Lots of blues vocalists have great talent as singers, but the ones who rise above bring with them a real “cigarette smoke, tears in the whiskey glass” pain to their work. An orphaned infant in the Vietnam War, Lara Price discovered her love of music as a child and has been channeling her pain into melodies since the age of 12. Her signature quaver earned her a nomination for best Soul Blues Female Artist in the 2017 Blues Awards, and her impressive recording career dates back to 2005. The Price is right!

Lara Price
Wed, 7pm, $10
Club Fox, Redwood City

In the early 1970s, British rock band Wishbone Ash helped usher in the era of twin-lead-guitar groups, a powerful and effective approach that influenced many of rock’s most beloved bands—from Thin Lizzy to Boston to Iron Maiden and beyond.

Led by guitarist, singer and songwriter Andy Powell, Wishbone Ash landed 10 albums on the Billboard charts; they fared even better in the U.K., where they earned a Gold and Silver certificate for 1972’s Argus and the 1974 LP There’s the Rub, respectively. As the 50th anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut approaches, Powell still leads the enduring and popular quartet; they’re currently on tour in the U.S. in support of Coat of Arms, Wishbone Ash’s 26th studio album.

Powell reflects on the influence of the harmonic lead-guitar style that long ago became Wishbone Ash’s signature.

“It’s not just twin-lead guitars,” he says. “We’re bringing the bass in there, so we’re often creating three melodic lines on a piece, or section, of a song. The bass is moving against the guitars, and the effect of that is to give the band a very melodic sound.”

He agrees that that musical strategy—one used earlier by the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck—has been very influential in rock. But Powell believes that there’s something uniquely indigenous to the way his band does it.

“Our approach is a little bit more English in roots—perhaps more Celtic, a little bit more folk—as opposed to blues,” he says.

Looking back across Wishbone Ash’s long history, there have been times when the group has strayed from its melodic, hard-rock direction.

“You can’t have a career without high points and low points,” Powell says. “When we were perhaps a bit mellower in the middle ’70s, I think it was an attempt to re-group; after being tools of the record labels for a long time, we just tried to make music on our own terms.”

Those records haven’t worn very well, but a live album, 1973’s Live Dates, is perhaps the best document of the band’s onstage musical firepower. In any event, by the 1990s, Wishbone Ash found its footing again.

“We got back into our stride and produced a great Celtic-rock album, Illuminations,” Powell says. Unfortunately, as he readily admits, “it sunk without a trace.”

But the band was ahead of the curve in an important way: Illuminations was fan-financed, more than a decade before the crowdfunding model became a viable option for recording artists.

In the late ’90s, Wishbone Ash pursued what in retrospect looks like another musical tangent: electronica.

“It was a reactionary thing,” Powell says of Trance Visionary and Psychic Terrorism, a pair of dance-oriented LPs. “There were all these dances going on. The Chemical Brothers were out there. And I thought, ‘You know what? We could do this; it’s a piece of cake!’”

Today Powell considers those albums “a tongue-in-cheek, fun thing.”

As the 21st century dawned, though, all of that was left in the past for Wishbone Ash.

“Whether we’ll go off like that again, I don’t know,” Powell says, with a laugh. “But we’re very firmly planted in our ’70s-inspired roots now.”

The soaring, tuneful twin-guitar leads that characterized popular album tracks like “Time Was” from Argus and There’s The Rub’s “Persephone” are all over recent Wishbone Ash songs  “We Stand as One” and “Back in the Day,” the first two singles from the band’s brand-new record, Coat of Arms.

The qualities that made those early Wishbone Ash LPs rock-fan favorites are in ample supply on the new record, yet the music sounds more timeless than nostalgic.

“When you’re in a band this many decades, you’re inspired by your own career in some ways,” Powell says. “We don’t want to be a parody [of ourselves], but we’re mindful that people are aware of a certain sound. At this stage of the game, I know I am what I am; I can’t be anything but.”

Still, Powell doesn’t feel constrained by that. “If I want to do something different, I can go off on a tangent,” he says. “I call it the gift that keeps on giving.”

Wishbone Ash
March 5, 7:30 p.m. $30
Club Fox, Redwood City

To listeners who have followed his work over the last few decades, it may appear that guitarist Eric Gales has evolved his technique. While quite good for what they are, the pair of albums he released in 2006 and 2007—Crystal Vision and The Psychedelic Underground—are characterized by what detractors might call overplaying.

“My approach has changed,” Gales says, acknowledging the critique. However, he goes on to explain that he was working in a bit of a bubble in the mid-2000s.

“I was on a guitar-oriented label, and I was produced by a predominantly guitar-infatuated producer,” he says. “In my opinion, I wouldn’t have played as much guitar as I did.” While he remains proud of his earlier releases, he says he’s mellowed with age. “I’ve just got a more reserved approach—lay back and play smooth—about things now.”

