Eric Gales is one of those people that has the universal respect of his peers.
Dave Navarro loves him, Bonamassa reckons he’s the best, Tony Rombola of Godsmack can’t stop talking about him and they are far from the only ones.
But that “The Bookends” is out at all is perhaps a bigger gift than all that praise. His second album in two years, in many ways it continues the rebirth, if you will, that began with his “Middle Of The Road” record.
Gales has battled back from the depths. Drug addiction, a spell in prison, but he’s lived to tell the tale.
There is a feeling too, that he pours himself heart and soul into everything he does now. “You know, while I got ya’ll attention” he says in a spoken word bit on the highlight that is “It Just Beez That Way”, “I want ya’ll to know that sometimes things don’t go the way that you want it…..” And he means it more than most.
Just like he means his music more than most too. When I saw him live a year or two back he broke down in tears at one point, and whether you like that or not, then you can’t deny his passion.
Nor, indeed, can you deny that he takes chances. “….Way” for example features him beatboxing and there is a definite funkiness and soul to much of this.
Interestingly not with the opening Intro, which is mean and menacing and genuinely there is a real heavy metal tinge to it. This is juxtaposed brilliantly by the acoustic led “Something’s Gotta Give” – one of a couple that feature B. Slade.
“Whatcha Gon’ Do” is more outright blues than most of them, but it is no doubt autobiographical too. “I was a bachelor, I was certified” he sings in its first line, but the song is one of the most immediate that “The Bookends” has. Where a number of them require a listen or two to reveal their charms in full, then that isn’t the case, really with the heartfelt ballad “How Do I Get You”.
Gales has been friends with Doyle Bramhall III for a long time and the two trade licks on “Southpaw Serenade”, and it probably wouldn’t be too far wide of the mark to say that this was the centrepiece of the record. Brilliant playing abounds as the two really cut loose. “I just wanna be me, while playing this block of wood” sings Gales and in doing so, he probably sums up the whole thing in truth.
“Reaching For A Change” has a proud, defiant tone about it. Harder edged guitars too. Producer Matt Wallace, drafted in after the original choice died, has worked with Faith No More and you can imagine this as one of theirs, while “Somebody Lied” is pure pop music – Wallace has twiddled knobs for Maroon 5 as well and it shows here.
Beth Hart wraps her incredible voice around “With A Little Help From My Friends” and its more Joe Cocker than The Beatles, while “Resolution” is an instrumental which doubtless will have the musos salivating, and there’s a bonus track “Pedal To The Metal” which is sort of a different take on “Somebody Lied” with real chart bothering potential.
It makes explicit, perhaps, that Gales is no slave to the blues. Instead, if he is tied to anything at all, it is simply by a desire to go where this music – and this life if you want to look deeper – takes him. “The Bookends” is a fine chapter, but the story is nowhere near done.
Rating 8/10
