The Toronto singer/songwriter/guitarist, Anthony Gomes, has been creating virtuosic, burning blues since his recorded debut in 1998. 12 releases and numerous awards and ecstatic accolades later, the aptly-named, riff-laden Electric Field Holler crackles with his bare wires passion. A dozen hard driving original tracks are kicked by Theo Harden (bass), Chad Cromwell (drums), David Smith (keyboards) and R. Scott Bryan, Glen Caruba (percussion).
The heavy hitting “Turn It Up!” has Gomes rightly boasting “…got Mississippi lightning in my soul, I was raised on the thunder of rock ‘n’ roll…” his voice and guitar roaring. “Back Door Scratchin’” uses clever tom cat imagery. The mighty chugging “Whiskey Train” has Gomes growling and his guitar smoking like a 20-ton locomotive.
On “Blueschild” Gomes delivers mythic autobiography, “It’s like a fire, that’s burning out of control. I’m a six-string slinger, I’m a juke joint singer, daddy, I was born to play, I was born a blues child” and then proves it. The dramatic, compassionate minor key “Nowhere Is Home” pulses like a heartbeat. “Losing Game” finds Gomes raging instrumentally and vocally. “The Blues Ain’t The Blues No More” decries, “I went to the crossroads, but the devil don’t stay there no more. There’s nothing but a gas station, and the Delta donut store,” his authentic Delta slide guitar harkening back to an earlier era. On the pumping “Junk In The Trunk” Gomes utilizes hip phrases for carnal desire. The swinging “Love Crazy” features sweet backup vocals and the devastating reality of being stuck in the middle of love’s highs and lows.
The contemporary tale “Red Handed Blues” cannot end well due. A surprising half-minute instrumental, “Delta Raga,” features a sitar sound in a promising progressive style. The closing, apocalyptic “Listen To The Universe” offers a warning with Gomes’ trademark lyrical guitar lines as soul-searing as his vocals.
Anthony Gomes sings and plays with integrity and deeply felt emotion oblivious to fortune and fashion. The resulting music is a blazing cathartic experience radiating therapeutic heat for body and soul.
