Biography

Contact Information:
MANAGEMENT
Peter Carson Productions
Peter Carson - (314) 409-2274
peter@petercarsonproductions.com
mgmt@anthonygomes.com


Click here to go to Anthony Gomes - Peace, Love and Loud Guitars

Click here to go to Anthony Gomes - Electric Field Holler

Click here to go to Anthony Gomes - Up 2 Zero

ANTHONY GOMES

ELECTRIC FIELD HOLLER

"Our goal was to create a timeless blues rock album. High energy, electric, no holds barred, unapologetic blues on fire. An album that owed as much to traditional American blues like B.B. King and Muddy Waters as it did to the British blues infused rock n roll of Cream, Free and the Jeff Beck Group. The album leads of with a song called 'Turn It Up!' and there's a line in the song that says, "Don't try to stop me once I start, 'cause I've got a blues soul and a rock n roll heart." To me, that line embodies the spirit of this album.



Cast of Characters:

Anthony Gomes - Guitar and Vocals
Theo Harden - Bass
David Smith - Keyboards
R. Scott Bryan - Percussion
Glen Caruba - Percussion
Vicki Hampton - Background Vocals
Wendy Moten - Background Vocals
Minnie Murphy - Background Vocals
Kelly Wild - Background Vocals


Produced by: Anthony Gomes & Peter Carson
Label: Up 2 Zero
Recorded & Mixed by: Beau Hil
Mastered by: Brad Blackwood, Euphonic Masters
Engineered by: Peter Carson, David Leonard, Jason McEntire
Recorded at: Omni Studios (Nashville, TN), Riot House Studios (Ferguson, MO), Sawhourse Studios (St. Louis, MO)

Photography: Andre Chevrier
Art Direction and Design: Anthony Gomes

1. Turn It Up! - (3:18)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

I am especially proud of this song because I really feel it is a Blues Rock song in the truest sense of the word. It's loud and proud. It's about having a blues soul and a rock n roll heart. Can I get an amen? Turn it up to eleven and if you don't like it there's the door. Turn it up!


2. Back Door Scratchin' - (3:24)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes and Gary Nicholson
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

I had the pleasure of writing this with Gary Nicholson. It's about a new dog moving in and you're getting the boot. But every dog has his day and this ol' dog's got a few new tricks. Guess who's at your door? Vocally I tried to channel Paul Rodgers and BB King.


3. Whiskey Train - (3:59)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

This one is a blues grinder with Otis Rush and Billy Gibbons being the inspiration behind the guitar work. There has been a time or two where I felt I had to get halfway down the label of a bottle of Crown Royal to maintain my sanity. I think everybody's been down that road riding the Whiskey Train.


4. Blueschild - (3:58)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes (music), Lyrics by Anthony Gomes and Talan Latz
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

I was born a Blues Child. In Toronto Canada no less. "I'm a six string slinger and a juke joint singer, Mama I was born to play". Every blues artist knows that feeling. I also like the title because it also very subtly references Muddy Waters' quote that, "Blues had a baby and called it Rock N Roll". Rock music is a blues child. Remember, just 'cause a generation has passed, don't mean Daddy can't kick some....


5. Nowhere Is Home - (4:08)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

This song means more to me lyrically than any other song on the album. It's about the 1.5 million homeless kids in the United States. That is the blues of the modern age to me. Where can you run when nowhere is home?


6. Losing Game - (3:32)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

I have been working on this song for 15 years. Finally, it's ready. Lyrically, I have always loved how BB King delivered this stories. I tried to embody that and put it over a Bad Company-ish blues groove. I'm done playin'...


7. The Blues Ain't The Blues No More - (2:27)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

Aristotle said that the same river you place your foot in is no longer the same an instant later. The present is always changing and so is the blues. They are like the laws of the land they have to be amended to suit the times we live in. There is always a down side to change. There will never be another Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Even if we try. The new blues heroes are going to be different and we may like them more or we may like them less. The only thing that is guaranteed is there will be change. I thought the title would be strange coming from a contemporary blues artist like myself. I might could hear a traditional artist have a title like this one. But, I have sometimes felt the sadness with change. But if blues is the truth then we must face it and live in the now. The verses express the sense of loss and the bridge of the song gets to the heart of the matter.


8. Junk In The Trunk - (2:50)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

Musically, this is as funky.


9. Love Crazy - (3:22)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes and Jim Peterik
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

The most pop song on the album with a big chorus. One of my favorites and I worked hard to get it on here. I co-wrote this one with my good buddy Jim Peterik. Love is a drug and when you're in love it's like you're on drugs. You're holding on for dear life with Cupid on your blindside. I'm just a junkie for love.


10. Red Handed Blues - (4:04)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

This is a story song about a bunch of guys that tell their ladies that they're going fishing when they are going to a bachelor party. Gentlemen, honesty is the best policy.


