Anthony Gomes is a Canadian blues and blues-rock guitarist, singer and songwriter, born in Toronto on May 14, 1970, to a Portuguese father and a French-Canadian mother. He picked up the guitar at 14, drawn in by Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix.
A Scholar of the Blues
Gomes is also an award-winning student of blues history. At the University of Toronto he earned the C.P. Stacey Award for the top academic record among history students, and his master’s thesis traced the racial and cultural evolution of blues music.
Chicago and Beyond
After honing his craft on Chicago’s blues club circuit, which makes a night at Buddy Guy’s Legends a homecoming of sorts, he released his debut album, Blues in Technicolor, in 1998. BluesWax named him Artist of the Year in 2003, and his 2006 album Music Is the Medicine reached No. 4 on Billboard’s blues albums chart. Later releases such as Peace, Love & Loud Guitars cemented his reputation for blending hard-rocking guitar with soul, R&B and roots music.
Giving Back
In 2010 he founded the Music Is the Medicine Foundation, a nonprofit that uses the healing power of music to help others, including putting instruments in the hands of young people.
Photographs © Ed Peterson, Peterson Design. To ask about a print or licensing, get in touch.