You can read the whole thing HERE (in German)! And above, please find a list of German (and Latvian!) gigs confirmed for September.
Meanwhile, tomorrow - Friday, July 11th, 22:00 - Andres Roots will be playing a set at the Käbliku Beer Camp & Rock'N'Roll festival near Põlva. Click HERE for the full festival line-up - two stages over two days!
Last week's shows in Germany were great fun and Saturday's concert at Mittendrin in Baierbrunn truly a blast - here are a few photos from that night, by Petra and Boris Bokowski.
The "Solo Pieces" tour continues this Saturday with two shows at the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival, the Upton Blues Festival on Sunday afternoon, and a Monday night concert at the Temperance in Leamington Spa. Then on to Berlin and Potsdam in Germany - check out the dates below and links and details HERE!
Meanwhile, here is a live clip from Andres Roots' last UK visit - filmed live at The Tolbooth in Stirling, Scotland on May 15th, 2024 by Dave Arcari, with audio mastering by Asko-Romé Altsoo.
Below are the posters for the first and last gigs, and yes - a second visit to Germany has also been confirmed for July, with shows at ARTliners in Berlin and Die alte Garage in Potsdam already in place for Wednesday, July 24th and Friday, July 26th, respectively.
Poster photos by Leif Laaksonen, sidebar pic by Siret Roots from the February 1st show at Tallinn's Kidrakuur Kultuuriklubi.
2023 saw the release of the first Andres Roots album since 2020 and "Vol. 12" has now received more praise from critics than any Roots Art release in ages - here's a few select quotes:
"It’s almost as if muddy waters were flowing into the Gulf of Riga. Musicians of this sort run counter to all expectations, and upset various purists." - Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker, USA
"Mixing blues of every origin... energetic and poetic, that we never grow tired of listening to." - Christophe Mourot, Soul Bag, France
"Roots has a great sense of blues as it fits in today's world." - Bman's Blues Report, USA
"If you still harbour doubts about the instrumental attraction of one man and his guitar in a, say, concert situation, you have no reason to. For Andres wields magic that many others lack." - Pete Hoppula, Blues News, Finland
"Let yourself be immersed in the world of acoustic slide guitar blues, a world that Andres Roots masters like no other." - Eric Schuurmans, Rootstime, Belgium
"Estonia's finest, and one of the prime acoustic blues instrumental players." - Norman Darwen, Blues in Britain, UK
Work also continued on the upcoming album with Red Mouth and Jantso Jokelin, with two more tracks released digitally: "Retirement Blues" and a new reading of the instrumental "Django". A note to vinyl lovers: the 2014 Estonian tribute to Hurriganes compilation that features a version of Ten Years After's "Hear Me Calling" by Andres Roots, Raul Terep and Mikk Tammepõld has now been re-released on vinyl!
A return to form was also evident on the gig front, with 64 concerts in 53 venues in 29 towns and villages in 5 countries: 28 in Estonia, 24 in Finland, 4 in Latvia, 4 in Germany and 4 in the UK. Live collaborations included sets and/or jams with Jantso Jokelin (FI), Ismo Haavisto & Matias Partanen (FI), Pan Salmenhaara & Herbert Quelle (FI/DE), Sir Douglas Groovers (FI), The Rhythmbreakers & Curtis Brazis (FI/US), Louie Fontaine & John DC Washington (DK/US/LV), and Pat Fulgoni (UK).
On other occasions, Andres Roots shared billing with Ahmed Ag Kaedy (Mali), Etuk Ubong & the Etuk Philosophy (Nigeria), Banjolectric (US), Faarao Pirttikangas & Nubialaiset (FI), Black River Bluesman & Bad Mood Hudson (FI), Tomi Puukko (FI), Otto Mikkola (FI), Steve Augarde (UK), and many others - including Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate Ron Whitehead (US).
In January 2024, Andres Roots will be returning to Latvia, in April to Germany, in May to Scotland, and - if not before! - in July to Finland. A few summer festival bookings in Estonia ought to be revealed soon enough, too :)
As always, a big thank you to everybody who attended gigs, put on gigs, wrote about gigs, took photos or filmed gigs, bought records, played records, wrote about records, made records, broke records - and to everyone that's been kind. Thank you, and Happy New Year!
Below are a few photos from the August 15th Helsinki concert at Bar Mendocino, by Leif Laaksonen.
Here's a few photos from the March 2023 Berlin shows at the Estonian Embassy, at Zimmer 16, at ARTliners, and at Transformator Frohnau. Pics by Merit Kopli, Detlef Stein, Arvo Kannast, and Pan Salmenhaara, plus two livestream screenshots - the last one from the Rockradio.de webcast featuring a jam with Pan Salmenhaara on guitar and vocals and Herbert Quelle on harmonica.
For now, here are the two livestreams: one from Friday night at ARTliners and the other the Rockradio.de webcast from Saturday's concert at Transformator Frohnau.
Photo by Merit Kopli.
In March 2023, Andres Roots will be returning to Germany to launch his upcoming album with a few gigs around Berlin - here are some posters, with design by Siret Roots and almost all photography by Leif Laaksonen:
In 2022, there were 30 shows in Estonia, 12 in Finland, 3 in Germany and 2 in Latvia. That meant gigs and mini-tours with Edgars Rubenis (NL/LV), Ismo Haavisto (FI), Mike Heberle (DE), Jantso Jokelin (FI), Steve Lury (UK) and Faarao Pirttikangas (FI), as well as festival appearances at Hamina Mosna Blues in Finland and Viru Folk, Pärnu Bluusipäevad, The Blue Icicle and Karlova päevad in Estonia.
Recording-wise, the next Andres Roots solo album is in the can as of December 23rd and scheduled for release in March 2023. Work also continues on the joint album with Red Mouth (US) and Jantso Jokelin - there is no release date yet, but in June 2022, the trio's reading of "Minor Gripes" did appear on the "Maaseutumusiikkia vol. iii" compilation in Finland.
In May, Redneck Rampage released their "Beneath the Boulder" EP that featured Andres Roots on one track: "Soul Astray"; in July, the song won the listeners' vote on Estonia's Rock FM. That month also saw the premiere of 1Teater's stage production of the N. Richard Nash play "The Rainmaker" ("Vihmameister") that featured new music by Andres Roots; a couple of those tracks are set to appear on the 2023 album. In October, the New York DJ Mike Pearl put out an EDM remix of the Andres Roots and James Dalton collaboration "Get Me Back" that originally appeared on the 2016 album "Winter".
As always, a big thank you to everybody who attended gigs, put on gigs, wrote about gigs, took photos or filmed gigs, bought records, played records, wrote about records, made records, broke records - and to everyone that's been kind. Thank you, and a much happier New Year to you all!
The concerts with Mike Heberle in Wiesbaden, Frankfurt and Bad Soden last week were wonderful - a big thank you to everyone who helped make them happen and to everyone who attended! Here's two pics from the very last evening at BluesHaus Bad Soden, courtesy of the Estonian Embassy in Berlin.
The three German shows with special guest Mike Heberle on harmonica are upon us! Please see the Concerts page for further details. Photo by Martin Eessalu.
This Saturday's Karlova Päevad festival gig at the Rebase riverboat harbour in Tartu was great fun - photo by Siret Roots. In June, Andres Roots will play three shows in the Frankfurt area in Germany with Mike Heberle guesting on harmonica. The dates are as follows:
June 9 - Walhalla im Exil, Wiesbaden
June 10 - Frankfurt Art Bar, Frankfurt
June 11 - BluesHaus Bühne (Kahlbachquelle), Bad Soden-Altenhain
