IF YOU LIKE your blues served raw, GA-20 will satisfy your jones. The blues rockers are a stripped-down three-piece featuring the lo-fi guitars of Matt Stubbs and Pat Faherty, and the solid drumming of Tim Carman. They’ve made quite a noise for themselves in recent years with a pair of albums that debuted at number one on the Billboard Blues Albums chart. Their last album, 2021’s Hound Dog Taylor tribute GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor: Try It…You Might Like It! saw the group play in the traditional vein, and both Stubbs and Faherty have the requisite chops (Stubbs is Charlie Musselwhite’s longtime right hand).
Their latest album, (Colemine/Karma Chief), is their third effort in a row to launch at the top of the Blues chart. On it, the trio takes a looser and more melodic approach, combining strains of blues, rock and roll, country and even some Ramones-inspired punk in a ramshackle mix that sounds both traditional