A renowned South Shore blues artist preparing for a rare local show

Marshfield’s Anthony Geraci is an internationally renowned blues and soul pianist, whose “Blues Called My Name” album last year won accolades everywhere. His busy touring schedule with The Boston Blues All Stars takes him all over the world, and he has recorded with luminaries like Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, Ronnie Earl, Monster Mike Welch, Sugaray Rayford, Kenny Neal, and the harmonica all-star showcases Super Harps I and Super Harps II.

But when he’s at home and he’s not playing piano, Geraci is an avid gardener who usually delights in turning his backyard produce into gourmet meals.

“I had some fabulous tomato plants this summer, and unbelievable Swiss chard,” Geraci said when we talked by phone last week. “I’ve also been enjoying some really good garlic this year too. If not for my music career, I’d have probably become a chef, and I love cooking with stuff right out of the garden.”

A rare local show

Geraci takes a break from his globe-trotting schedule this Friday when he headlines The Spire Center in Plymouth, a rare almost-hometown gig. (The Spire Center is located at 25½ Court St. in downtown Plymouth, and tickets are $22.50-$25.00, available through spirecenter.org, at the door, or by calling 508-746-4488)

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Geraci’s busy 2023 started in January when he was nominated again for the Blues Music Award for the genre’s best pianist, also known as The Pinetop Perkins Award, named after Muddy Waters’ famed sideman. Not only was Geraci nominated for that prestigious award – which he’d won before – but his band The Boston Blues All Stars were nominated as Best Band of the Year.

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“I won the Pinetop Perkins Award and of course I was happy with that,” said Geraci. “But I was even happier to see the band nominated as Band of the Year. They didn’t win, but we got the chance to go down to Memphis and play at the B.M.A. awards show. Everybody is there, promoters, bookers, and many musicians – it is really the blues hub of the world for that whole week. After that we went down and worked with the Pinetop Perkins Foundation (in Clarksville, Mississippi) like I do every year, but this time I was able to bring the band with me, so it was really nice.”

Friendship with Pinetop

Geraci, who knew and became friends with, and even hosted the late Perkins in his home over the years, was especially gratified to see guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram talking about the music on “60 Minutes” a while back.

60 Minutes: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram talks about the blues

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“'Kingfish' had been with us, in our Pinetop programs since he was five or six years old,” Geraci noted. “He’s been working with us, in our workshops and so on, for close to 20 years now, and when he comes by now, he’s an idol to all those kids. They can see that someone like them can really play that music and become famous the world over.”

One of the best gigs Geraci and the band have had recently was at Bern, Switzerland, where they played for a week at a historic old hotel in the city’s center.

“It was a classic old-style jazz room, in one of the older hotels,” said Geraci. “But we really liked the fact that we could just go out, get in the elevator and go to the club every night. You don’t really find many bookings like that, for a whole week, in such nice surroundings anymore and we loved it. We’re going back in March of 2024.”

The success of the latest album, and their prominence at the Blues Music Awards, really helped expand the band’s reach in 2023.

Taking it on the road

“We’ve been through Canada a couple times, just played a terrific show at Naimo, by Vancouver, did a beautiful festival in Ottawa, and are headed south as far as Florida this spring,” said Geraci. “I was really happy that the album, my recording debut on the Blue Heart label, debuted at No. 1 on the blues charts, and some of the roots music charts too. I did it mostly with my core band, with just a few guests like Sugar Ray Norcia. I think, going forward, I want to record more like that, with my core band instead of so many guests. Playing original music like we do, I can’t just get a pickup band in every city like some people do, so these musicians are a vital part of the music.”

Geraci has found a quartet that really gels onstage and off, and he can’t praise them enough.

Band has Massachusetts ties

“I knew guitarist Barrett Anderson, a central Massachusetts native, from years on the Boston area blues scene,” Geraci explained. “I’d heard him play with Ronnie Earl, and Monster Mike Welch, and so two years ago, when I was putting a new band together, I gave him a call. Having good people is just as important as having good musicians. But these are all great musicians, and that is important too, because we’re doing all original music, and you can’t get by copying someone else’s licks. I like to recall a time I played with G.E. Smith, an old pal from New Haven (best known as the Saturday Night Live bandleader/guitarist) and I asked him what he wanted me to play, and his answer was ‘just play great.’ And that’s my attitude; I know these guys are great players, so I’m confident whatever they play will be outstanding, and Barrett is a prime example of that.”

Bassist Paul Loranger and drummer Kurt Kelker are both veterans of the late Candye Kane’s blues band, but both come with a wealth of knowledge.

