Blues band GA-20 performs at The Red Shed in Hutchinson on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The trio, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Pat Faherty, guitarist Matthew Stubbs and drummer Tim Carman, is supporting its most recent recording, “Live in Loveland.”
Since forming in 2018, the group has recorded a handful of acclaimed records, including 2022’s “Crackdown” and 2021’s “Try It…You Might Like It: GA Does Hound Dog Taylor.”
Stubbs recently spoke with KMUW about the band’s roots, its current tour and the enduring power of the blues.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Your most recent record is “Live in Loveland.” What made this the right time for a live record?
We recorded that one a little while ago on tour. Our record label, Colemine Records, has a record store in Loveland, Ohio. We were heading out on tour, and we booked an after-hours show, a concert, at the record store. It was a last-minute decision. I hit up the owner of the record label, who is also an engineer, and just ran it by him. “Why don’t we set up the tape machine and just record the show and just see what we get?” So, we did, and we liked the results. We’ve been sitting on it for a little while. During the pandemic, I mixed it. We just felt like it was a good record to follow-up “Crackdown,” our last studio album.
It seems that the studio albums and the live performances are seamless.
When we record in the studio, we usually always set up all in one room together with the amps and the drums all in one room so there’s lots of bleed. We try to capture a performance rather than laying down the drums, then overdubbing the guitar, then overdubbing the vocals. Most of our songs are recorded live in the studio.
One of my favorite records in your discography is the “Try It … You Might Like It: GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor.”
It was during COVID, during the lockdown. Alligator Records, who put out Hound Dog’s first records, in the early ’70s, contacted about us about doing a record for Alligator. Our own music. We were already under contract with Colemine Records. 2021 was the 50th anniversary of Hound Dog’s first record with Alligator and the birth of Alligator Records, so I proposed the idea to Alligator and Colemine for the labels to work together and co-release a tribute album for Hound Dog. We were all just sitting at home, so we went to work. [We’d] get together once or twice a week out on my front porch because that was before you could really gather inside and whatnot. We worked out a bunch of Hound Dog Taylor songs over a period of a couple of months. Then we went into the studio and recorded them that November.
I really love the version of the song “Sadie” you do on that album.
For that album, I built a studio in my house. Everything was locked down, studios weren’t open. There was a small studio in the basement. I think that was one of the last songs on the record that we finished up if I remember correctly. It’s a cool song. It’s a slow, hypnotic groove.
If you don’t mind, take me back to the beginning of the band. Did you have a lot of conversations about direction at the start or did you say, “Let’s just play and see what comes out”?
Pat and I started the band. We were just using different drummers at the time. Pat was getting more and more into blues. I met Pat because, a couple years before we started the band, he would come out and see my band and ask questions about blues and even took a couple of guitar lessons from me. He was more into jazz and even like hardcore punk music. For whatever reason, he found blues and wanted to get into.
So, when we started this band, it was my concept where I wanted to start a real stripped-down, raw, Chicago-influenced blues band. There were no big goals of getting out on the road or even making records at first. I had a year off from touring with Charlie Musselwhite, and I was just trying to book some locals gigs to make some money and play music that I liked. That’s how we started and then we got a lot of gigs and wrote a few songs. Once we had a few originals, I had the idea of just going in and making an EP. When we did that, I ended up sending it off to Colemine Records, and they really liked it and wanted us to finish it, and they put out the record. That’s kind of how the band was born.
What do you think it is about the blues that has allowed the genre to endure?
Blues has never been out of style, but obviously it’s not pop music, so I think as far as having a face for it through different generations helped, whether it was Eric Clapton in the ’60s or Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan. Now you’ve got guys like Gary Clark Jr. There’s always a handful of people that are in the limelight, kind of crossing over into the more popular music space playing blues and talking about it. So, that’s good. I always think it could be even more popular, but that’s because I really love blues, you know?
What was your gateway into blues music?
My father’s a guitarist, so that was how I was introduced to music and guitar. He had a band when I was growing up. They would play on weekends and do band rehearsal once a week, so I would go down and watch his band rehearse and then go to the gigs. He was really into blues music and early rock ‘n’ roll. He loved Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. He grew up going to see B.B. King and Albert King play in the ’70s. He was really the person who introduced me to that style of music.
I have to ask you about your experience playing with Charlie Musselwhite.
I still play with him. I’m missing a few gigs here and there because GA-20’s on tour a lot. It’s been great. It’s my 15th year. We’re very good friends. It’s like going to blues college, being on stage with him and traveling with him and his band. Through playing with him and his band, there’s been lots of opportunities for us to be on tour backing up other blues legends. We did a tour backing up James Cotton and John Hammond Jr. … Billy Boy Arnold. I’m fortunate to be a part of Charlie’s career.
