Eric Tessmer

One Liner: Guitar hero blues rock tunes from the best guitarist in Austin in 2017-2018.

Wikipedia Genre: Blues, soul, R&B, Blues rock
Home: Austin

Poster Position: 25
Weekend One Only.  Sunday.

Thoughts:   What is it called when people just sound like they are playing Guitar God?  Like, there is a certain type of solo and tone that is shared between guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Charlie Sexton, Gary Clark Jr., and this dude.  It is different from the guitar wizardry of Jimi or Clapton or Santana or Keith Richards or Eddie Van Halen or Jeff Beck or many others who you'd consider as Guitar Gods.  Is there a term for this?  Is it called Texas Flood?  I'm sure it is just called blue guitar or something, but I'm going to go with Texas Flood.

And it shows you how in-the-know I am around the Austin scene, as this dude was apparently named the Best Guitarist in Austin by the Chronicle's Annual Poll in 2017-2018.  Where have I been?  For a few years, he had a band - the Eric Tessmer Band - but then that broke up and he's been solo ever since (although Wikipedia claims he has been working with Nancy Wilson from Heart).  He's been releasing solo albums since 2010, but most of that stuff is not available on Spotify.  Instead, all that you can do on there is 2016's 1, 2019's Eric Tessmer 2 (just awful album names, man), and three singles.  Including a cover of Depeche Mode's "Policy of Truth" with Nancy Wilson, which is solid.

Top track is "Good So Bad," with 376k streams, off of that second EP.

Comes on like a Dan Auerbach track, before he goes into the fireworks shed and fires up a blowtorch.  And another fun angle to that track is this live version filmed at Stubb's in 2018:

Fun to get to watch his hands actually make those sounds.  Hot damn that is wild.  How shitty is it that SRV freaking died?  That sucks.  His most recent single is one called "Suffer," from 2021.  Just over 10k streams so far.

Sure, another good one - bluesy rocker with all the guitar heroics you're looking for.  Also, a good lyrical message.  These are good songs - I'm truly surprised at not knowing anything at all about this guy who has apparently been playing right under my nose all along.  But I think he'd be fun to check out.