“Musical differences” is Matt Stubbs’ explanation for his recent split with his GA-20 co-founder, co-guitarist, and singer Pat Faherty. When pressed for a bit more detail, Stubbs remains mum.
“We’ve got to leave it at that,” he says. “There’s powers above me, and it’s been made clear that’s where we’re at – musical differences.”
Up till last year, Stubbs was on a rocket ride with the wild and woolly, stripped-down Boston-based trio (two guitars, drums, no bass) he and Faherty formed in 2017 that specialized in a jacked-up version of vintage Chicago electric blues.
Their five albums (three studio discs and two live sets) debuted at either Number 1 or Number 2 on Billboard’s Blues Albums charts, racked up a boatload of wins and nominations at the Blues Music Awards and the New England Blues Awards, and the group’s crackerjack concerts attracted a loyal and growing legion of fans.
And then things started to go wonky: Just as he was cutting ties with Faherty, Stubbs also saw drummer Tim Carman pack it in. The guitarist faced the prospect of rebuilding his band and brand from the ground floor up without losing steam.
Drummer Josh Kiggans, an acclaimed Boston session and touring ace, slipped right in – “a seamless transition,” Stubbs says. However, guitarists hoping to fill Faherty’s sizable shoes faced certain criteria.
As Stubbs explains, “To be in GA-20, you’ve got to be a good singer. You’ve got to be able to play solos and straight-ahead blues. You have to be able to cover the low end guitar-wise, so you’ve got to be something of a bass player, too. It’s hard to find someone who can do all that.”
Stubbs was toying with a few candidates, but he had a special feeling about Cody Nilsen, a fellow Massachusetts native who had been making a name for himself, as a solo artist and with various bands, in the rock and alt country worlds.
“I’ve seen Cody play over the years, so I asked him, ‘Why don’t you come over? Let’s play,’” Stubbs says. “There was no audition or anything like that. The minute we started playing together, I knew this would work.” He laughs, then adds, “Cody lives one mile from me – that’s a big plus.”
The new GA-20 lineup (the group is named after a Gibson guitar amp produced from 1950 to 1961) quickly hit a local Cambridge studio and recorded a bracing four-song set, Volume 2an EP composed of vibrant originals and a striking cover of Billy Boy Arnold’s classic Cryin’ & Pleadin’.
It’s hot stuff – the spunky riffs, hot-rod grooves, spitfire solos, and Nilsen’s radiant vocals – and like the outfit’s past output, the record is rooted in two worlds: There’s a marvelous nostalgic quality to song structures and the bare-bones, live off-the-floor recording aesthetic, yet it all feels miraculously fresh.
Stubbs insists that he’s not trying to reinvent the blues as much as he’s simply trying to keep the tradition alive.
“I’m not going to come up with anything that’s different from my heroes,” he says. “I don’t even listen to much blues past 1972. I’m just trying to maintain a timeless sound and spirit.”
For Nilsen, one of the benefits to working with Stubbs is an opportunity to reconnect with music of his past.
“What we’re playing is different from what I’m used to, but it’s not too far off,” he says. “I grew up listening to blues music.
“The first records my dad gave me were by Son House and John Hammond Jr. I took a break from that style and headed in more of a country direction, but now I’ve gone back and I’m rediscovering my love for blues, which is pretty wonderful…”
Matt, with two new members in a power trio, does it feel like a period of reinvention?
Matt Stubbs: “I would call it an evolution. When I came up with the idea of doing a small trio in Boston, I put it together with Pat and my vision for stripped-down Fifties Chicago blues that pushed into the Sixties. We definitely got our sound.
“I wasn’t looking to change anything with our direction, but with Cody and Josh coming in, there was a question mark: ‘What’s it going to sound like?’
“They’re different guys with different backgrounds. Cody’s into country music and Americana and rock ’n’ roll as well as traditional blues. So there was a question as to how’s it going to go. But man, we’re sounding great. It sounds hot!”
Cody, you’ve been doing your thing as a solo artist and with other bands. Were you not happy with your progress? From a career level, what appealed to you about joining up with Matt?
Cody Nilsen: “Matt and I have known each other for a long time, and we’ve always flirted with the idea of getting together. I saw this as an opportunity to not only continue to write songs I want to write, but also as an opportunity to work with someone I’ve looked up to for a long time. It felt like the right time to give this thing a shot, and once I did, that belief was confirmed.”
