'Blues Called My Name': Marshfield keyboardist Anthony Geraci releases ninth album

Marshfield keyboardist Anthony Geraci wrote loads of new music during the pandemic shutdown, and now he’s ready to release some of it on his ninth album, “Blues Called My Name,” out Friday, May 20. To celebrate the new music, Geraci and the Boston Blues All-Stars will be headlining The Music Room in West Yarmouth on Thursday, May 19.

Geraci’s recording process during the slow months of the pandemic was quite a change. On previous albums, he prided himself on recording with everyone in the same room at the same time. But this project demanded a new approach.

We caught up with Geraci last week, just before he departed for Phoenix to finish up a recording session on bluesman John Primer’s next album and to squeeze in a gig with Primer at Bob Corritore’s Phoenix nightclub.

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“There’s this terrific studio, Tempest Sound, in Phoenix,” Geraci explained. “We all went down there and recorded with John Primer in February and did three or four tunes. Bob is a musician and a club owner, so it makes it easy for us to do the session and then play on Friday night at Bob’s club. It’s a lot of fun with an all-star group, with Wes Starr on drums, Bob and Jimmy 'Prime Time' Smith.”

Geraci’s long career in the music world has seen him form friendships with a plethora of big names, and he is usually in demand for guest shots on other people’s albums. But in recent years, the success of his albums has allowed more focus on his own band. Geraci was an original member of Sugar Ray and the Bluetones and an original member of Ronnie Earl’s Broadcasters, and remains a close friend and occasional musical guest of both.

“Yes, I’m not playing with Sugar Ray Norcia anymore and I also left The Proven Ones last year,” said Geraci, who won the Pinetop Perkins Keyboardist of the Year Blues Music Award last year, and was nominated as outstanding keyboards player this year by Living Blues Magazine.

Owing to his long career in music (many New Englanders remember his 1980s R&B band Little Anthony and the Locomotives), Geraci’s solo works straddle blues, jazz, rock and soul, with stellar arrangements and usually an array of guest stars and guest vocalists. The new record is on a new label for Geraci.

“I had done my previous two records with Jesse Finkelstein’s label, Shining Stone,” said Geraci. “Jesse is a blues radio guy and he’s a one-man show who helps a lot of people. He did an incredible amount for me, in breaking my records to international blues radio, and donated to Todd’s recovery (Geraci’s son Todd was hit by a truck in Vermont and lost part of his leg), so he is a genuine good guy. But with Jesse’s blessing, I was thrilled to have Blue Heart Records pick up this new record. They are also associated with Blind Raccoon Publicity and I’ve never had this much interest in a record – and it’s not even out yet. It’s my first time with a record label with a real publicity push."

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“My last four records have done really well and we usually did them with the band all in one room,” Geraci noted. “But since we did this one during COVID, we had to change it up. I just got together with a rhythm section and we recorded it at the main hall at South Shore Conservatory in Duxbury. Everybody was flailing around, with no gigs, at the time. We set it up so that we were not around each other, but with Jeff Largent as engineer it all came together really well. We had a makeshift place for the drums, moving blankets around and so on, and had the acoustic bass over in a corner, separating the three of us as best we could.”

Guests are a regular feature of Geraci’s excellent albums.

“Once we had the basic tracks down, I began adding to them,” said Geraci. “I had Sugar Ray sing on one and Monster Mike Welch overdubbed guitar on another song. I sent a track out to Walter Trout in Los Angeles and he added guitar, and then I had Erika Van Pelt sing on another tune. Honestly, I’m thrilled with the way it sounds. We’re used to doing it almost all live in the studio. This was more of a layered effort, but it worked beyond my wildest dreams.”

Geraci writes his music while often imagining who he’d like to have for a guest on the recorded version.

“I had a vision for this record and I wrote all 10 songs,” he said. “I had a feel for how I wanted the whole record to flow from one song into the next. When I write, if I’m not going to sing a particular song, I visualize the people I want on it. We have one cut with Anne Harris, this amazing violinist from Chicago. And then I knew I wanted Walter Trout, one of the greatest guitarists of his generation and a guy who’s become a good friend. ... He played beautifully on his song, very melodic and you could tell he was really into it.

“But it’s not just about having my recognizable friends,” Geraci added. “It’s about having people who play powerful music. That’s always been the idea, to bring people like that together. Sugar Ray sings three tracks and Erika one. I’ve always worked with powerful singers because my approach is to go for the best, most powerful musicians we can get.”

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There’s another bonus to having that new label attachment.

“The title cut, 'The Blues Called My Name' – the label dropped the ‘the’ in the album title – is already out as a single, with a video,” said Geraci. “This is the first time I’ve had a video of one of my tunes out. Again it is so important to have Blue Heart Records behind me.”

The cover of the new album is also noteworthy, the impressionist painting "Human on a Couch" by the Georgian artist Alexander Varvaridze. Geraci became aware of him on his European tours.

“He’s a fantastic artist, and he is in the country Georgia, not our state,” Geraci pointed out. “I used one of his paintings for my ‘Daydreams in Blue’ album too. Anything is better than another photo of me sitting at a piano. But this man’s village is still occupied by Russian troops, so I can’t imagine the pressure he’s under. But this was a good way to combine my music and his art and let more people see it.”

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From Geraci’s viewpoint, the music scene is opening up again, slowly but surely. He noted that usually his schedule is full of festival gigs, but since many festivals are only now able to honor their 2020 contracts, they aren't making many new bookings. But he’ll be busy enough and expects to tour Europe in the fall. Central Massachusetts star Barrett Anderson is the latest addition to Geraci's Boston Blues All-Stars, playing guitar and singing.

“We’re playing Chan’s in Woonsocket on June 25, then the Ottawa Blues Festival, the North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland, Maine, and then the White Mountain Blues Festival in August,” Geraci noted.

See Anthony Geraci and Boston Blues All-Stars

When: 7 p.m. May 19

Where: The Music Room, 541 Main St., West Yarmouth

Tickets: $25-$55

Info: 508-694-6125; musicroomcapecod.com

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: 'Blues Called My Name': Marshfield's Anthony Geraci releases new album