Biography
Canadian-born guitarist Anthony Gomes, who also writes songs and sings, ranks among today’s charting blues artists. His guitar work blends hard-rock riffs, R&B grooves, and country/Americana flavors, while his vocal timbre echoes the young Rod Stewart of the Jeff Beck Group era. Seven successive albums of his reached the Top Ten Blues Albums Chart. Released in 1998, Blues in Technicolor carried clear traces of Texas blues. The twin 2006 releases Long Way Home and the breakthrough Music Is the Medicine built his worldwide profile through flashy six-string virtuosity and a confident swagger. New Soul Cowboys, issued in 2009, fused electric hard-rocking blues with soul-inflected Southern rock, and the 2012 album Up 2 Zero delivered an affectionate, high-energy homage to Chicago blues. Electric Field Holler, from 2015, fused gritty hard-rock riffs with dramatic twenty-first-century blues almost seamlessly. Although portions of the 2020 chart-topper Containment Blues highlighted Gomes’s affinity for garage boogie and blues, High Voltage Blues signaled a return to dense, metal-edged hard-rocking blues.
Born in Toronto, Canada, in 1970 to a Portuguese father and Canadian mother, Gomes developed an early passion for music that embraced everyone from Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix to Jeff Beck. He picked up the guitar at age fourteen. After paying dues in local bands and jamming with blues players on Toronto’s thriving club circuit, he relocated to Chicago and recorded Blues in Technicolor there in 1998. Further sharpening his skills on Windy City stages, he next settled in Nashville, Tennessee, and integrated himself into that city’s storied music community.
In 2000 he issued the acoustic country-blues, gospel, and R&B collection Sweet Stringin’ Soul on Up 2 Zero Entertainment. Switching to 33rd Street Records, he delivered the funky, hard-rocking blues album Unity and earned the 2003 BluesWax Artist of the Year award. The honor lifted him to the forefront of the blues scene, enabling him to attract growing audiences to more frequent and expansive live shows. While touring, his technique impressed B.B. King’s bus driver, who introduced Gomes to King; the blues legend subsequently invited him to open numerous 2005 tour dates. The experience supplied crucial exposure and insight, after which Gomes advanced to headliner status and shared bills with Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and rock acts such as Heart.
Music Is the Medicine appeared in 2006 on the Adrenaline Music label and became his first charting release, peaking at number four on the Top Blues Albums chart. Long Way Home followed the same year, issued privately through his website. A 2007 concert at Seattle’s Triple Door was captured and released in 2008 as the live album Live, featuring his band the New Soul Cowboys—David Karns on bass and vocals, Peter Lang on drums, and Dylan St. John on keyboards and vocals. The first release to document his stage prowess, Live eventually reached the summit of the Top Blues Albums chart. Also in 2008, Gomes offered Primary Colors exclusively via his website; the self-recorded 1997 set illustrated his early mastery of Texas blues.
New Soul Cowboys arrived in 2009, now configured as a power trio with Karns and Lang, and reveled in hard-edged country-rock. The group toured extensively, hitting festivals across the United States, Canada, and Europe before logging nearly two years of club dates. Up 2 Zero surfaced in 2012 on its namesake imprint; perhaps no other album in his discography so clearly reflected the imprint of Chicago blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, and Jimmy Johnson. It climbed the upper reaches of the blues charts in North America and Europe, marking his seventh straight Top Ten entry.
The 2013 acoustic outing … Before the Beginning spotlighted Delta blues, country gospel, and roadhouse R&B, revealing Gomes’s songwriting and vocal abilities in unusual depth. Its stylistic opposite, 2015’s Electric Field Holler, delivered a mostly scorching blend of bluesy hard rock shaped by AC/DC and the Black Crowes. Once again the band logged global road miles for the next several years. Gomes continued writing on tour, and upon returning home the musicians entered the studio almost at once, releasing Peace Love & Loud Guitars in 2018. Though less raw than Electric Field Holler, the album drew from comparable influences and landed inside the Top Five on the Top Blues Album chart while topping streaming rankings; readers of Blues Rock Review voted it the best blues album of 2018.
A typically lengthy tour was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdown Gomes wrote and recorded steadily, initially envisioning an acoustic singer/songwriter project. As demos circulated, however, the songs gained additional instrumentation from an international roster of guest musicians and evolved into a raw electric blues-rock set. The resulting Containment Blues was released privately in November 2020 in digital and CD-R formats; despite limited distribution it became his second number-one album. In 2021 Gomes and a road band resumed live appearances, yet shifting international quarantine regulations made overseas travel unworkable. He signed with Rat Pack Records and began recording at the start of 2022. High Voltage Blues emerged in September, a boisterous hard-rocking blues album that simultaneously revisited foundational influences and adopted a modern Chicago-centric perspective. In addition to its twelve songs, the Top Ten-charting release included three bonus tracks, one an extended version of the sole ballad, the Southern-style soul number “Darkest Before the Dawn.”
