GA-20

GA-20 are a three-piece blues combo whose sound is a raucous throwback to the raw immediacy of vintage Chicago blues. Founded by guitarist Matthew Stubbs, their performances are simple but potent, stripping the songs down to their frameworks with just two guitars and a drummer, while the tunes are modern-day variations on the joyous menace of the heyday of Chess Records. Founded in 2017, the band made a muscular debut with 2019′s Lonely Soul, which captured their power and passion in straightforward, lo-fi style. In 2021 they issued Try It... You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor, while 2022 saw the release of Crackdown, a set dominated by originals that had been in the works before their second LP came out.
Boston native Matthew Stubbs had already earned a reputation as an ace guitarist playing with legendary blues harpist Charlie Musselwhite, as well as his own psych-influenced rock group Matthew Stubbs and the Antiguas. Wanting to launch a blues-oriented project of his own, Stubbs joined forces with Pat Faherty, another guitarist whose work was steeped in blues, vintage R&B, and rootsy rock & roll. The new group began playing out in 2017 before they had settled on a name, with Stubbs and Faherty joined by harmonica player Matt Prozialeck (best known for his work with Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers) and a rotating cast of drummers. By early 2018, they had settled on a drummer, Chris Anzalone of the long-running Roomful of Blues, and adopted the name GA-20, which refers to a much-loved guitar amplifier manufactured by Gibson in the ’50s.
In December 2018, GA-20 brought out their first single, “Naggin on my Mind” b/w “Sit Down Baby.” The tracks included guest appearances from Stubbs’ old boss Charlie Musselwhite and North Mississippi Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson, and were issued by the Ohio-based Karma Chief label. By the end of 2019, GA-20 had followed up with their first full-length album, Lonely Soul, which also featured Musselwhite, Dickinson, and Prozialeck, along with the core trio of Stubbs, Faherty, and Anzalone. The album got a warm welcome from blues fans, debuting at number two on the national blues charts. By the time the album took off, GA-20 had a new lineup, with Tim Carman replacing Anzalone behind the drums.
In 2021, Chicago’s Alligator Records celebrated its 50th anniversary and the self-titled debut release by their first signing, Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers. Label boss Bruce Iglauer teamed with GA-20 and their label, Colemine Records, to record ten tunes by the legendary bluesman, drawn from his first three albums. The labels jointly released Try It... You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor that August. The album debuted at Number One on the Blues Albums chart in the United States, and also charted in Australia and the United Kingdom. While the band was enjoying the success of Try It... You Might Like It!, they were keeping a secret from their fans — they had already recorded most of an album of fresh originals at Q Division Studios in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts before the Hound Dog Taylor tribute project was proposed. In 2022, GA-20 returned to the material they’d put on hold, and Crackdown was issued by Colemine Records in September of that year. ~ Mark Deming