"I would recommend young musicians slow down! There is no easy path to being an artist in any genre. You start with nothing. Just like a baby taking its first step-you have to learn the first note…then the next note. I’ve taught The History of The blues, History of Rock and Roll, World Music on the college level. Learning the history of your art is something that has always been important to me."

Anthony Geraci: Blues... In My Eyes & Soul

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.                               (Anthony Geraci / Photo © by Roald Jungard)

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. Award-winning piano man Anthony Geraci pays tribute to the old masters as he calls them on his sophomore album on Blue Heart Records. Tears In My Eyes (Release Day: April 19th, 2024), a collection of eleven new tunes, were recorded with his band, The Boston Blues All-Stars: guitarist Barrett Anderson, drummers Marty Richards and Kurt Kalker, and Paul Loranger on bass, along with special guests, violinist Anne Harris, and old friend Sugar Ray Norcia on vocals.

Interview by Michael Limnios                 Archive: Anthony Geraci, 2022 Interview

What's the balance in music between technical skills and soul/emotions?

I believe you can have technical skills without soul or emotions. It’s when both are present that real music happens. No matter what instrument you play, or genre of music you have to start somewhere. Lightnin’ Hopkins and Muddy Waters had to learn how to play their instruments just as much as Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Vladimir Horowitz did. I started taking piano lessons at a very early age. As I got older and started to play in bands that’s when the “soul searching” begins. Trying to learn songs from a record-maybe even the solo’s is a different set of internal skills that is very different than reading something off a printed music age. No matter how close you think you come to the “original” it’s you that brings the notes alive.

You have a new album by Blue Heart Records. Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album "Tears In My Eyes” (2024)?

We recorded half of the recording at Studio Faust Records in Prague, Czech Republic while on a 5 week European tour. We finished the recording at Wellspring Sound near Boston, MA. I wrote all of the songs on the recording, and having my touring band play on all the cuts made it really special. We were able to really dig into the songs because we have been playing together for a few years. Having my old “boss” Sugar Ray Norcia sing on a few cuts is always exciting for me. Anne Harris adds some beautiful violins to “Memphis Mist.” I wrote that song while strolling along the Mississippi River in Memphis at dawn and watching a hypnotic mist floating over the river…wanting to speak, but not giving up any of its secret.

"We have been given this one life. We’ve all experienced heartache in some form or another. But we’ve also all experienced extreme joy in our lives. I believe in treating people with respect. I believe in being kind to all forms of life. I’m very fortunate to have had a loving family growing up, and to now have a beautiful family of my own. I’ll be 70 years old this year…I still play piano everyday, and cherish every moment…there is no alternative!" (Anthony Geraci / Photo © by Yaëlle D. / CD Graphics by  Debra Clark)

Who are some of your very favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music?

I listen a lot to Lightnin’ Hopkins. I just love the story telling and the constant hypnotic rhythm of his guitar. I’m inspired by everything around me…rain on my window, the subtle rhythm of my washing machine (!), watching Gene Kelly dance. Being a songwriter, as well as a pianist ideas come to me in different ways. Sometimes while I'm at the piano, sometimes out of the blue…you just need to know how and when to catch them.

Why do you think that Bostonian Blues Scene continues to generate such a devoted following?

There’s always been great musicians in the Boston locale. In the 1940’s and 50’s there were a lot of jazz clubs. Around 1945 The Berklee College of Music (where I graduated) started. So many great musicians started to come to Boston to study, and also to play at all the clubs throughout the city. In the 1960’s folk clubs and blues clubs were staring to have artists such as Joan Baez, Muddy Waters play at small intimate clubs. In the 1970’s bands such as the original Roomful of Blues were playing almost weekly around the Boston area. That band inspired a lot of musicians. Everyone in that band was a great musician-but they all also had huge record collections. That band swung hard! When I first joined Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, Ronnie Earl was our guitarist. We would play 3 or 4 nights a week just in the Boston area.  

John Coltrane said "My music is the spiritual expression of what I am...". How do you understand the spirit, music, and the meaning of life?

We have been given this one life. We’ve all experienced heartache in some form or another. But we’ve also all experienced extreme joy in our lives. I believe in treating people with respect. I believe in being kind to all forms of life. I’m very fortunate to have had a loving family growing up, and to now have a beautiful family of my own. I’ll be 70 years old this year…I still play piano everyday, and cherish every moment…there is no alternative!

"I believe you can have technical skills without soul or emotions. It’s when both are present that real music happens. No matter what instrument you play, or genre of music you have to start somewhere. Lightnin’ Hopkins and Muddy Waters had to learn how to play their instruments just as much as Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Vladimir Horowitz did."

(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 / Photo © by Marilyn Stringer)

From the musical and feeling point of view is there any difference between the great old cats bluesmen and the young generation of Blues musicians?

I would recommend young musicians slow down! There is no easy path to being an artist in any genre. You start with nothing. Just like a baby taking its first step-you have to learn the first note…then the next note. I’ve taught The History of The blues, History of Rock and Roll, World Music on the college level. Learning the history of your art is something that has always been important to me.

Anthony Geraci - Home