A Tribute To LJK Eric Gales

• 1 You Shouldn't Have Left Me 04:50
• 2 Rockin Horse Ride (feat. Christone "Kingfish" Ingram) 04:04
• 3 Guitar Man 04:41
• 4 Don't Wanna Go Home (feat. Joe Bonamassa) 05:23
• 5 Something Inside of Me 05:31
• 6 Baby Baby 04:37
• 7 It Takes a Whole Lot of Money (feat. Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith) 05:58
• 8 Worried Man 04:33
• 9 Blues Been Too Good To Me 04:05
• 10 Somebody (feat. Buddy Guy and Roosevelt Collier) 03:59
• Total Runtime 47:41

Info for A Tribute To LJK

Eric Gales’ time is now. A rule-breaking, genre-fusing force of nature, hailed by giants like Joe Bonamassa, Dave Navarro and Mark Tremonti as one of the best guitarists on the planet.

There comes a time when every musician must look their past squarely in the eye. And while Gales’ latest release, Tribute To LJK, is a thrillingly modern record for the here-and-now, it’s also a nod to his bloodline and the roots of his family tree.

“This record has been a long time coming,” he says of the speaker-rattling release co-produced by Bonamassa and Josh Smith. “I wanted it to be the ultimate tribute to my late brother, Little Jimmy King, to keep his memory alive and make sure people remember who he was and still is. All of these songs except one are his originals. I wanted to deliver his tunes to the world, through my eyes. And I wanted it to be badass – and that’s exactly how it turned out.”

A Tribute To LJK features guest appearances by Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Josh Smith, Joe Bonamassa, and the legendary Buddy Guy.

There comes a time when every musician must look their past squarely in the eye. And while Gales’ latest release, Tribute To LJK, is a thrillingly modern record for the here and now, it’s also a nod to his bloodline and the roots of his family tree. “This record has been a long time coming,” he says of the speaker-rattling release co-produced by Bonamassa and Josh Smith. “I wanted it to be the ultimate tribute to my late brother, Little Jimmy King, to keep his memory alive and make sure people remember who he was and still is. All of these songs, except one, are his originals. I wanted to deliver his tunes to the world through my eyes. And I wanted it to be badass – and that’s exactly how it turned out.”

Talking about the first single, “Somebody,” he says, “It’s just a really dope song, man, and I thought it was a great way to end the record. Buddy Guy is a legend, and that idea was actually mentioned by my wife, LaDonna. She said, ‘I think you should see if Buddy is available. We don’t know how much time any of us has, so while you have the opportunity, you should give it a shot’. So we went for it, and he said yeah. He knew my brother, and they played together, so I think it was easy for him to agree to do this song – and the rest is history. Me and Buddy actually did our parts at separate times, but you wouldn’t know it: it seems like we’re in the same room at the same time. And that was the intention, to bridge the gap between semi-old and middle-aged, if you will. That’s an anthological sort of tune, in how it starts off acoustically, blows up big, then comes back down again.”

The blues is an ecosystem, and it’s a measure of the respect commanded by both Eric – and his fabled older brother, real name Manuel, who sadly passed away in 2002 – that these ten explosive covers are delivered by an all-star cast with deep ties to the project. “Buddy Guy and Little Jimmy played together, so he guests on the track ‘Somebody’,” explains Gales. “Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram has gone on record to say my brother was a big influence, so he’s on ‘Rockin’ Horse Ride’.”

To understand why Tribute To LJK might be the proudest moment of Gales’ meteoric career, you have to follow the thread back to the late 1970s and a hectic family home in Memphis, Tennessee. “I’m the youngest of five siblings, so I grew up with all my brothers, and everybody played guitar,” he recalls. “Manuel was ten years older, and it was great to have him to look up to. I was so proud when he started his own band and began his career; he was off to the races. And then, after all his years of grinding away at his craft, to hear that he was touring with Albert King’s band in the late-’80s was awesome.”

And while Manuel made his mark in the world – graduating from King’s lineup to front his own ’90s outfit, Little Jimmy King & the Memphis Soul Survivors – Eric and his sibling Eugene signed to Elektra Records for 1991’s debut album, The Eric Gales Band. “I had a deal at 15, and the record came out when I was 16,” he recalls. “Even at that age, I already felt this was what I was gonna do in life.”

In 2002, Manuel died of a heart attack aged just 37 (“It hit me hard, man. It’s still not easy that he’s no longer here”). As for Eric, he recalls a string of “wrong turns” that led to his 2009 incarceration at Shelby County Correction Center for possession of drugs and a handgun. “It was my own decisions that led to that,” he admits.

Gales’ trajectory since those dark days has been dizzying. Revisit the past decade, and you’ll find him working at superhuman pace with an acclaimed run of Provogue releases that include 2017’s Middle Of The Road (featuring Gary Clark Jr and Lauryn Hill), 2019’s Billboard #1 The Bookends, 2022’s Grammy-nominated, chart-topping Crown and the soundtrack of director Ryan Coogler’s 2025 smash-hit horror movie, Sinners.

If you weren’t already familiar with the jaw-dropping life’s work of Little Jimmy King, Eric Gales’ new album lays it all out there for the world to hear. The album opens with a poignant spoken-word introduction by Danuel Gales (Manuel’s twin brother). Bridging past and present while igniting these masterful songs with his unmistakable delivery, A Tribute to LJK is even more than the sum of its parts – and while the music plays, Manuel Gales lives again. “I foresaw a great record,” considers Eric, “but I didn’t foresee it turning out as amazing as this. My brother is there throughout this whole record – and I can’t wait for it to start turning people’s heads…”

Buddy Guy
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Joe Bonamassa
Roosevelt Collier Josh Smith