Looking back on his career in music so far—nearly 30 years making albums, and a decade of playing before that—Gales says that he believes he came into his own with a signature style around the release of his 2000 album, That’s What I Am.

“But it happened in phases,” he says,  pinpointing four subsequent albums that for him represent steps forward as a musician: 2010’s Relentless, Good for Something from 2015, Middle of the Road in 2017 and his most recent release.

“I believe it happened again with The Bookends,” he says.

Released in February 2019, The Bookends may be Gales’ most varied outing to date. There’s plenty of fiery, blistering guitar work, but the 45-year-old musician seems more comfortable with his abilities, and more focused on song craft that balances the instrumental cutting.

On The Bookends, Gales also focuses on his singing more than he has in the past.

“I was surrounded by some very inspirational artists who helped channel that through me,” he says.

He credits three individuals: his wife, producer Matt Wallace and Beth Hart, who duets with Gales on The Bookends’ standout track, a cover of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” by way of Joe Cocker’s arrangement.

“I think it’s been established that I think I can play guitar a little bit,” he says with a smile. “I didn’t want to negate the guitar, but I did want to put a little bit more emphasis on vocal performances.”

Gales wants the world to know that there’s more to him than what can fit neatly into the “blues guitarist” category. He says that the music he makes today is part of “a larger plan to try to saturate this world with all of the things that I feel, that are in my head and that inspire me.” And he teases that his next album might just expand his musical vision in wider directions.

Because Gales first established himself within the blues idiom, there’s an inevitable segment of his fan base that expects him to stay inside that box. But some of the tracks on The Bookends leave the blues completely behind. The guitarist isn’t overly concerned about alienating his followers, though.

“My fans who know me know to expect the unexpected from me,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m inspired and influenced by so many different things; The Bookends is just a summary of that. And that was exactly my point—that’s why I called it The Bookends. I’ve tried to touch on everything that I possibly could in a 10- or 11-song project, but they’re still part of one package.”

Another factor that influenced Gales’ musical journey is his recovery from addiction. He notes that many in music who met untimely ends could be described as tortured souls.

“They spent their life doing what they do to make other people happy, but who poured back into them?” He credits having a loving wife as being key to his coming back from the edge.

“Having a very clear head has opened up channels that allow for the raw energy to come through me and pour out into the listener,” he says. “And I’m really loving it. I’m never disappointed.”

He says that spontaneity is one of the musical results of being clean: “I have no idea what I’m about to do before I do it.”

Eric Gales
Feb 28, 8pm, $20+
Club Fox, Redwood City

The Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers take their cues from the immortal Texas power trio ZZ Top. And, in case you’re wondering, the answer is yes—they are rockin’ those famous ZZ beards. The Drinkers (named for an unforgettable song on ZZ Top’s 1973 album, Tres Hombres) headline this big Bay Area tribute-band bonanza. Also on the bill: Modern Cowboy, who play the hits of the 1990s hair-metal outfit Tesla, and Bay Company who recreate the sound of ’70s hitmakers Bad Company. Beards (real or fake) and cheap sunglasses are welcome.

ZZ Tribute
Sat, 8pm, $17+
Club Fox, Redwood City

Bon Jovi fans may always be “livin’ on a prayer” that they’ll somehow find their way back to the 1980s—when party-rock ruled the airwaves and mullets were worn unironically. That may never happen, but at least they have this: A triple bill at the Club Fox, featuring Bon Jovi completists Steel Horse, Haulin’ Oats (which goes deep into the fab career of Hall & Oates) and Canadian Red, a tribute to the unjustly forgotten Canadian quintet Loverboy, who gave the world “Workin’ for the Weekend.” Sleeveless T-shirts and head bandanas are not required, but strongly suggested.

Steel Horse
Sat, 8pm, $16+
Club Fox, Redwood City

While its shiftless younger cousins, rock and hip-hop, rely on the impulsive tendencies of youth, blues is a genre that rewards mastery. From B.B. to John Lee, the best bluesmen only improve with age. Case in point: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Elvin Bishop. His 1976 single “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” recently found younger audiences on the first Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, and he proves he’s still got it on his 2018 LP, Something Smells Funky ‘Round Here. He comes to Club Fox with his Big Fun Trio, featuring Redwood City resident Bob Welsh and Willy Jordan.

Elvin Bishop
Sat, 8pm, $28+
Club Fox, Redwood City

Pat Travers was part of a wave of late-’70s guitar heroes—artists who, in the wake of Peter Frampton’s runaway success, seemed poised to break out in a major way. But just as things got rolling for Travers, a combination of changing fashions, the corporatization of rock radio and plain bad luck blunted his momentum.

Still, he soldiered on, building a deeper and more varied body of work that continues to hold up today. He remains active outside the studio as well, playing dozens of live dates yearly, all over the US and in his native Canada.

