From primal emotion to forlorn boogie, GA-20's songs shine

Trad-blues trio GA-20 get closer to the source on third album Crackdown

By Johnny Sharp
( Classic Rock )
published
GA-20: Crackdown cover art
(Image: © Colemine)

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If there’s one thing that sets this trio of seasoned blues scenesters apart, it’s their ability to get the right feel for the music. 

GA-20’s love of vintage gear and studio set-ups help no end with that. But what distinguishes them more is a clutch of powerful original songs. 

So while Dry Run is so authentically echo-drenched that it sounds like it’s being performed halfway down a subway tunnel, what really hits the gut is its slow, forlorn boogie, which, like the resigned howl of I Let Someone In, drills down to a primal emotional essence. 

Elsewhere, when they up the tempo they’re just as invigorating, with the upbeat rockabilly of By My Lonesome fair whooshing along, and the garage-y fuzz of Fairweather Friend winning through being wrapped around a satisfyingly gutsy groove.

Johnny Sharp
Johnny Sharp

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.