Familiar material, new songs mark musician's ‘Live’ effort

By John Benson

The blues guitarist’s album hit No. 1 on the Billboard Blues charts.

Hey Ohio, blues-guitarist Anthony Gomes loves ya.

“I think Ohio has a really good musical community,” said Gomes, calling from Ontario, Canada. “A lot of good honest folk come from Ohio. These are the salt-of-the-earth people, and I think that resonates with them, their love of live music and their appreciation of arts.

“There’s just a great mixture of an East Coast and Midwest combination in that state that’s very much what America is.”

OK, now we’re blushing. Though Gomes may sound like he’s giving a stump speech, you’ll have to forgive the Toronto-born musician if he’s feeling effusive. He just found out his debut concert album, “Live,” is No. 1 on the Billboard Blues charts. Even more apropos is the fact he knocked the latest posthumous release from his idol Stevie Ray Vaughan out of the top spot.

The benchmark is symbolic of Gomes’ dedication and perseverance. From his 1998 debut “Blues in Technicolor,” to his latest effort, 2006’s “Music is the Medicine,” the singer-guitarist has played roughly 250 shows annually, growing an audience one show at a time.

This included memorable gigs at The Cellar and The B&O Station. Gomes, who will be in Austintown on Saturday for a show at Michael O’Malley’s, explains why people are connecting with “Live.”

“I think a big part of it is timing,” Gomes said. “We’ve been building our career and every album has been bigger than the other. I think this is just the culmination of a lot of hard work.

“Also, this really captures the band in a way that people are most familiar with us, which is in a live, raw environment. So it’s been something that people have been wanting for a while and thankfully, we were able to deliver.”

Taking a page out of the Dave Matthews Band playbook, Gomes said he wanted “Live” to be more than just a look back. While half the material is from “Music is the Medicine,” he also included unreleased songs (“Falling,” “I Won’t Let You Down,” et al.) and a fiery cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.”

“I think that excited people,” Gomes said. “That it’s not just a rehashing of our older material, but it’s in fact some new songs that are living and breathing documents that may be recaptured in the studio environment on the next release.”

“We’re now working on a new studio album that’s going to be very exciting. It’s called ‘Anthony Gomes and the New Soul Cowboys.’ It’s a fusion of Southern rock using blues, rock, country and some elements of gospel into one cohesive sound. I really believe we’re on the forefront of a new music revolution.”

We’ll have to wait and see whether this new music revolution manifests itself, but in the meantime, Gomes feels fans of classic rock would be best served to take in his upcoming set.

“I consider us a Southern rock band,” Gomes said. “Anybody who likes The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin or Stevie Ray Vaughan is really going to dig what we’re doing and what we’re about: high energy, musicality and peace, love and loud guitars.”