Bluesman Anthony Gomes is talking about his next CD. But he could be talking about his upcoming appearance Sept. 7 on the main stage at the Southside Shuffle Port Credit Blues & Jazz Festival. Since pulling up stakes for Chicago 11 years back, this Mississauga native has made his bones south of the border, keeping up a 250-gig-per-year pace.
The fiery singer/guitarist has played in 11 nations, claimed a Buddy Guy Legends award for Best Unsigned Blues Band, toured with the legendary B.B. King and, with his latest CD, Live, knocked King himself out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Blues chart in February.
One thing he hasn’t done is get back to his home turf to play.
“I’m very excited about coming back home,” he says. “It’s coming full circle, you know.
“I’m hoping to see some of my old friends I’ve lost touch with.”
Joined by Peter Lang on drums, David Karins on bass and Bill Franco on guitar, Gomes will be probing the different shades of blues and rock, which he boils down to “three chords and the truth.”
“We’ve got enough firepower in our rhythm section alone to make things happen. We like to keep it raw, these days,” he says. “In the past, I’ve had as many as eight pieces in the band.”
Gomes moved to Nashville seven years ago, and now finds himself mounting a Southern Rock project, Anthony Gomes and the New Soul Cowboys.
“We’ve got some pretty aggressive and funky guitar mixed with banjo, and three-part harmonies,” he relates.
“I originally moved to Chicago to learn more about the blues and musicianship. I moved to Nashville because I was very interested in learning the craft of writing songs, and very disinterested in shovelling snow.
“The thing that’s really exciting to me is the hybrids of styles (going on at the moment) — Robert Plant working with Alison Krauss,” he continues. “It’s a very cool time; roots music is sort of blurring the lines. That’s a place I like to be.”
At 37, Gomes manages to keep the fire burning, while toiling outside the mainstream. And with new management, and shows lined up with Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special and Travis Tritt, he and his band are still “rolling the dice”
“Man, in this line of work there’s a lot of highs and lows,” he says. “The lows are being on the road and missing your loved ones. The highs are, there’s no better feeling than the hair on the back of your neck standing up with the amplifier coming on. And hanging out with B.B. King, or Stevie Wonder.”
Gomes appears at 2:30 p.m. on the Re/Max Main Stage at Port Credit Memorial Park, followed by Carlos del Junco (4 p.m.), the Jeff Healey Blues Band (5:30 p.m.) and Downchild Blues Band (7 p.m.).
Tickets are $10 at the gate, or $40 for a weekend pass.
Call 905-271-9449 or visit www.southsideshuffle.com.
onlinenews@mississauga.net
