Five questions with Anthony Cullins: From Fallbrook, all over California, then the world

‘Twas the night before Halloween, and all across The Vineyard 1924 in Fallbrook, children played and danced to the sounds of the Anthony Cullins Band as their parents reveled in the trio’s eclectic sounds. 

Cullins coaxed exquisite notes from his guitar on a gentle cover of Santo & Johnny’s “Sleepwalk” as the sun eased into the horizon, then sang several original tunes before cutting loose with extended guitar jams. Fallbrook never felt so sweet.

Cullins used to be known as The Fallbrook Kid, a nickname that stuck when his father took him around to jam sessions while Anthony was still a pre-teen. “They didn’t know my name,” he explains, “so they were like, ‘Let’s get that Fallbrook kid up here.’ So that’s how that started.”

Now he’s all grown up. At 26, he’s released several records, played at national guitar festivals, and joined San Diego legend Earl Thomas on several European tour dates. The San Diego Music Awards have repeatedly acknowledged his talent, naming him best blues artist in 2023 and 2024 before giving him 2025’s Artist of the Year and 2026’s Album of the Year awards. 

Cullins, who still proudly calls Fallbrook home, stays active in the San Diego area. He’s playing Thursday at Oceanside Sunset Market from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m, and Friday at Lou Lou’s Jungle Room. For the latest installment of our “Five Questions” series, we talked with Cullins about where his music has taken him, and where he’s heading next.

Your 2025 record Inside Out and Backwards was named best album at this year’s San Diego Music Awards. You had previously won two blues categories at the SDMAs, but did you want this album to show a broader scope of what you do?

That was the first record I did where I played everything, engineered everything and produced it. I played all the instruments — synthesizers, organ, keyboard, bass, drums, guitars, pedal steel, ukulele, everything. I had my friend Dave Blackburn master it all and do some mixing here and there, but for the most part, I did everything. It was a great learning experience and I did it all at home. I still can play traditional blues and I love listening to it. But I like venturing off — just kind of swirling around and doing everything. I like playing what I like to listen to. I try to, at least; that’s the goal.

You started playing guitar before you were a teenager. Who were some of the people you learned from along the way?

I went to Mission Vista High School (in Oceanside). It was a public school, but their electives were very artistic-based. When I went there, Anne Fennell ran the music program and she was phenomenal. She was Grammy-nominated. I was also taking lessons for theory from Dave Blackburn, another Fallbrookian. He helped me with putting the vocabulary to what I was playing, getting the theory and all of that down. It really benefited me a lot.

Through those two resources, I ended up getting accepted into (Boston’s) Berklee College of Music. Dave Blackburn knows someone really high up there; I think they had classes together or something. He was already teaching his students off of a curriculum that was being taught at Berklee.  When I was in (my) freshman year of high school, I started taking lessons from him because everybody started telling me, ‘Dude, you gotta go to this guy.’ Through that, I got accepted to Berklee, which is a hard thing to do. But I couldn’t afford to go, and they couldn’t afford to fund me.

In addition to your own shows, you often play guitar in San Diego blues great Earl Thomas’s band. How did you get to know him?

He reached out to me via Facebook just after COVID. I knew who he was, but it was very unexpected. We met up at Balboa Park and we never intended on playing together. But then we did a podcast together and that was it. He was retired from music technically, so I was like, ‘You’re out of retirement!’ Now he’s like, ‘Man, I won’t do shows without you on guitar.’ I’m like, ‘I can get you plenty of other guitar players who are way better than I am.’ But he’s like, ‘No, there’s a thing we have together. It’s a bond.’ So I respect that and I really am very appreciative of it.

You play pretty regularly around the San Diego area. How much have you toured beyond Southern California?

We play all over California, including Northern California. I’ve also played in Rockford, Illinois, for the Blues Blast Awards. I play the Dallas International Guitar Festival every year in Dallas. We played in Norway at the Notodden Blues Festival to like 80,000 people — it was insane. That was with Earl Thomas. Tyre (Wilcox, Cullins’s bassist) and I went to Denmark; that was with Earl Thomas as well. I’ve played Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club a few times in London with Earl and with my own band. I was very hesitant about going to India (in March), but that was the best so far, to me. That was with Sugaray Rayford and his band; I was filling in.

Do you have plans for next year and are you interested in working with a record label?

In March I’m going to Rotterdam, Netherlands, with Earl. And I have seven or eight records in the can that I need to start mixing and mastering and put out. I’m trying to book more stuff, just trying to make more money. I like doing this, but it’s hard.

Right now I’m doing everything myself, until the right person comes along. You have to find the right manager, someone you really connect with. It’s not something that you want to just jump into with anybody. So for now, I’m having fun. I’m enjoying doing what I’m doing, and I’m making music I want to make.