With new album and busy tour, Boston-based GA-20's Matt Stubbs says it's 'good to be home'

One of the best stories to emerge from the New England music scene over the past year is the heavy blues trio GA-20, which just completed a five-week national tour and is celebrating the release of their latest album Friday night at The Narrows Center in Fall River. In little over a year, the trio has become one of the most prominent blues acts in the world.

GA-20 came into being in 2018 when Boston guitarist Matt Stubbs had some free time on his hands. Playing guitar in the band of blues titan Charlie Musselwhite, Stubbs had been performing all over the world for the past dozen years. But when the harmonica virtuoso did an album with Ben Harper and then had a lengthy tour scheduled with Harper and his band, Stubbs could devote some time to his own projects. Finding a common love of heavy, gutbucket style blues and R&B from the 1950s and ‘60s with guitarist/singer Pat Faherty, a few impromptu local gigs coalesced into the formation of a new band, named after a favored old amplifier from the classic days of Chicago blues. By 2019, drummer Tim Carman made it a trio and a record deal with Ohio’s Colemine Records had GA-20 on their way.

Last year, “Try It You Might Like It,” an album of tunes from the seminal slide guitarist Hound Dog Taylor, vaulted GA-20 into the front rank of younger generation blues stars. Alligator Records, the country’s biggest blues label, had been founded decades ago to record Taylor’s music, so they worked out a collaborative deal to release the album in association with Colemine, and the reaction worldwide was stunning. The Taylor-themed album debuted at  No. 1 on the Billboard blues charts, and the trio spent most of the year touring behind it.

Concert review: Smashing Pumpkins go wild at TD Garden in Boston

Now, with a new album of their original music just out in September (“Crackdown” on Colemine’s Karma Chief imprint), GA-20 is just back from five weeks as part of a Colemine Records triple-bill tour, with The Monophonics and Kendra Morris.  GA-20 is doing just a couple of local shows (Thursday in Amherst at Drake’s, Friday at The Narrows Center and Saturday in Philadelphia) before departing on Nov. 10 for another European tour. The new record also debuted at No. 1, and the album also was ranked No. 16 for vinyl sales, No. 16 among Heatseekers, and No. 29 among Top Current Album Sales. The single “Dry Run” sits at the No. 2  spot among Sirius Radio’s Top 15 Rack of Blues, and the band is featured in a long story in Total Guitar magazine. It’s been a head-spinning year.

“It was good to go coast-to-coast with two other Colemine bands that are basically soul,” said Stubbs this week. “It got us in front of more audiences that are maybe not 100% blues fans, but hopefully liked what they heard. The new record debuted at No. 1  on Billboard and also iTunes’ blues charts and with the Hound Dog record, and our EP before that, that gives us three records in a row that debuted on the top of the blues charts, so that’s really satisfying. Our new record has been out six weeks but we were on the road so this is our official release show."

GA-20 had spent their down time during the pandemic writing and recording, so “Crackdown” was actually recorded and ready for release by mid-2020, but when the lockdown intervened, it was put on hold and then slotted after the Hound Dog Taylor record. Stubbs noted the trio has at least two more albums recorded and ready to go, which is fortunate since all their traveling left little time to write.

“Just this last five weeks put 11,300 miles on our van,” Stubbs said with a laugh. “Those were not days conducive to creativity, more like getting up and driving five or six hours to the next gig. Normally, when we’re home, Pat and I write separately and swap ideas, sending each other music on our iPhones.”

Concert review: Aerosmith jumps back in the saddle with 'frenetic,' 'fiery' show at Fenway Park

Stubbs noted that he had just flown out to Minneapolis to play a show with Musselwhite, but the septuagenarian bluesman isn’t using his regular band as much these days. Musselwhite is going out with the Blind Boys of Alabama and doing some gigs as a duo with Elvin Bishop.  But with the GA-20 tally now including more than three million streams on Spotify, Stubbs will be plenty busy.

“Our next full-length album is a live one, recorded at Loveland, Ohio, in the label’s own place,” Stubbs said. “After that, we have another full-length studio record ready to go. But this week, we’re just so looking forward to The Narrows Center, and tickets are almost gone, so it feels really good to be home.”

Echosmith rocks Boston

Last Friday, the Chino, California, pop band Echosmith headlined The Paradise in Boston, where a couple of hundred fans of all ages grooved to about 90 minutes of their infectious pop. Echosmith is a family band, consisting of lead singer Sydney Sierota, with her brothers Noah on bass and keyboards and Graham on drums.  The young trio began playing together in 2009 and initially there was a fourth sibling, oldest brother Jamie, who played guitar and left a few years later.

