Archive Review: Eric Gales’ The Story of My Life (2008)

Not to be confused with acclaimed jazz guitarist Eric Gale, Memphis-born blues-rock phenomenon Eric Gales first picked up the instrument at the young age of four years old. Tutored and encouraged by his older brothers Eugene and Manuel (better known as Little Jimmy King), Gales learned how to play the Fender Stratocaster upside-down and left-handed, as per his brothers’ lead. At age eleven, the youngest Gales was already smoking other players at blues competitions, with his brother Eugene backing him on bass.

Gales earned his first recording contract at age 15, releasing The Eric Gales Band album in 1991, followed by Picture of A Thousand Faces in ‘93. Fueled by Gales’ incendiary fretwork, the albums yielded a pair of rock radio hits and put the young player on the radar as an up-and-coming guitar god. Gales worked with both his brothers for 1996’s Left Hand Brand, and then disappeared for five years until the 2001 release of That’s What I Am on MCA Records. Since then, Gales’ association with Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney has been, perhaps, the most prolific period of his life, resulting in three recordings to date, including Gales’ seventh studio album, The Story of My Life. 

Eric Gales’ The Story of My Life

From the very beginning, The Story of My Life is a roller-coaster ride of bent-strings and machine-gun notes…only the pace of the individual song is in question, as Gales approaches each song with a scatter-gun assault of solo flurries and rhythmic hurricanes. Featuring the guitarist’s trademark blend of traditional blues and soulful, Memphis-flavored, psychedelic-tinged blues-rock, The Story of My Life offers up a wealth of red-hot guitarplay that will singe the ear-hair right off your head. 

“Save Yourself” is a throwback to Gales’ earliest work, a rocker with a heart of gold that channels Hendrix by way of Robin Trower, Gales’ soaring fretwork supported by a blast-furnace rhythm section in bassist Steve Evans and drummer Jeremy Colson. The slow-walking “I Ain’t No Shrink” mixes some Texas-blues stew with a side-dish of Chicago-styled Westside shuffle, while the title track does an admirable job of updating a big-sounding early-1970s stadium rock vibe with an inventive arrangement, vocal harmonies, and time changes.

The Sound of Electric Guitar

Sounding like a 1960s-styled space-rock freak-out, Gales’ amps up the psychedelic tones for the ear-bashing six-string workout “The Sound of Electric Guitar.” Featuring one of Gales’ most inspired performances, the song’s blister-and-peel fretwork is matched, grenade-for-grenade, by Evans and Colson’s diesel rhythms. “Cut and Run” is a romp across the boogie-rock landscape, the band doing its best Foghat impersonation as Gales’ lays down his lightning-quick fretboard runs on top of the song’s choogling framework. 

The squirrely notes that kick off “Borderline Personality” disguise the song’s menacing, chaotic soundtrack, which teeters on the edge of psychosis throughout much of its six-minute run, Gales’ six-string screaming in perverse delight as the band whomps up a bunch of new big-beat ear-crackers. “Bringin’ the Hammer” down is bound to be a live audience fave, with a larger-than-life overall sound and tightwire guitar fills. The bluesy power-ballad “Gypsy” offers up a subdued, truly nuanced guitar performance from Gales, complimented by his serviceable vocals. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

You’ll hear a lot that’s familiar on The Story of My Life: scraps of Hendrix, shreds of Stevie Ray, impressions of Robin Trower; dare I say, even a hint of Curtis Mayfield. Gales has too often been criticized as being “derivative” or of “over-playing,” but in reality, the string-shredder is working in a well-trodden, time-tested blues-rock genre where there’s little truly new under the sun. As for Gales’ alleged “over-playing,” that’s a matter of opinion, really…some of us like manic OTT string-bending in a bluesy vein.

Gales’ vocals are soulful in places, raw in others, but he is always trying to transcend his limitations. For Eric Gales, his guitar does most of the talking, and it speaks loudly on The Story of My Life. Lest we forget, Gales is still relatively young by blues standards, and his continued evolution as an artist, a songwriter, and even as a guitarist is impressive to watch. (Blues Bureau International, released 2008)