Eric Gales

Eric Gales’ time is now. A rule-breaking, genre-fusing force of nature, hailed by giants like Joe Bonamassa, Dave Navarro and Mark Tremonti as one of the best guitarists on the planet, you’ll find the Memphis blues-rocker’s thumbprint on everything from his Grammy-nominated solo catalogue to the soundtrack of director Ryan Coogler’s smash-hit horror movie, Sinners.

Yet there comes a time when every musician must look their past squarely in the eye. And while Gales’ latest release, Tribute To LJK, is a thrillingly modern record for the here-and-now, it’s also a nod to his bloodline and the roots of his family tree. “This record has been a long time coming,” he says of the speaker-rattling release co-produced by Bonamassa and Josh Smith. “I wanted it to be the ultimate tribute to my late brother, Little Jimmy King, to keep his memory alive and make sure people remember who he was and still is. All of these songs except one are his originals. I wanted to deliver his tunes to the world, through my eyes. And I wanted it to be badass – and that’s exactly how it turned out.”

The blues is an ecosystem, and it’s a measure of the respect commanded by both Eric – and his fabled older brother, real name Manuel, who sadly passed away in 2002 – that these ten explosive covers are delivered by an all-star cast with deep ties to the project. “Buddy Guy and Little Jimmy played together, so he guests on the track ‘Somebody’,” explains Gales. “Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram has gone on record to say my brother was a big influence, so he’s on ‘Rockin’ Horse Ride’. They also both make pretty significant cameos in Sinners. So it all interweaves.”

To understand why Tribute To LJK might be the proudest moment of Gales’ meteoric career, you have to follow the thread back to the late-’70s and a hectic family home in Memphis, Tennessee. “I’m the youngest of five siblings, so I grew up with all my brothers and everybody played guitar,” he recalls. “Manuel was ten years older and it was a great to have him to look up to. I was so proud when he started his own band, got into his career and he was off to the races. And then, after all his years of grinding away at his craft, to hear that he was touring with Albert King’s band in the late-’80s was awesome.”

Eric turned out a fierce guitarist himself, taking chief inspiration from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson, while developing a unique style sparked by flipping his right-hand Hagström electric so the thickest string was nearest the ground. “I just picked it up that way,” he shrugs.

And while Manuel made his mark in the world – graduating from King’s lineup to front his own ’90s outfit, Little Jimmy King & the Memphis Soul Survivors – Eric and his sibling Eugene signed to Elektra Records for 1991’s debut album, The Eric Gales Band. “I had a deal at 15 and the record came out when I was 16,” he recalls. “Even at that age, I already felt this was what I was gonna do in life.”

A supernova amongst the shoegazers of the grunge era, there was simply nobody like Gales on the scene, and he was saluted in Guitar World’s readers poll as that year’s Best New Talent. “We weren’t the typical I-IV-V blues group,” he reflects. “We were trying to set ourselves apart, to make people start talking. A 16-year-old black kid coming out playing blues-rock and wailing: that just wasn’t happening at the time. And I didn’t see it happen again until Kingfish came around. I think The Eric Gales Band definitely left our mark on the world.”