The hot off the floor tracks are from two studio sessions and reflect all that the veteran players know and love about the world of blues, jazz, jam, and soul. In the throwback manner of the heyday of the genre, Geraci and the band booked a session at Studio Faust Records in Prague, Czech Republic, in the midst of a five-week European Tour in the fall of 2022 to catch the group while at their peak. Seven original tunes emerged from a single day of recording with engineer Derek Saxenmeyer. The remaining four tunes completing the album were recorded in February 2023 at Wellspring Sound in Acton, Massachusetts.

Recalling their days together in the Bluetones, Sugar Ray leads the boys through the bone crushing bump and grind blues “Broken Mirror, Broken Mirror,” and the rhythm section drives the swinging groove on the nimble instrumental “Owl’s Nest” that features a hot sax solo from guest Drew Davies. Anderson steps to the mic on the title track “Tears In My Eyes,” a modern blues with shades of 70’s Grateful Dead and Dylan.

The elegant instrumental, “Blues for Willie J,” is dedicated to Geraci’s former Proven Ones’ bandmate, the late Willie J. Campbell. Sugar Ray returns with his best Charles Brown on the tale of a man who fought the law “Judge Oh Judge.” Geraci and the fellas pay homage to Eddie Harris and Les McCann with their soul jazz instrumental “Oh No,” and Anthony has a little fun with the playful boogie woogie “Ooeee.”

The soaring string lines from Harris add class to the lilting “Memphis Mist,” and the band takes a page out of the Eat A Peach playbook on the Southern Rock sizzler “Witchy Ways.” Sugar Ray pleads with the universe on the blues lament “Now What” and Geraci tickles the ivories on “Lonely Country Road Blues,” as a sweet pastoral closing number to the diverse album from a group of fine players.

Rick J Bowen

BIOGRAPHY

Boston, Massachusetts-based Anthony Geraci’s seventeen Blues Music Award nominations and 2021 BMA win reflect four decades of musical excellence both in studio and onstage. Anthony Geraci won the 2021, and 2023 Blues Music Award for Instrumentalist-Piano/Pinetop Perkins Piano Award. His band The Boston Blues All-Stars were nominated for Band of the Year by The Blues Foundation in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Anthony was nominated for Traditional Male Blues Artist in 2019.

A native of New Haven, CT, Geraci witnessed the live performances of blues greats including B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers, providing a world class blues education at an early age that would later come full circle when he had the opportunity to perform with them, and many other blues icons. Geraci graduated from the Berklee College of Music with a B.A. and holds an M.A. from Skidmore College.

An original member of Sugar Ray and the Bluetones and Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, Geraci has recorded extensively with both groups, in addition to a host of iconic traditional blues artists and leading contemporary acts. He received a 2000 GRAMMY® nomination as one of the studio musicians on Super Harps I (Telarc Blues) featuring Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, Billy Branch and Sugar Ray Norcia.