“Kurt was originally from Chicago but spent a lot of time on the West Coast,” Geraci noted. “But he had recently moved back to the North Shore of Boston, in part to work in his family’s cannabis business. Even though what we’re playing is the blues, you still need that swinging feel, and Kurt is superb at that. Paul has been around a long time and played with Popa Chubby for a long time. He has a long history in the blues, but also in country bands. What I think is really nice, and separates us from most other blues acts, is that whatever direction my songs go in, they are grounded by Paul’s acoustic bass. When we can pair that acoustic bass with an acoustic piano, like at the Spire Center, the sound is just wonderful.”

Constantly working

Geraci loves to play piano, which is one reason he writes new material almost every day. That’s why it is no surprise to hear there’s an new album on the way, and fans at the Spire Center will hear some of the new music.

“We have a new record all done, recorded and being mastered this week by John Porter,” Geraci said. “John has had multiple Grammy nominations for his mastering work with Taj Mahal, Jon Cleary, Buddy Guy and others. I think we’ll perform three or four of the new cuts, and Barrett sings the title track, “Tears In My Eyes,” and I think people will really like that one.”

Two veterans make an impression

Last week provided some solid evidence that music keeps you young, with two venerable rockers uncorking a pair of unforgettable nights. Both Nick Lowe and Southside Johnny are 74 according to the calendar, but both are still delivering two-hour shows of unflagging energy and artistic brilliance.

Nick Lowe kicks off tour in style

Lowe’s fall tour kicked off last Wednesday before a sold-out crowd of about 500 at Brighton Music Hall, with the songwriter backed by Los Straitjackets, the surf-rocking quartet that performs while wearing Mexican wrestling masks. The set included about 22 songs – and I’m only being inexact because one exuberant 60-something fan celebrating his birthday too hard passed out late in the set, and so my notes are a bit scrambled due to the ambulance crew arriving to cart him out – he was sitting up by the time they left.

Lowe’s songs touched upon many eras of his 50-year career, and as raucously fun as his 1980s stuff was, his later, more pensive tunes like “Lately I’ve Been Letting Things Slide” proved once again he’s one of rock’s most compelling writers.  The buoyant “Tokyo Bay” was an early highlight, “Love Starvation” was a mid-set potboiler, and the rowdy “Half A Boy, Half A Man” from his Rockpile days was a gem.

Lowe’s biggest U.S. hit “Cruel to be Kind” was the expected joyous romp, and I believe it was when he started “What’s So Funny (About Love, Peace, and Understanding)?” that the guy a few feet in front of me collapsed. He did seem OK by the time he was carried out on the stretcher, but if you have to, keeling over at a rock show while Nick Lowe sings that song is not the worst way to go.  Lowe’s set ended with a marvelous charge through “I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll.”

He came back for an easy-rolling encore of “When I Write the Book.” But while half the crowd started filing out, half kept roaring, so Lowe came back for a second encore, solo acoustic, to cap off a superb night.  Lowe had taken a mid-set break, while Los Straitjackets did a handful of their own lively numbers, including a surf-rocking take on the “Theme from ‘Bonanza’” that was otherworldly.

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes power through

Thursday night, 300 fans packed The Narrows Center in Fall River for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, the Jersey shore rock and R&B veterans who were buddies and even role models for young Bruce Springsteen.

Southside himself – Johnny Lyon – had a touch of rawness in his voice, so keyboardist Jeff Kazee helped out with harmony, and a couple lead vocals. As a friend noted, Southside and the band seemed to really enjoy the nightclub atmosphere at the Narrows, as opposed to the arenas they usually play.

Southside’s 19-song set was charmingly loosey-goosey, but the Jukes are the kind of pros who can play anything at a second’s notice. Who knows why some fan blurted out a request for "Hang On Sloopy," but the groove-laden version that resulted was lots of fun.

A soul medley went from “Without Love” to “Broke Down Piece of Man” to Sam & Dave’s iconic “Soul Man” with real panache.  Southside took a quick break mid set, so Kazee sang a very creditable “Drowning in my Own Tears” while he was gone. The soul-rock ballad “It’s Been A Long Time” is an ode to the music’s past heroes, and its chorus of “let’s raise a glass to the comrades we've lost …” seemed especially poignant Thursday night.

As much as he’d been fighting the croak in his voice, Southside really invested “All the Way Home” with enough emotion to make it unforgettable. The homestretch of “The Fever” and “Trapped Again” was such jubilant, singalong fun it seemed the roof might actually blow off the building.

And when the Jukes and Johnny encored with Sam Cooke’s “Havin’ A Party,” well, any pretense of being a normal concert dissolved into a mass celebration.

Longtime Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes fans will tell you, that's just the sort of musical ecstasy they bring every night.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Marshfield’s Anthony Geraci performing Friday in Plymouth