Travers first came on the scene with his self-titled 1976 debut album. Building a straightforward, blues-influenced sound around his guitar playing and a spare bass-and-drums rhythm section, he delivered a sturdy set of rockers; half the album tracks were original tunes, and the rest, such as Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” and Little Walter’s “Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights),” were well-chosen covers.

The latter would be a minor hit single for Travers when released in a rowdy live version on his fifth album, 1979’s Live! Go For What You Know. On the strength of that record’s success, he followed up with his most popular studio album, 1980’s Crash and Burn.

Unfortunately, today that record title seems more than a little prophetic. His next album fared poorly on the charts. When it’s suggested that the launch of MTV—with its favoring of visually and style-oriented groups over artists who played guitars—might have contributed to his commercial misfortune, Travers agrees, but he says there’s more to it than that.

“The kiss of death—the real bite—came before that,” Travers says.

He lays the blame for the end of creatively vital rock radio stations (like the ones that played Pat Travers records) at the feet of Lee Abrams. A pioneer of using research to build radio playlists, Abrams is credited with creating the AOR (album oriented radio) format. But Abrams’ approach usurped the role of radio station program directors, replacing their music choices with a rigid list of songs, carefully created through the use of focus groups. The result was a loss of character; a radio station in, say, San Francisco no longer sounded substantially different from one in Boston.

“Everything became homogenized across the nation,” Travers says. “There was no more something breaking out in the Northeast and something else happening in the Southwest.”

The days of regional hits were over, and the work that touring artists did to build regional audiences became less effective.

To be fair, Travers had other difficulties around that time. He split with his management and was locked for years in a legal battle with his record label. But Travers prefers to look forward.

“That was then,” he says, “and here we are now.”

Along the way, he’s never lost his creative spark. In the 40 years since Crash and Burn, Travers has released more than 30 albums. Leveraging the power of his onstage performances, nearly half of those releases are live recordings.

Despite his focus on the present and future, Pat Travers’ latest album finds him reaching into the distant past. Swing! collects big band, jump blues and swing tunes from the 1940s and updates them with a powerful rock & roll energy. He says he got the idea after his wife tuned into a ’40s classics channel on Sirius XM. (In a bit of irony, XM Radio was co-founded by Lee Abrams.) Travers found himself thinking, “Man, these are some hot players, and it just sounds like a lot of fun.”

Travers’ new versions of classics like Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” increase the wattage with electric guitar. He notes that the original arrangements didn’t need a lot of tinkering.

“All I had to do was try to figure out how to get my guitar in there,” he says with a chuckle.

Another chestnut, Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” is now a part of the Pat Travers Band’s live sets. And that aggregation remains busy, with dates booked well into the spring. The group is nearly done recording an album of all-new music, with a hoped-for release date sometime in 2020.

“Hopefully,” Travers says, “I’ll have the best album I’ve ever made.”

Pat Travers Band
Jan 11, 8pm, Sold Out
Club Fox, Redwood City

This newly formed local alternative rock outfit displays their polished and multilayered songcraft on their recently released debut album, Aurora. “Rock ’n’ Roll Queen” and “Chasing Ghosts” recall timeless traces of the Foo Fighters, QOTSA and Soundgarden. Incorporating a nuanced blend of spacey keys, atmospheric synths and catchy guitar riffs, the band’s sound draws from the unapologetic rough edges of their hard rock influences while seamlessly blending honest soulfulness with their lyrics and melodies. To celebrate the release of Aurora, the Silver Echo is putting on a release party and live show at Redwood City’s Club Fox this Thursday.

The Silver Echo
Thu, 7pm, $15
Club Fox, Redwood City

San Jose hard-blues heavyweights Zed are back with their third full-length effort, Volume. “This album is definitely next level for us,” says bassist Mark Aceves. The group’s new drummer—veteran Bay Area musician Sean Boyles—does more than hammer away on Zed’s latest LP; he helped with songwriting and arrangements as well, which not only helped with rhythmic energy but pushed the entire group to stretch into new territory. As with their past two albums, Zed tapped longtime producer Tim Narducci to coax the most brutal performances possible from the South Bay quartet. Volume officially drops Jul. 26, but will be available to fans at the Fox show.

Zed
Sat, 8pm, $12
Club Fox, Redwood City

Yes, the songs of Neil Diamond have been blaring from radios and overhead grocery store speakers since the days of Shakespeare (or so it seems). But Super Diamond, the Bay Area-based Neil Diamond tribute band, has been around almost as long. With frontman Randy Cordeiro, SD was part of the first big tribute-band wave way back in the early 1990s (talk about “Forever in Blue Jeans”) and has been instrumental in guiding Neil’s music through the desert of lameness back into the garden of cool. They count, among their many fans, Neil himself, so they have to be doing something right.

Super Diamond
Sat, 9:30pm, $25+
Club Fox, Redwood City