Redemption Songs

Armed with quite possibly the best blues album you’ll hear in 2017, eric gales reveals the amazing story behind his powerful music…

- Amit Sharma

There’s a track on the new Eric Gales album that opens with a confessional: “I’ve been through some difficult things, I’ve seen the best and worst of humankind, I’ve done some things I shouldn’t  have, trying to free the limits of my mind.”

It’s a brutally honest and poignantly heartfelt confession from the Memphis blues virtuoso ,who shot to fame in the mid-90s, only to spiral into a cocaine addiction that landed him behind bars on several occasions. In 2009, some footage surfaced of the guitarist being interviewed and performing as a prisoner of the Shelby County Correction Center – a man incarcerated, battling his demons, yet still able to play better than any of us in our wildest dreams. He was once a child prodigy – just like Joe Bonamassa – but instead of headlining the world’s most revered venues, the cruel twists of fate would have him become inmate 199070. Now having turned his life around, Gales has inked a new deal with Mascot and recorded Middle Of The Road – the album that should define his career – the first to truly capture the magic at the tips of his fingers. Here the guitarist talks TG through his incredible life story, tools of the trade and the most unlikely of comebacks…

What was going through your mind as you wrote these new songs?