11. Delta Raga - (0:29)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)


12. Listen To The Universe - (4:27)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

Lyrically, I am very proud of this one. We have something on this album like 'Junk In The Trunk" and then you have this. About and life and death, And, the meaning of it all. All you have to do is trust your gut on this journey. Listen... listen... listen...


13. Its the Way You Make Me Feel - (3:40)

Songwriters: Anthony Gomes and Jim Peterik
Publishing & PRO: Anthony Gomes Music (ASCAP)

ANTHONY GOMES BIOGRAPHY

Anthony Gomes has been creating virtuosic, burning blues since his recorded debut in 1998. 12 releases and numerous awards and ecstatic accolades later, Gomes shows no signs of slowing down with his latest musical offering being his most successful to date. The aptly-named, riff-laden Electric Field Holler has received highly acclaimed recognition; reaching #1 on both Roots Music Report's Blues Rock Chart and ReverbNation's Global Blues Chart as well as earning several nominations for Blues Rock Album of the Year.

The Toronto singer/songwriter/guitarist is propelling blues rock into the contemporary music culture with his unapologetic approach to reinventing the genre in relevant and fresh ways. "The blues is old, but not tired" said Anthony, adding: "It speaks as truthfully today, and for this generation, as it ever has." Blues Music Magazine writes, "the formidable guitar chops and authentic singing place him in the forefront of modern blues." This, along with his high-energy shows and dynamic stage presence, make him one of the top draws on the Rock/Blues circuit today. And the facts speak for themselves.

Gomes has performed in 17 countries and has shared the stage with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Robert Plant, Joe Bonamassa, Heart, Jonny Lang, Sammy Hagar, 38 Special, Robert Cray and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Gomes' instinctive mastery of his craft is matched by his knowledge of and dedication to blues history. He is an award winning blues history scholar, earning the University of Toronto's C.P. Stacey Prize for the highest overall academic grade point average by a history student. Anthony also completed his master's degree thesis on the racial and cultural evolution of blues music, graduating with high distinction. In 2014, his thesis was published and nominated for the Best Blues Book of the Year by Blues 411.

Believing that music can inspire the human spirit, Anthony founded the Music Is the Medicine Foundation in 2010. This non-profit organization is dedicated to changing the lives of others through the healing power of music. Through private donations and winning sizable grants from State Farm Insurance and CVS Pharmacy, the foundation has funded songwriting scholarships, offered music education programs, and donated musical instruments to those in need.

Born in Toronto, Canada to a Portuguese father and a FrenchCanadian mother, Gomes began playing guitar in his early teens and was drawn to the blues sounds of B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. He relocated to Chicago in the late '90s to learn from the blues masters. During his brief stint as a sideman for Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Gomes put together his own group and won the first annual Buddy Guy's Legends "Best Unsigned Blues Band" competition in 1998. Later that year, Gomes released his debut CD, Blues in Technicolor, which introduced him as a guitar-slinger loaded with impressive firepower.

On 2002's Unity, he accomplished the album's title with a heavy mix of styles leading Bandit Blues Radio to name it one of the "Top 30 Essential Blues Albums" of all time. Gomes was elevated to the top of the blues field just one year later when BluesWax Magazine named him "Artist of the Year," a nomination he would claim for several years in a row due to his endless commitment and touring. Music Is the Medicine (2006) peaked at number four on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart, only to be outdone by LIVE (2008) debuting at number one. Anthony's Up 2 Zero (2012) album was named the Best Blues CD of the Year by Al Blues and Blues Underground Network voted it the Best Blues Rock CD of
2012. The accolades continued in 2013 with the release of
Gomes' gusty acoustic album Before The Beginning with Blues 411 honoring the release with the "Jimi Award" for Best Blues/Rock recording of the Year.

Electric Field Holler, Anthony's latest offering, is his most rock influenced album to date. The heavy hitting "Turn It Up" has Gomes rightfully boasting "I've got a blues soul and a rock n roll heart". From the guitar roaring "Back Door Scratching" to the mythic, autobiographical "Blueschild", Gomes delivers a sensory roller coaster of instrumental, vocal and musical range. He sings with an integrity that exudes deep emotion, in the pulsing "Nowhere is Home" right through to the closing, apocalyptic "Listen To The Universe".

Blues Rock Review, Roots Music Report, Confessing The Blues and Blue Monday Monthly have featured Electric Field Holler in their Top Blues Albums of the Year, proving that Blues and Rock n Roll can not only co-exist, but the lines can be blurred between them to create a blazing cathartic experience radiating therapeutic heat for body and soul.

Electric Field Holler, Anthony's latest offering, is his most rock influenced album to date. The heavy hitting "Turn It Up" has Gomes rightfully boasting "I've got a blues soul and a rock n roll heart". From the guitar roaring "Back Door Scratching" to the mythic, autobiographical "Blueschild", Gomes delivers a sensory roller coaster of instrumental, vocal and musical range. He sings with an integrity that exudes deep emotion, in the pulsing "Nowhere is Home" right through to the closing, apocalyptic "Listen To The Universe."