Chris Duarte broke through way back in 1994, when his second album, Texas Sugar/Strat Magik, sold more than 100,000 copies, serving notice of a new blues guitar hero in town. The release of Ain’t Giving Up, his 15th album, sees him reunited with Texas Sugar producer Dennis Herring to deliver one of the strongest records in his catalog.
“I’d forgotten about the way Dennis liked to record. He tapes everything and keeps it all,” Duarte says. “When I was doing guitar parts and it came to the solo I’d just play straight off the top of my head, thinking I’d go back and put the actual solos on later. When I went back in to do the vocals, I took my guitar as I thought I’d be putting on some guitar tracks, but Dennis just said they were all done. Everything I recorded on those first sessions is what we used.”
