ERIC GALES

e were in the audience of one of Eric Gales’ stunning live shows recently, when someone in the crowd shouted out, “Play Machine Gun!”. But Eric simply shook his head and said, “I ain’t trying to be the next Jimi Hendrix. I’m just trying to be the first Eric Gales.” The riposte earned him an ovation and serves as a mission statement for the career-peak form he’s currently on. You get the sense that Gales is a guitarist whose defining moment has come: a time when he is wholly and unapologetically himself.

“I’m really, really proud of this,” Gales says of his latest album, , from which much of his live show is drawn. “My goal was to let the listener hear a glimpse into things that inspire me. I mean, I can do a 1/4/5 record, a slow blues shuffle, and eventually I am going to do an old-school roots blues record – because it’s where I come from. But I just have an influx of so many different styles, that I like everything. So that’s basically what is. I wanted to show