On November 6th, 2018 recording began for a new album, once again produced by Duke Robillard. The album was recorded by Jack Gauthier at Lake West Studios in West Greenwich, Rhode Island.  I was joined by some old and new friends for the tracks on this particular record.

 

An array of great bass players made stunning contributions; most notably Scott Spray, a veteran of both Edgar and Johnny Winter Bands among other countless studio session credits, Frank Davis, an old friend and road warrior that logged many, many miles with me starting in the late 70's and Paul Opalach, bassist for Blue in the Face as well as being the recording engineer on the last two BITF albums.

Bruce Bears was on piano and Hammond Organ and Mark Texiera was on drums from the Duke Robillard Band, along with Lonnie Gasperini  on traditional Hammond organ.

Many other special musical guests  appeared on the record as well, including vocalist Howard Eldridge, an alumni of Matt 'Guitar' Murphy, the Blues Brothers, and Blue In The Face, Mark Earley from Roomful of Blues on Tenor and Baritone Sax and Doug James from The Jimmie Vaughan Band on Baritone sax. Sugar Ray Norcia supplied magnificent hanmonica, and the Beehive Queen, Christine Ohlman delivered some of the most soulful backing vocals I have ever heard.

 

This has been a very productive year as I will always cherish the fact that my last album, 'Paul Gabriel-What's the Chance' (also produced by Duke Robillard) was nominated for a Blues Music Award followed by receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Blues Society and also being inducted into the Connecticut Blues Hall Of Fame.

I am very grateful for the nominations and awards that I have been presented with as it shows that my efforts for being a messenger of the Blues over the last 50 years have been well received and appreciated.