Local CD Reviews: Eric Gales and Doug Wamble

Relentless

Eric Gales

Blues Bureau International

Eric Gales' "Relentless."

Like our very own Lindsay Lohan, Memphis six-string shredder Eric Gales has seen his promising career hampered by personal demons, including an arrest this summer for cocaine possession. Problems faced by Gales, a child prodigy who signed his first major-label record deal at the age of 16, are all the more frustrating because, unlike Lohan, he continues to put out quality work.

Recorded before his recent troubles (he spent most of the rest of the summer in rehab), Relentless is Gales’ fifth record for California guitar-centric label Blues Bureau International, and he just keeps better with each outing. As you would expect, there is plenty of incendiary fretwork on display throughout these 13 tracks.

Gales and his trio, including bassist Steve Evans and new drummer Aaron Haggerty, glide effortlessly from traditional Texas blues (“The Finest Club In Town”) to spacey progressive rock (“Universal Peacepipe”), touching base with ZZ Top, Living Color, and, to a lesser extent than on past outings, Jimi Hendrix along the way.

But Gales is as focused on presenting the songs, all co-writes with label head Mike Varney, as he is his exceptional technique. Numbers like the slow blues “When You’ve Got No Place To Go,” funk rocker “Draggin’ Me Down,” and, minus the Auto-Tune vocal, the Hendrix-style epic “On the Wings of Rock and Roll” are among the best songs he’s committed to tape. They make Relentless an accomplishment that Gales, hopefully, can build on.

Doug Wamble

Doug Wamble

E1 Music

Doug Wamble's eponymous album.

Former Memphian Doug Wamble started out as a clarinet player but while enrolled in his first semester at Memphis State University switched to the guitar. When he left Memphis in the mid-’90s he was still finding his footing on the instrument. But for the past dozen years, Wamble has been hanging with New York City’s legendarily competitive jazz scene, not just surviving but thriving through collaborations with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Madeleine Peyroux, and Charlie Hunter.

With such a resume, you might expect Wamble’s solo work to be pretty serious, straight-ahead jazz. But on his third, self-titled outing, recently released on E1 Music, Wamble shows that, though his playing may have taken him far afield, musically his heart is still in the South.

From the opening number “Think About It All,” on which he and guest Hunter adroitly recreate the Hi Rhythm Section sound, Wamble makes it clear that his music is a celebration of the sounds of his home — soul, blues, New Orleans jazz, and gospel. His warm and expressive singing voice takes the spotlight from his subdued-but-impressive picking.

Tracks like “Freezer Burn” and “It May Be A Dream,” which features guest vocals and violin by Carrie Rodriguez, have a laid-back, country-blues appeal reminiscent of Keb’ Mo’ while “Bitter Angels” adds a little foot-stomping church fire. Even on his few forays into more experimental territory — “Oh Heaven” and a gorgeous solo rendition of Fiona Apple’s “I Know” — Wamble proves himself an uncommonly soulful jazzman.

© 2010 Go Memphis. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.