Born in Toronto, Canada, in 1970 to a Portuguese father and Canadian mother, Gomes developed an early passion for music that embraced everyone from Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix to Jeff Beck. He picked up the guitar at age fourteen. After paying dues in local bands and jamming with blues players on Toronto’s thriving club circuit, he relocated to Chicago and recorded Blues in Technicolor there in 1998. Further sharpening his skills on Windy City stages, he next settled in Nashville, Tennessee, and integrated himself into that city’s storied music community.
In 2000 he issued the acoustic country-blues, gospel, and R&B collection Sweet Stringin’ Soul on Up 2 Zero Entertainment. Switching to 33rd Street Records, he delivered the funky, hard-rocking blues album Unity and earned the 2003 BluesWax Artist of the Year award. The honor lifted him to the forefront of the blues scene, enabling him to attract growing audiences to more frequent and expansive live shows. While touring, his technique impressed B.B. King’s bus driver, who introduced Gomes to King; the blues legend subsequently invited him to open numerous 2005 tour dates. The experience supplied crucial exposure and insight, after which Gomes advanced to headliner status and shared bills with Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and rock acts such as Heart.
Music Is the Medicine appeared in 2006 on the Adrenaline Music label and became his first charting release, peaking at number four on the Top Blues Albums chart. Long Way Home followed the same year, issued privately through his website. A 2007 concert at Seattle’s Triple Door was captured and released in 2008 as the live album Live, featuring his band the New Soul Cowboys—David Karns on bass and vocals, Peter Lang on drums, and Dylan St. John on keyboards and vocals. The first release to document his stage prowess, Live eventually reached the summit of the Top Blues Albums chart. Also in 2008, Gomes offered Primary Colors exclusively via his website; the self-recorded 1997 set illustrated his early mastery of Texas blues.
New Soul Cowboys arrived in 2009, now configured as a power trio with Karns and Lang, and reveled in hard-edged country-rock. The group toured extensively, hitting festivals across the United States, Canada, and Europe before logging nearly two years of club dates. Up 2 Zero surfaced in 2012 on its namesake imprint; perhaps no other album in his discography so clearly reflected the imprint of Chicago blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, and Jimmy Johnson. It climbed the upper reaches of the blues charts in North America and Europe, marking his seventh straight Top Ten entry.
The 2013 acoustic outing … Before the Beginning spotlighted Delta blues, country gospel, and roadhouse R&B, revealing Gomes’s songwriting and vocal abilities in unusual depth. Its stylistic opposite, 2015’s Electric Field Holler, delivered a mostly scorching blend of bluesy hard rock shaped by AC/DC and the Black Crowes. Once again the band logged global road miles for the next several years. Gomes continued writing on tour, and upon returning home the musicians entered the studio almost at once, releasing Peace Love & Loud Guitars in 2018. Though less raw than Electric Field Holler, the album drew from comparable influences and landed inside the Top Five on the Top Blues Album chart while topping streaming rankings; readers of Blues Rock Review voted it the best blues album of 2018.
A typically lengthy tour was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdown Gomes wrote and recorded steadily, initially envisioning an acoustic singer/songwriter project. As demos circulated, however, the songs gained additional instrumentation from an international roster of guest musicians and evolved into a raw electric blues-rock set. The resulting Containment Blues was released privately in November 2020 in digital and CD-R formats; despite limited distribution it became his second number-one album. In 2021 Gomes and a road band resumed live appearances, yet shifting international quarantine regulations made overseas travel unworkable. He signed with Rat Pack Records and began recording at the start of 2022. High Voltage Blues emerged in September, a boisterous hard-rocking blues album that simultaneously revisited foundational influences and adopted a modern Chicago-centric perspective. In addition to its twelve songs, the Top Ten-charting release included three bonus tracks, one an extended version of the sole ballad, the Southern-style soul number “Darkest Before the Dawn.”
Albums
High Voltage Blues
2022
Adelaide
2021
Wake Up
2020
Wishing Tree
2020
Thank You
2020
Music
2020
Lost in Time
2020
Everyday
2020
Are We There Yet
2020
Queen of the Heart
2020
Nothing Man 2
2020
Asatomaa Sadgamaya
2020
Singles
