Alan Gerber, the Chicago-born, Val-David, Quebec-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of late-1960s Elektra Records supergroup Rhinoceros, releases his irresistible new single “Put Back My Heart” today, the opening track from his deeply personal new album ‘The Well,’ out now. A swaggering, blues-drenched soul romp co-written with his son Eli Gerber and produced by the two of them together, “Put Back My Heart” announces the album with exactly the kind of high-energy, good-humoured, emotionally honest songwriting that has made Alan Gerber one of the most beloved live performers in Canada and beyond for more than five decades.
The song moves with the effortless confidence of a man who has spent a lifetime inside the blues. “Fell for you like a baby grand from a tower,” Gerber sings with a grin you can hear, before the chorus lands its perfectly timed demand: “Put back, put back my heart, you stole it / Put back, put back my heart, steam rolled it.” It is a song that wears its heartbreak lightly and its joy loudly, a signature Gerber combination that has earned him a devoted following from Miramichi to Montreal and far beyond. Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and host of Little Steven’s Underground Garage, previously selected Gerber’s “Four Riders” as the Coolest Song in the World, a distinction that will surprise no one who has heard what Gerber does with a room.
‘The Well’ is a record that distills a lifetime of blues, soul, folk, and rock into a journey from gritty R&B grooves to poetic ballads and adventurous, genre-bending instrumentals. The album carries particular emotional weight as the last project Gerber was able to complete with his writing collaborator of nearly 50 years, Rolf Kempf, who passed away before its release. Kempf was celebrated beyond their partnership for writing “Hello Hurray,” which became a major hit for Alice Cooper, and his presence runs deep through the record. The album also reunited Gerber with his old Rhinoceros bandmate, the extraordinary guitarist Danny Weis, whose playing appears on eight of the album’s tracks, alongside Gaston Gagnon of Quebec legends Garolou, harmonica player James Tyrone Zeller, and a full ensemble of longtime collaborators mixed at Groove Paradise Studio with mixing engineer Nicolas Maranda and mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering.
Family is at the heart of ‘The Well’ in every sense. Gerber’s son Eli plays guitars and co-produces throughout, while his daughter Hannah contributes lead and background vocals, and his wife Robin, a ceramic artist, created the bowl photographed for the album cover. He also wrote the song, Time Is My Treasure, from a poem written by his sister, Barbara Ford.
That circle of creativity reflects the life Gerber has built across more than three decades in the Laurentians, far from the Laurel Canyon living rooms and Elektra Records pressures of his early career, but every bit as rich with music, community, and meaning. Before any of that, there was Chicago, a family that had fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, a mother’s crimson fingernails on a Wurlitzer baby grand, and blues piano sessions with his uncles that set the course for everything that followed.
Over the years Gerber has shared the stage with Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Van Morrison, Lou Reed, Janis Joplin, John Lee Hooker, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, among many others, and has performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, and the Carcassonne Music Festival in France. Terry Whalen, Artistic Director of Whalen’s Barn Concert Series in Miramichi, has written that within the first 30 seconds of a live Alan Gerber show the audience is hooked, completely, calling him a seasoned pro and a master-class of how to take years of honing your craft and a million plus miles of live performances to reach this level. ‘The Well’ is the fullest expression yet of what those miles have made him.
TOUR DATES
Aug 5 — Val-David, QC — 1001 Pots
Website I Facebook I Spotify I YouTube