Support the Coalition and the Blues

Please join the Coalition in welcoming respected blues musician Anthony Gomes to Wheeling during his upcoming performance at River City in downtown Wheeling.

Gomes, the Number 1 Billboard debut blues artist is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter who brings his high-energy show to Heritage Music Blues on Tuesday, Sept. 30  in an 8PM performance at River City Restaurant, on the corner of 14th and Main Street in Wheeling.

Lisa Badia, Executive Director of the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless, will have an information table and will be accepting additional donations at this performance

“I’m excited that Anthony is touring through our region,” Bruce Wheeler, producer of Blues Tuesdays and the Heritage Music BluesFest, said. “Anthony wowed the crowd at the Heritage Music BluesFest in 2007, and I have wanted to get him back to Wheeling ever since.”

In addition to performing, Gomes believes that music can inspire the human spirit. He founded the Music Is the Medicine Foundation in 2010, a non-profit organization dedicated to changing the lives of others through the healing power of music. Through donations and grants, the foundation has funded songwriting scholarships, offered music education programs and donated musical instruments to those in need.

Gomes’ “Music Is the Medicine” foundation currently is bringing attention to the plight of homeless children in America, Wheeler explained. “His latest video ‘Darkest Before the Dawn,’ tells just this story. When I heard about Gomes’ video, I decided that all profits from his Wheeling performance will be donated to the Wheeling Homeless Coalition to assist with their mission,” Wheeler said.

“The Wheeling area has supported the festival and our Blues Tuesdays. This is a way of Heritage Music giving back to the community that has supported us,” he said.

Gomes has headlined concerts in 17 countries and has had the honor of sharing the stage with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Robert Plant, Joe Bonamassa, Heart, Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. 

Born in Toronto, Canada, Gomes was drawn to the blues sounds of B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Jim Hendrix, while in his early teens. He relocated to Chicago in the late 1990s to learn from the blues masters there. During his brief stint as a sideman for Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Gomes put together his own group and won the first Buddy Guy’s Legends Best Unsigned Blues Band competition in 1998. Later that year, he released his debut CD, "Blues in Technology.”

In 2003, he was named BluesWax Magazine’s Artist of the Year.

In 2012, Gomes received critical acclaim for his release “Up 2 Zero.”

Tickets are available at www.heritagemusicfest.com or at the door.