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LL: Let’s talk about your new release titled "Blooz". Could you be exploring the roots of
the blues within jazz in this release? Please tell us your concept and vision for this work.

GG: The concept for the "Blooz" album was that everything would be bluesy in some way, but
not necessarily all falling into straight up, traditional blues forms. Hence the spelling of the
album title. My interpretation of what “bluesy” means is fairly wide, and some of the tunes
veer pretty far away from traditional blues chords, but they still have a bluesy vibe.

LL: You have many impressive blues
guitar heavyweights guesting on "Blooz".
Please tell us all about them, why you
chose to work with them, and how you
connected with these fellow musicians.

GG: All of the guest artists on "Blooz" are
people that I admire, and also have had some
personal interaction with. In many ways, the
nexus for this project was Norm at Norman’s
Rare Guitars. Through hanging around at
Norm’s, for example, I met John Jorgenson,
Josh Smith, and Joe Bonamassa. Robben Ford
I knew a bit from before, but got to know him
better when Norm asked Robben and I to put
a band together to play one afternoon for the
homeless at the Midnight Mission in
downtown LA. It was wonderful to see the
power of music be able to lift the spirits of
some people that could really use that. I
wrote the tune ‘Robben’s Hood’ for Robben
and I to play at that occasion, and I asked
him to play it with me on this project. He
sounds so good. I wrote the melody to the
tune ‘Whitewalls and Big Fins’, but John
Jorgenson created all his own harmony parts
on it, the way he used to do with the
Hellecasters. He really knocked it out of the
park! I wrote ‘One G and Two J’s’ specifically
as a vehicle for Josh, Joe, and me to play on
this project, with the melody harmonized for three guitars. It was the final tune I wrote for the
album and getting Joe on it was the final ingredient to finish recording the album. Josh and Joe
both sound so great on this tune. Truthfully, the whole album was just a joy to make.

LL: I understand there were several vintage guitars used in the recording of "Blooz". I’d
love to hear all about that please!

GG: Most of the vintage guitars were instruments I got from Norm, who always seems to have
some of the best stuff. The main guitar used on the project is a 1966 Epiphone Riviera. I also
played a 1965 Gibson SG, and a 1958 Fender Esquire. A 1954 Les Paul Goldtop and a 1966
Martin 00-18 also appear on the album. There’s something really great about playing vintage
instruments, with all those years of history behind them. You wish the guitars could talk and
tell their stories. But some of them do have the original hang tags and sales receipts and things,