GA-20

GA-20 is an American blues band from Boston, Massachusetts consisting of Matthew Stubbs, Cody Nilsen, and Josh Kiggans. The band is named after the guitar amplifier manufactured by Gibson from 1950 to 1961. They primarily play Chicago blues.
In 2018, GA-20 were nominated for a Boston Music Award for Blues Artist of the year. They have been nominated for the award seven years in a row. They won Blues Artist of the Year in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. They were nominated for their first Blues Music Award in 2022 for Best Emerging Artist. In 2023 GA-20 was nominated for Blues Band of the year and their album Live In Loveland was nominated for Live Blues Album by the Blues Blast Awards. They won Blues Act of the Year at the 2024 New England Music Awards.
Matthew Stubbs formed GA-20 in early 2018 during a hiatus from playing guitar with Charlie Musselwhite, due to Musselwhite touring with Ben Harper. Stubbs sought to put a new project together to do blues gigs aside from his Psych-Rock group The Antiguas. Stubbs met original vocalist Pat Faherty through his many local Boston gigs. Faherty was a regular at these gigs and even took Blues guitar lessons from Stubbs. Early performances by the band had a rotating group of musicians with Faherty and Stubbs as the core members. Some early performances used various other musicians, sometimes playing as a four-piece band. They adopted the name GA-20 and the group became a trio by early 2018 consisting of two guitars (Stubbs & Faherty) and drums (sideman Tim Carman). About a year after their formation, they scored a deal with Colemine Records imprint Karma Chief Records. The group has been described as a trio that plays stripped down 1950s/1960s-style Chicago blues with a lot of distortion and no bass.
After signing with Colemine/Karma Chief Records in December 2018, the band released the single "Naggin' On My Mind" which featured Charlie Musselwhite and Luther Dickinson. It was recorded at Q Division Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts and was produced by Stubbs. Musselwhite performed harmonica on the track, Dickinson was on slide guitar. During the session Matthew Prozialeck provided background vocals and played harmonica on what would become the B-side to "Naggin' On My Mind". Additional recordings from this session became the Lonely Soul album. Stubbs and Faherty co-wrote the original material featured on Lonely Soul. Their co-writing collaboration would continue through subsequent releases until Faherty’s 2024 departure.
Their first record, a 7" single, was released in August 2019 with "Naggin' On My Mind" and "Sit Down Baby" on Karma Chief Records. Their debut album Lonely Soul was released on October 18, 2019. The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Blues Chart. In September 2020 they released an EP called GA-20 Live Vol. 1. The EP debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Blues Chart.
Their August 2021 album GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor: Try It...You Might Like It! also debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Blues Chart of September 4, 2021 and was the first album ever to be played in its entirety on the Dr Boogie radio show. Released to mark the 50th anniversary of Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, Taylor's first disc, the GA-20 tracks are cover versions of songs from both that album and Taylor's second record Natural Boogie. The album is a co-release by Colemine/Karma Chief Records and the legendary Blues label Alligator Records (Hound Dog Taylor's label). The album received 4-star reviews in both The Guardian and Rolling Stone France.
In September 2022 the band released the studio album Crackdown which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Blues Chart. They followed up Crackdown with the live record Live In Loveland, which debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Blues Chart.
In July 2024, it was announced that Tim Carman would be replaced, on drums, by Josh Kiggans. In December 2024, it was announced that Pat Faherty had parted ways from the band due to artistic differences, and that Cody Nilsen would take his place moving forward. Nilsen is an acclaimed touring, session, and solo musician. Nilsen's debut with the band, "Cryin' & Pleadin'", was released December 10, 2024. "Cryin' & Pleadin'" reached number 1 on B.B. King's Bluesville Top 15 Rack of Blues in March of 2025.
Current members
Past members