Josh Gooch is an 18-year-old blues guitarist based out of San Diego. Gooch regularly performs in the San Diego area with the Road Dogs. He recently recorded a gospel record with Bonnie Bramlett and was featured on Don’t Wake Albert (aff link) by Highly Kind.
Last November, he performed as one of the five finalists of the Guitar Center King of the Blues competition. Although he broke a string during his electric song, his performance was my favorite of the five finalists and I thought he should have won. Guitar Center recently put his performance online on their channel on YouTube:
I think Gooch has a very bright future ahead of him.
oh wow, yeah much better then the winner for me at least. that other guy had a fun gimic, but I didn’t really care for his phrasing much, or tone really.
only thing I have to say about this performance, is that he never really seemed to establish a theme, or melody line, just alot of riffs, albeit expertly done.
This young man has got some serious skills. You would never know there was an 18 year old behind those strings if you just heard this on the radio. He is playing like a seasoned pro with 30 years experience. I am looking forward to see where he takes his career. I love blues! Thanks for keeping it alive Josh.
“I think Gooch has a very bright future ahead of him.” Maybe, maybe not. Blues, while popular with many, is far from mainstream. Sure, lots of purported “bluesmen” have hit it big but only after turning their blues roots into kick-ass rock and roll. As an example of young blues proteges hitting it big, what ever happened to Johnny Lang? That aside, the youngster is talented.
You are correct. Sadly, blues music is not as mainstream as other types of music.
However, many blues artists are able to make quite the career for themselves, albeit under the radar of the mainstream audience. For example, Joe Bonamassa regularly sells out 1,000 seat theaters. Jonny Lang is actually still doing quite well for himself, although I prefer his earlier, more blues oriented music. That being said, he’s still filling up 2,000 venues, which seems like a pretty good career in my opinion. Many artists, blues or not, would love to be able to sell 1,000-2,000 tickets per show.
I think Gooch fits within that blues-rock middle ground that takes the blues into a more rock and roll direction. At any rate, I’m always happy to see young guitarists rooting themselves in blues music.
I agree, he definately has a talent and it is nice to see where his roots are. I hope he uses his talent in the right way instead of like so many others before him have done and threw it all away.
awesome song and what a great guitarist josh gooch is…what is the name of the song his playing and where can i get this guitar tab? i would love to learn this…