Anthony Geraci & the Boston Blues All Stars
Saturday, June 24
Show: 8p | Doors: 7p
Tickets: $20
($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges. Seats are on a first-come, first-serve basis, and seats are not guaranteed with ticket purchase.)
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Boston, Massachusetts-based pianist/composer Anthony Geraci’s Seventeen Blues Music Awards nominations (BMA’s) from the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN reflects four decades of musical excellence both in studio and onstage. Anthony won a BMA (2021) for Instrumentalist-Piano, and has recently been nominated for Two 2023 BMA’s in the following categories: Instrumentalist-Piano, and Band of the Year.
A native of New Haven, CT, Geraci witnessed the live performances of blues greats including B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers, providing a world class blues education at an early age that would later come full circle when he had the opportunity to perform with them, and many other blues icons. Geraci graduated from the Berklee College of Music with a B.A. and holds an M.A. from Skidmore College. An original member of Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, and Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, Geraci has recorded extensively with both groups, in addition to a host of iconic traditional blues artists and leading contemporary acts. Anthony has recorded with Lazy Lester, Big Walter Horton, Carey Bell, Snooky Pryor, Odetta, Charlie Musselwhite, Sugaray Rayford, Kenny and Raful Neal, Debbie Davies, Welch/Ledbetter, Big Jack Johnson, Kilborn Alley, G.E. Smith and many more.
Following his chart-topping Daydreams in Blue, Anthony Geraci returns with Blues Called My Name (Blue Heart) debuting at #1 on The Living Blues Radio Chart. It’s a dynamic collection of original compositions featuring esteemed special guests Anne Harris, Walter Trout, Sugar Ray Norcia, Monster Mike Welch, Erika Van Pelt, and The Boston Blues All-Stars. Ronnie Earl shared this praise: "Anthony has been contributing to this music for many years, and his new album illuminates the many colors, shades, and styles of the blues. Anthony is very inspiring, and I love his dedication to the old masters like Otis Spann, Sunnyland Slim, and Big Maceo Merriweather.” Richard Ludmerer writing in Making A Scene-“It just doesn’t get any better than this.”
The music traces from the origins of the Tex-Mex blend of tejano sounds and british invasion. Producer Huey P. Meaux is reputed to have shut himself up in the Wayfarer motel in San Antonio for three days with Beatles records and a case of Thunderbird Wine–emerging with the conclusion that the catch in this rock ad roll music was actually its backbeat commonality with Cajun two-step. He signed Doug Sahm and in 1965 released his TexMex forerunner "She's About a Mover" in 1965, further aligned with the British Invasions in dubbing the band: "Sir Douglas and the Quintet". Pa-Go-Go records of San Antonio followed a year later with the eccentric michigan based ? and the Mysterians organ driven hit: 96 Tears.
Add to this pedigree the cowboy image that Sahm cultivated and bring in the outlaw and bakersfield country with its own strong backbeat that was supplanting grand ole opry style in the late 50s and Los Soupermen have got dance after dance for you!
This has been a band of ringers from the get go, originally sporting a number of the Outliers nee Girls, Guns and Glory. The occasional latin flourish in singer/songwriter Ward Hayden's writing was the inspiration for creating this Southern New England ode to the San Antonio sound and we have added various traditional instrumentation from fiddle to trumpet to accordion to the Farfisa (this traveling organ was actually manufactured by an Accordion maker who read the writing on the wall as to what the more hip instrumentation of the 60s might look like). A couple years with the original lineup gave way to Covid, but we returned with the Los Texicanos lineup featuring Drew Townsen for Cinco de Mayo 2021, bringing with him his unparalled texas style songwriting. With Drew's departure for Florida, we have kept his music in the mix with our new Los Soupermen lineup featuring: Vince Thompson vocals, Bob Metzger on Guitar and Steel, fmr. Outlier Paul Dilley on Telecaster, charter member Rory Macleod on Bass, Steve Peck on Drums and our keyboard infusions have been courtesy of some of the best Southern New England has to offer: Sam Taber, Dickie Read and, for this years show, Ohan Heginhian.