Review by Peter Coates
ERIC GALES – A TRIBUTE TO LJK
(Artone Label Group / Provogue)
Release: 24th Oct 2025
Digital Release: 29th August 2025
Once again produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, A Tribute to LJK finds Eric Gales delivering a tribute to his fabled older brother Manuel, also known as Little Jimmy King, to try and keep his memory alive and real, through a bunch of LJK’s original songs. Manuel had a great career in his short time here, with Albert King and Little Jimmy King & the Memphis Soul Survivors.
The blues is an ecosystem, and it’s a measure of the respect commanded by both Eric – and his fabled older brother, real name Manuel, who sadly passed away in 2002 aged just 37 – that these ten explosive blues standards are delivered by an all-star cast with deep ties to the project.
“Buddy Guy and Little Jimmy played together, so he guests on the track Somebody,” explains Gales. “Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram has gone on record to say my brother was a big influence, so he’s on Rockin’ Horse Ride. They also both make pretty significant cameos in Sinners. So it all interweaves.”
The caramel coated voice announces the tribute to Little Jimmy King and Eric and the band dive straight into You Shouldn’t Have Left Me, a high-energy gritty blues workout powered along by Lemar Carter on the drums and Mono Neon on bass. Christone Ingram, something of a force of nature himself, delivers on Rockin’ Horse Ride, which sees some great work from Gerald Jenkins on the organ and keys, and features that mellow vocal delivery from Eric, backed up by some great female backing vocasl from Lenesha Randolph. Kingfish lets rip on the solos, featuring the wah-wah pedal, and there is some astonishing dual guitar work from the two of these thrilling blues slingers.
Guitar Man is a smoking ode to life on the road as a guitarist, with an off-beat tempo that rolls along a sharp groove – the band are on fire, and leave enough space for Eric to show his dexterity on the strings, while keeping the backbone of the track rumbling along. Old mate Joe Bonamassa fronts up with some rare Les Pauls for Don’t Wanna Go Home, which may be the rockiest track on the record, laden with sleazy swagger, and a stinging solo from Joe B as the main draw, and Eric taking the outro section with an incendiary lead break, featuring those polished scales he is renowned for.
Eric Gales is a blues firebrand. Over 30 years and 19 albums, his passion for the music and his boundless desire to keep it vital has never waned, even when his own light dimmed due to his substance struggles, and he ended up in Shelby County Correctional in 2009. Throughout it all, he continued to reinvigorate the art form with personal revelation in his lyrics and bold stylistic twists in his guitar playing and songwriting. Having Josh Smith on board as his second guitarist is brilliant – you have two of the rawest technical blues players fighting it out amongst the grooves.
Something less usual for Eric Gales is a sweltering slow-paced blues standard, but Something Inside Of Me is an Elmore James classic that LJK recorded in 1994, and that many others have covered too. You know it is old-school blues when the line is “I woke up early one morning” and the track is all about a missing girlfriend! The vocals are super-smooth, and the bass sets the tempo while the organ fills the space beneath the slick guitar breaks. The solo is another ripper, with Eric seemingly on a different plane to the rest of the band, as they maintain the cool blues backing, while he lets fly on the fretboard.
Normal service is resumed with the intro to Baby Baby, which you know is just going to turn into a rollicking strutter of a blues workout, with some splendid horns arranged by Calvin Turner and another impeccable segment from Lenesha Randolph. Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith both step up for It Takes A Whole Lot Of Money which is straight-up blues that motors along thanks to some crisp drumming, with some rough and ready backing vocals, and the guitar-playing you expect from the three guys wielding the Gibsons.
There is an elegance and smooth sophistication to the soulful blues of Worried Man which is the most under-stated track on the record, and never explodes from that subtle delivery. Blues Been Good To Me provide the explosion and is a Tower Of Power-influenced Motown-Blues funk amalgam, that has a jazz-rock beat underpinning the intricate guitar solo, before Gerald Jenkins takes the lead on the keys. Bass and drums rumble along at pace, and Eric gives a fast-paced vocal which is almost superfluous to the guitar playing.
The album closer, Somebody, starts off as a true Delta-Blues ballad, an acoustic / slide guitar duet with the great Buddy Guy – call and response vocals and intertwined guitar lines, and features Roosevelt Collier on the steel-guitar. This builds and builds into an all-out blues rocker, before it strips right back to the bare bones of the outro and the climactic finish.
A Tribute to LJK is even more than the sum of its parts – and while the music plays, Manuel Gales lives again. “I foresaw a great record,” considers Eric, “but I didn’t foresee it turning out as amazing as this. My brother is there throughout this whole record – and I can’t wait for it to start turning people’s heads
Useful Links:
Website –
www.ericgales.com
Facebook –
www.facebook.com/EricGales
Instagram –
www.instagram.com/ericgalesband
YouTube –
www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Gpui0DdJccVj_WGHneBmw
Eric Gales is back in Australia in November 2025 after some BluesFest and other cameos in 2023, and is doing a multi-city tour thanks to Gerrard Allman – tickets from https://gerrardallmanevents.com.au