Echosmith’s online releases and videos found an audience almost right away, and by 2012 they’d been signed to Warner’s Music. Their single “Cool Kids” became Warner’s fifth biggest seller in 2014, eventually going triple-platinum, and their debut album “Talking Dreams” kept them in the spotlight. The trio was a popular attraction on the Vans Warped Tour in 2014.  With their second album, “Lonely Generation,” released just before the pandemic hit, Echosmith has been off the road for a while before this year’s "Hang Around Tour" kicked off. Sydney noted Friday night was their first Boston show in at least two years and they’d enjoyed spending time in the city beforehand – including eating a few lobster rolls.

'Tour-de-force': Cate Blanchett faces the music as a disgraced conductor in 'Tár'

Currently, Echosmith has a remake of "Cool Kids" with extended rhythmic jamming racking up streaming totals, and a few more hot singles online. The trio emerged all playing percussion for a heated run through “Gelato,” before easing into the elastic rhythms of “Over My Head,” with keyboard samples framing Sydney’s high alto vocals. “Talking Dreams” inspired the trio and much of the audience to start jumping happily in place, as the rhythmic onslaught turned the club into a dancing horde. Noah Sierota is an inventive bassist whose work often makes any other lead instrument unnecessary, and Graham is a monster on drums, a powerful, relentless rhythm machine.

But Sydney’s vocal skills were best displayed on a sweetly trilling version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” which the trio played in a stripped-down style. Echosmith has cited Fleetwood Mac, The Killers, U2 and Coldplay as among their influences, but their incessant rhythmic flow brings all of those influences into a decidedly 2022 hot jam setting full of energy. The frenetic charge “Lost Somebody” was impossible to resist, and their cover of Berlin’s “You Take My Breath Away” was a neat updating of that classic. The night ended with a lengthy, 10-minute romp through the "new" take on "Cool Kids,” and a promise to return to Boston sooner than two more years.

Ernie Boch Jr.'s guitars on display

Boston’s Folk, Americana, Roots Hall of Fame unveils a new exhibit this Thursday, as "Life in Six Strings" brings 24 of car magnate/philanthropist Ernie Boch Jr.’s most treasured axes to the museum at the Boch Center’s Wang Theatre. The cool thing is that through hologram technology, fans can ask Boch, who is also an accomplished musician, questions about the guitars and get an immediate answer. “Each guitar chosen is a special guitar for me,” Boch said in a statement. “Either I played it on a gig, or it was a gift, or it's a super-, super-cool guitar that when I saw it, I bought it.” Tickets to the museum are $20 and $12 for kids under 12, available at bochcenter.org/tours.

Weekend gigs: Tegan and Sara, Duke Robillard

THURSDAY: Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe makes its Soundcheck Studios debut, and the saxman and his funky septet are widely acclaimed so this is an event. Ray Lamontagne sings at MGM Music Hall. A Band of Killers brings reggae, rock and funk to Brighton Music Hall. Jason Spooner’s songs at The Spire Center. Chicago Total Access (echoing the original Chicago Transit Authority moniker) does a fab tribute to the band Chicago at City Winery.

FRIDAY: Ween opens a weekend of rocking Roadrunner. October Road’s tribute to James Taylor at The Spire Center. Trivium rocks The House of Blues. Tegan and Sara harmonize at Royale. Two stellar indie rock bands when The Freight and Gravel Project get down at Soundcheck Studios. The quartet Fidlar heats up The Paradise. The Joy Formidable’s sweet sounds at The Sinclair. Matisyahu’s reggae beats at Big Night Live. The Adam Ezra Group at City Winery. Jean Dawson at Brighton Music Hall.

SATURDAY: New Bedford blues guitar prodigy Quinn Sullivan lights up The Spire Center. The Record Company sure to heat up Royale. The Narrows Center has a spooky special: the classic silent movie "Nosferatu" with a live band led by Paul Bielatowicz performing an original soundtrack. Pusha T raps at The House of Blues. The female quintet Band Maid shakes up the Paradise. Daya delights at Brighton Music Hall.

SUNDAY: Kurt Vile rocks Royale. Big D and the Kids Table raise a ruckus at Brighton Music Hall. City Winery has two shows: folksinger Michelle Shocked in the Haymarket Lounge, with guitar icon Duke Robillard on the main stage.

See GA-20

When: 8 p.m. Oct. 28

Where: The Narrows Center, 6 Anawan St., Fall River

Tickets: $25 in advance or $28 at the door

Info: 508-324-1926 or narrowscenter.org

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. Please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Patriot Ledger subscription. Here is our latest offer.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Boston blues rockers GA-20 celebrating new album 'Crackdown'