David Gerald, the son of Mississippi born and raised parents, grew up to the sounds of the blues and
R&B music in his hometown, Detroit. He's the youngest of 11 children, 6 of whom were born and
partly raised in Mississippi. "Because segregation and racial discrimination were so bad in Mississippi,
my dad moved the family north to Detroit when he was 33, so we'd have a better chance at the
American dream. He reminisces about that 'til this day," says Gerald.
Gerald started playing guitar at the age of 16, influenced by Prince and 80's rock guitarists. He
rediscovered the blues and listened to the music of Albert King, ZZ Hill, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray
Vaughan, to name just a few.
"I was lucky enough to have a neighbor who was a guitarist and gave me scrap guitars. I would piece
them together and build 'Frankenstein' guitars," says Gerald. "They were horrible to play and sounded
bad, but I had to play music. It was and is my destiny. I finally scraped up enough money to buy an
old amp and I was happy."
Gerald performed in many local blues, R&B, and rock bands cutting his guitar and vocal chops live
and in person. Finding it hard to keep a band together, Gerald learned to play guitar, bass, keys, and
drums. Using two antiquated cassette recorders he would overdub each part individually until the
song was complete. "The end result sounded horrible, and the songs would not end up in the same
key they started in. But it got my songs recorded," says Gerald. This was the beginning of his
songwriting, most of which were pop and rock tunes during the 80's. Around the age of 24, he began
experimenting with computers to write and compose music, which he has done to this day.
Now in his 40's, Gerald is playing nationally with his own band. This summer, he will be performing at
clubs and festivals across the United States. Some notable appearances include: Riverdays Festival
(formerly known as the International Freedom Festival) in Detroit, MI; Chrysler Arts, Beats and Eats in
Royal Oak, MI.
Gerald's blues have been receiving widespread radio play, along with recognition in the blues
community. Recently Gerald was listed as #1 on the ReverbNation blues charts for Michigan Blues
artists. His debut album "Hell and Back" reached #1 on Roots Music Report's Blues Chart for
Michigan based artists and has remained in the top 20 for many weeks in a row.
"Hell And Back" contains five studio originals and five live arrangements of well-known tunes including Thrill is Gone, Red House and Cold Shot. |
