GA-20: Crackdown – Album review, Interview and Video Premiere

GA-20: Crackdown

(Colemine Records)

CD | LP | DL | Cassette

Out 9 September 2022

There is little doubt that the Boston-based blues trio GA-20 are emerging as leading lights in a traditional blues revival and their third album, Crackdown, pays due homage to this through their own unique blend of blues, country and rock’n’roll. Ian Corbridge reviews for Louder Than War, as well as featuring a video premiere of a live version of I Let Someone In from the album and catching up with guitarist Matt Stubbs to get a low down on life with the blues, past, present and future.

GA-20’s previous album, Try It…You Might Like It!, proved a very fitting tribute to the unique musical style of infamous Chicago bluesman, Hound Dog Taylor. Now GA-20 return with their third album, Crackdown, featuring a whole new batch of their own compositions which plunders heavily into their traditional blues roots. But whilst its influences are undeniable, GA-20 bring a fresh and modern feel to their songs as they drive their way through a barrage of boogie-laden riffs and vocals with real feeling.

The authentic feel to the whole record is not surprising given their penchant for vintage gear, and also for their desire to record live in the studio, at the famed Q Division Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts. As guitarist and producer Matt Stubbs explains, “We set up the drums and amps all in one room, using a limited number of microphones and employing some vintage recording techniques. We brought in a lot of old amps and guitars and had fun exploring different amp/ guitar combinations and took a good amount of time dialling in the drum and guitar sounds before getting down to work”. And boy did this pay off with this magnificent album that they conjured up.

The whole essence of the album can be heard through this live version of I Let Someone In which Louder Than War presents as an exclusive video premiere. This slice of pure Chicago blues is taken from a live promo session performed at Plaid Rooms in Loveland, Ohio, which is the headquarters of Colemine Records.

Opening song on the album, Fairweather Friend, is imbued with the swing of Jimmy Vaughan with crunching guitar rhythms overlaid with melodic chorus lines. Dry Run simply smolders as it takes us down to the deep south with its delta blues style guitar picking and the swagger of Jimmy Reed, whilst Easy On The Eyes follows on with all the musical stylings of the great Howling Wolf, albeit without the growl!

Crackdown is a whole new departure as the rolling drum patterns and funky guitar riffs pull together a soulful instrumental jam which seeks to push those vintage amps to their limits. The theme continues through Just Because which is a great take on soulful blues. Be My Lonesome ups the tempo again with a glorious full on twin guitar assault in a Little Richard style rocker.

Double Gettin’ is classic electric blues with a more 60’s Sonics style feel to it with sharp edged guitars underpinned with a classic rolling beat. As for Gone For Good, this really is slow Chicago blues at its very finest with all the soul of Elmore James set to a beat immortalised by Elmore in the Tampa Red song It Hurts Me Too, which featured on GA-20s previous tribute to Hound Dog Taylor. And to close out the album, we get a short reprise of Fairweather Friend in what sounds like a slowed down demo take, yet still befitting the authenticity which the vintage gear sitting behind all this deserves.

Alongside Matt on guitar, GA-20 also comprise guitarist and vocalist Pat Faherty and drummer Tim Carman. Alongside the well-crafted songs that they have written for this album which afford a certain timeless quality to the music, there is little doubt that the vintage gear employed right throughout the production process adds further to the intense primal feel of what comes out of those amps.

Crackdown is a stunning modern representation of traditional blues at its finest, full of classic influences, driving rhythms, heartfelt vocals and certainly no shortage of boogie, swing and swagger. And as this whole sound takes you back to the 1940’s and 50’s when this whole genre of music was being crafted into what we can hear today, Louder Than War caught up with Matt Stubbs to get a low down on life with the blues, past, present and future.

Louder Than War: Which artists, groups and songs sound-tracked and shaped your early years in life?

Matt: As a teenager, once I honed in on playing blues guitar, which was almost immediate, I was listening almost exclusively to blues legends and traditionalists like Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Earl Hooker, Buddy Guy, Guitar Slim, Lonnie Mack, Freddie King, Duane Eddy. Before that happened, I was a typical 90’s kid listening to Oasis and Lenny Kravitz. But my dad said, “If you like Lenny, you’ll love Jimi Hendrix.” And once I loved Jimi Hendrix it morphed very easily into a love for traditional blues. From there the blinders were on.

Who or what inspired you to consider taking up a career in music?

My father Dale is a huge music fan and came up seeing all the greats of blues and classic rock. He passed on the love of music and of guitar in particular, which he also played. There were frequent band rehearsals at my house growing up, and he would take me to shows from an early age, from arenas to bars and clubs I was too young to be in. He has been an integral part of all of that for me. We still spend a lot of time talking vintage amps and guitars, and he has always been my biggest supporter (with my mum!).

Given that you only formed as a band in 2018, what other musical projects had you worked on before this and also currently outside of the band? I’m obviously aware that you have been part of Charlie Musselwhite’s touring band for a number of years now, a blues legend in his own right.

I’ve always been a big fan of instrumental music. It’s an under-appreciated art form! I recorded a couple of solo instrumental blues records early on in my career, which were sort of a Memphis soul/Willie Mitchell style. More recently I formed a band called Matthew Stubbs & the Antiguas, which is an instrumental heavy psych-blues project, with guitar and Farfisa organ. It’s like a blues spaghetti western on acid, and our live shows would incorporate psychedelic visuals to create a whole experience. One self-titled album was released in 2016 and another is mostly complete and waiting for some spare time to see the light of day. It’s still something I would like to return to some day as a side project. It’s a lot of fun and fulfills a different artistic side. Currently GA-20 takes up all of our time. Happily.

