progressive, Psychedelic, Classic, Hard Rock. No. 81 , April 2006, CD Reviews, p. 55 .
personal data
SURNAME Gales, Eric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raw Dawg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues rock guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Memphis (Tennessee)