"Playing with Passion" Eric Gales and the Paul DesLauriers Band
Paul DesLauriers Band (PDB)
Wait. What? Guitarist Paul DesLauriers, Bassist Greg Morency and Drummer Sam Harrison, have won multiple Maple Blues Awards “honouring the finest in Canadian blues” in the following categories: “Electric Act”, “Entertainer”, “Guitarist”, “Bassist”, and “Drummer” of the Year and they were the warm-up act? Yes, that’s how good the night’s entertainment was.
When PDB stepped onto the stage at Retro Live’s two-story club on Friday, February 2, 2018, with “Walkin Blues”, Paul’s virtuosity, soulful voice, and a “no holds barred” dance tune showed up too. Paul strummed, caressed, finessed, and then shredded his acoustic guitar strings. “Goin’ Down Slow” from their “Relentless” Album, was ramming, cramming, and entreating.
“Up in the Air”, is about musicians on the road, away from family, chasing the dream, Paul explained during a previous concert. Friday night, his band’s woeful rendition, with the lyrics, “Are we ever coming down? Will we ever touch the ground?” wove in jungle and East Indian sounds.
With Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain Blues”, the audience heard some falsetto and plenty of heartfelt rhythm and blues. How can an acoustic guitar sound so electrifying? And how can Paul strum so fast? Maybe he drank copious amounts of coffee before the show and practiced strumming to a metronome set at 320 bpm, for give or take thirty years? Just a hunch.
For their last number, Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”, Paul used a motion-sensitive theremin with its other-worldly effects and sent the standing-room-only crowd out of orbit.
Gale Force
The heated-up audience was primed to groove to Eric Gales, regarded by some as the “next Jimi Hendrix” and highly praised by Joe Bonamassa, and by Carlos Santana with whom Eric has played. Before Eric took to the stage, Plattsburgh Blues and Jazz Producer Laura Carbone drew laughter as she stretched on her tiptoes to speak into the microphone raised for him.
“You gotta feel Eric,” Laura gushed to the crowd. “He’s regarded as one of the best electric guitarists on the planet.”
With a lively intro, Vocalist, Percussionist and Eric’s wife, LaDonna Gales, Drummer Nick Hayes, and Bassist Byron Carter stoked the fire, already lit by PDB. At forty-three, in a black T-shirt, long, silver necklace, and black baseball cap cinched over his bushy ponytail, Eric addressed the room, “I’m about to fit every ounce of emotion, passion and energy I could possibly fit into this guitar.” The crowd’s enthusiasm boiled over.
“Most important,” he continued, “for about twenty years of my life [and] I’m being very serious, I lived in a very dark hole [getting] as high as I possibly could... I almost killed myself five or six times that I can remember which is why you’ll see tears roll down my face. I’ve been through so much s _ _ t, self-induced. I’m an open book and I don’t mind letting you know where I’ve been and what I’ve been through… January 15th of this year, Eric Gales is celebrating eighteen months clean and sober!”
The crowd erupted with whoops and applause.
“I promise you guys and gals I’m going to play my a _ _ off if it’s alright with you.”
A funky, swinging, jazzy jam called “Yeah” pleased the ecstatic crowd.
For Freddy King’s “Boogie Man”, screaming high notes, crescendos, psychedelic sound, and orchestral climax filled a need the crowd may not have identified until then. It was a relentless build into a feverish pitch. Wow. Wow. Wow.
“That was bad a _ _!” Eric aptly stated to wild applause.
Then came the “Funk” with a ZZ Top brand of train bearing down and a pulsing, oh my god cranking. Did I mention the pulsing? It was a reverberating, slamming energy.
“I’m gonna send an email to my booking agent to make sure I come back to Plattsburgh, New York cause you all are f _ _ _ ing blowing my mind!” Eric yelled to all of the enthusiasts on the dance floor, at the bar, by the high tops, and on the balcony surrounding the room.
“Plattsburgh, do you mind if I play some blues for you?”
“Freedom Demons” had a nostalgic, late-60’s, note bending sound with the lyrics “I’ve been walking the narrow line for eighteen years… All I needed was freedom from inner demons and I needed some peace of mind.” Heartfelt, soulful crooning. By clacking two claves and using bells, LaDonna punctuated Eric’s messages which were so personally emotive, I imagined Eric’s tears falling and his guitar crying too. So authentic and engaging were his words, “Lord have mercy. Yeah.”
Changing the mood once again, LaDonna, with a rain stick’s gentle pattering, set the tone for Buddy Guy’s “Oh Baby Please”. She simultaneously sang, drummed and beat a tambourine. Bassist Byron, who followed any acknowledgement by offering the peace sign and thumping his fist to his chest in a gesture of camaraderie, and Drummer Nick from North Carolina, who swears by his Pearl drums, together held the bottom and the beat.
Eric and his guitar emitted with such earnestness and precision while LaDonna provided vocal harmony and melodic chimes.
Solos
Pointing to the band, Eric proclaimed, “Now is the time in the show to let those two young men do their thing. On the bass guitar we have… and on the drums… Take it out.”
LaDonna and Eric left the stage. The bass and the drums talked to one another, the language of notes, chords, beats and the integral white spaces in between, leaving us wanting more. The drummer anchored while the bassist went off and explored. Then together they sped up and built. Their instruments had plenty to say. Like friends with a lot of catching up to do, they listened and responded while their conversation flowed.
Then the drummer had his monologue, got his ya-ya’s out before their vibrant conversation resumed. LaDonna, with a clocking block and Eric with his awesome licks, returned to the stage to help conclude that number.
Eric has held a guitar since the age of four. On stage, they were one as they traversed sounds, feelings, rhythms, familiar and new. You got the sense he has played while sleeping, shaving, eating breakfast, tying his shoes, driving a car… He took his hands off his guitar and it continued to resonate suggesting it never stops singing.
“Another most favorite part of the show for me is track #17, “Swamp” [from my newest album, “Middle of the Road”]. The roof might come completely off… Now that all of us boys have had the time to play, it’s time for some women power. Put your hands together for my lovely wife Miss LaDonna Gales. You’re officially about to be swamped.”
As hot as a bonfire, LaDonna was on drums then tambourine while the other musicians added fuel. The audience roared.
“You know what? That was the precise response I wanted to get right there. Did everybody in this room feel the power?” The crowd was clamorous. LaDonna danced and stomped on the stage while shaking her tambourine. Mesmerizing all with his guitar chops, Eric knelt, then sat, briefly leaned back, sat up again, and when the song was ending, lay down on the stage and kicked his feet all the while playing hard. The crowd exploded.
Finale
“Here is the last one.”
A medley of 60’s riffs wafted through the room reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Blue Oyster Cult and AC/DC. The bodies on the dance floor continued to writhe. Eric and his guitar wailed.
The crowd wanted more. Eric motioned with his arms for still more applause. “…if [from] something we said or played… I was able to send one person home inspired that’s the biggest gift I could give… I want to thank Laura. I’ll be back. I promise I’ll be back…” Eric removed his hat and loosed his ponytail. His fingers swam over his strings. He held his guitar over his head and it sang and sang and sang on its own.
….
The show was recorded live by North Volume.
The next PB&J show: Dawn Tyler Watson coming to The Taphouse & Grill at Olive Ridley’s, March 3rd.
Beckie O'Neill February 9, 2018