Who are the artists you have worked with so far that have inspired you the most and in what way?

Between COVID and being a fairly new band we haven’t had much opportunity for collaboration to this point, but we were very lucky to have our very talented friends Charlie Musselwhite and Luther Dickinson perform on our first single, “Naggin’ On My Mind.” We love the idea of collaboration and I have a secret list of some that I would especially love to work with. We’ve also had the chance to open for some cool bands, and that’s a different style of touring that has great upside too. Maybe musicians you wouldn’t otherwise partner with or a style of music a little different than yours, and making new fans who may not have known you before. Blues can sometimes be an insular genre and it’s great to reach beyond that once in a while to play for people who maybe don’t know that they like blues!

What brought you together as a band?

In 2018 my main gig playing guitar with Charlie Musselwhite went on hiatus as Charlie toured a record he made with Ben Harper. Looking at a full year with no work ahead of me inspired the formation of GA-20. Pat was a buddy in Boston who had shown similar interest in traditional blues when our paths crossed, and we decided to form a Chicago blues band to make a few bucks. We started with some of our favorite cover tunes, and played wherever we could. We thought it sounded pretty good (!) so we wrote a few originals and went into the studio. The next year we added a permanent drummer with the addition of Tim Carman to the team. It wasn’t really planned this way, but the rest is history.

With a band name inspired by a vintage Gibson tube amp, where did you derive your obvious love for vintage gear and instruments and how did you acquire all this equipment?

As I mentioned above, it’s been nearly a life-long pursuit with my Dad. He taught me about vintage gear and we have spent, and still do spend, a lot of time talking, researching, sourcing, buying, selling, trading, upgrading, it goes on and on. Along the way you pick up teachers and like-minded friends and musicians to exchange information and gear with as well. Sometimes you’re in acquisiton mode, or you simply need a certain thing as a tool, such as when we sourced small vintage amps and Kingston/Teisco guitars for our Hound Dog Taylor record, “Try It…You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor.” Alternately, not long ago I sold ten guitars in order to purchase one special guitar. It’s a constant flux.

Aside from Hound Dog Taylor who was the focus of your last album, Try It…..You Might Like It!, which is a magnificent tribute to the great man, which blues artists have emerged as your greatest heroes? I can certainly hear some very distinct influences running through your new album, Crackdown.

I touched on that a little bit above, with my early musical influences. I dove down the blues rabbit hole very early in my life so my early heroes are really my life long heroes as well. That said, “Crackdown” goes in a few new artistic directions for us and there were definitely some different influences there. You may (or may not!) hear some form of influence from the likes of Lazy Lester, Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, and The Sonics.

Have you had the chance to explore the areas of the USA where the musical heritage and legacy of these great blues artists is most deeply embedded?

I won’t go into the intricacies of specific regional blues genres, but yes, I’ve travelled extensively in my time with Charlie and now with GA-20, and had the pleasure of spending time in historical blues areas, often meeting some of the characters who were part of the scene. Mississippi, Chicago, Memphis, Texas, West Coast, my personal favorite has always been the high energy of electric Chicago blues, but there’s just a wealth of artistry and history to be absorbed.

Where do you draw inspiration from for writing songs and how do you go about developing these ideas?

Somehow (haha) a lot of our songs turn out to be love songs. Or maybe more accurately, heartbreak songs. I guess that’s a cliché, but it’s pretty universal. The songs we write tend to get hashed out pretty roughly. I’ll come with some guitar ideas, sometimes just a hook, and Pat handles preliminary lyrics, separately. We work out actual parts and arrangements live together in a session, and the three of us fine tune the final ideas together.

Having only formed in 2018 and with the global pandemic hitting only around 2 years later, how did this lockdown period impact you as a band and how did you get through this period?

It was a tough time for everyone, and musicians were hit especially hard. There was almost a pressure to be productive, like you finally have this “free time” to create, but it was tough to find motivation and inspiration under those conditions. We tried to come up with some fun and challenging ideas that we could try out, that maybe wouldn’t have been on the table in normal times. A tribute record was one of those things. Doing “Try It…You Might Like It!” was a completely different type of exercise than we had ever done. Likewise, we recorded a live version of one of our favorite songs, Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Totally outside our wheelhouse, but a lot of fun and we were happy with the result. We also wrote and recorded “No No” and “Two In The Ground,” two original singles that ended up being favorites as well. We love playing live so being stuck at home so long was difficult. Since then we’ve tried to stay on the road as much as possible!

From my early teens when I first developed a love for the likes of Elmore James and Jimmy Reed, I have always regarded blues as a timeless form of music which is a vital part of much of what we hear today in the world of rock’n’roll. Do you feel any sense of responsibility now for keeping this heritage alive and building a new movement to draw in new fans?

What we’d like to do is to help some people who don’t think they like blues, realize that they do like blues. We like what we do and we think other people will like it too. If you want to call that a movement, I’m all for it. Putting a mantle of responsibility on our shoulders feels a little, I don’t know, pretentious or self-important. It’s not like that. We’re just playing the music we like to hear.

I’m extremely excited to see that you are playing some UK dates in November 2022. How are things shaping up for GA20 in the next 12 months and beyond following the release of your new album?

We are so excited to get back to the UK. Audiences gave us such a great reception our first time in and we can’t wait to get back and play again. We have a pretty packed schedule heading into the fall including a U.S./Canadian tour with The Monophonics, Europe and the UK dates in November, and more U.S. touring into the winter months. We love being on the road and playing live, so I’d say things are looking good. People sometimes seem shocked by our pace, but we can’t get enough. See you out there!

You can buy the album here.

You can find GA-20 on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp and their website.

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All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile.

Source: louderthanwar.com