I love the way Cody plays and sings. Everybody’s going to have their own sound and can freshen things up, or whatever you want to call it
Matt Stubbs
Matt, as we’ve talked about, Cody’s performed a lot of music that isn’t strictly blues. Are you prepared for him to stretch your sound in some ways?
Stubbs: “I love the way Cody plays and sings. Everybody’s going to have their own sound and can freshen things up, or whatever you want to call it. We’ve been recording and rehearsing a lot in the last couple of months, and it’s interesting – it still has the GA-20 sound.
“I mean, I love classic rock, Sixties and Seventies stuff. I used to go see Cody’s solo thing. I’m very familiar with it. Since he’s come in, we’ve really had the blinders on. We have a studio here in Providence, and we’re basically there five days a week playing blues music. That’s kind of where our heads are at right now. Just blinders on.”
The two of you carry on the GA-20 tradition of two guitars, no bass. How does that affect the parts you come up with?
Stubbs: “If you’re going to write or cover a song, you have to arrange it in a way that it will sound full with two guitars. We discuss it a bit, but whenever we start playing a song, it’s obvious who will sound better playing the top part or a solo.
“If it’s a slide song, it goes right to Cody. It’s no discussion – I’m terrible at slide. I think more than actual playing is the sound. We use two amps each to cover it: one big amp that’s kind of clean with low end, and then one typical guitar amp that’s a little distorted.”
Nilsen: “Getting the sound as well as the approach to the playing – what we call the ‘guitar weave.’ It requires a lot of intensive listening, as opposed to just plugging in and clicking on a pedal and saying, ‘Let’s do this shit.’ We try not to step on each other tonally, and we try to do the bob and weave of actual parts.”
“Guitar weaving”… like the Stones.
Nilsen: “Exactly.”
Have you guys ever considered using an actual bass in the studio? Bands without a bassist – like the Doors, say – have done it.
Stubbs: “Sure. Up to this point, there was one song we did with a little bit of bass on it. No one will know. It was like a little texture – it almost sounded like a horn or something. Moving forward, I’m not against it. If it makes sense and it makes the song better, sure, a bass player can be on there. We’re going back into the studio in a week, so you never know what’s going to happen.”
Is that for a full-length album?
Stubbs: “Exactly.”
Is the EP a kind of preview of what we’re going to get with the next album?
Stubbs: “I mean, it’s going to be right in that same ballpark. It’s going to be blues and it’s going to be recorded in a similar way. Yeah.”
Guitar-wise, what are you two using these days?
Stubbs: “On the EP, I believe I used my old Silvertone 1454, the three-pickup hollow body. That guitar has been my main recording instrument for years. When I first started touring with GA-20, I got into using Waterslide guitars, like a signature model. It’s got a Tele-style body and gold foil pickups. I think that’s on the EP, too.”
How about your amps and effects? Do you use effects at all?
Stubbs: “I don’t have much going on in the way of pedals. Just a little tank reverb or maybe a Catalinbread Topanga Spring reverb pedal. My amps in the studio have been my (Gibson) GA-20 in the room, and I put a ’59 Fender Tweed Pro in a closet. I set that one to low-end.”
Cody, how about you?
Nilsen: “For these sessions, I used an Ibanez “lawsuit” guitar – it’s a ’77 2335, like a black Les Paul Custom with P90s. It has a special sound. For my slide playing, my guitar is a Teisco Sharkfin ET460. It’s got four pickups and a million switches. I’ve got it tuned to C#. It’s a really cool guitar to get acclimated to. For effects, I know the volume gets used a lot. (Laughs)”
I think I know the answer to this already, but would you guys ever use amp modelers? (Both men laugh out loud)
Nilsen: “Uh-uh.”
Stubbs: “No way! I’ll put six Bassman heads in my van if I have to.”
A lot of guitarists like the convenience of amp modelers.
Nilsen: “Yeah. Convenience is cute.”
What’s been the response from fans to your live shows with the new lineup?
Stubbs: “We haven’t done one yet.”
Oh, wow… Not even a soft opening?
Stubbs: “Zero so far. But we’ve got gigs coming up. The first gig we have is kind of a hometown show in Providence – it’s about 20 minutes away. Yeah, we’re jumping right in. No dry runs, no practice runs.”
Cody, you have your own fans. Have you heard from them online about your decision to join GA-20?
Nilsen: “Everybody seemed to say it made way more sense than they could have imagined. They’ve said, ‘You do have a bluesy voice, you have a soulful voice’ – stuff like that. I’m still doing my own songs, still writing my own tunes. But GA-20 is definitely my priority, and it’s taken over my vision for where I’m going.”
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