Autovabaduse Puiestee!

Third time's the charm: for the third time in two years, Andres Roots will be playing music and talking about the history of the blues this Friday in connection with the travelling and interactive "Music & Migration" exhibition, produced by MTÜ Mondo and Eesti Muusika Kuulsuste Koda. The free concert will take place at Autovabaduse Puiestee in downtown Tartu at 7 p.m. - the Facebook event is HERE!

Afternoon Show On Monday!

5 p.m. on Monday, May 2nd, Andres Roots will appear at the opening of Mondo's travelling Music & Migration exhibition at the Annelinna branch of the Tartu public library (Kaunase 23) - playing guitar and diddley bow and talking about blues history...

This week's Latvian gigs with Edgars Rubenis were wonderful, a big thank you to everyone involved! Edgars will play a solo show at Salong in Tartu on Sunday, May 8th - click HERE for details. 

 

Pipeline Review, Narva and Tallinn Pics

Haavisto, Roots & Partanen's live version of Elmore James' "Hawaiian Boogie", the lone instrumental on the trio's "Tribute to Elmore" EP, gets a special mention in the current issue of the Pipeline magazine - a British quarterly devoted solely to instrumental rock. Norman Darwen calls it "another wonderful cover of the slide guitar classic" while rightly noting that it's "drawing some of its inspiration from Hound Dog Taylor".

The photos below are from events earlier this month - the first of the two is by Kris Moor from a Poetry Wednesday at the Writers' House in Tallinn (click HERE for full gallery!), the second from the MONDO interactive Music & Migration exhibition/happening at the Central Library in Narva (more pics HERE!).

Bman's Blues Report Review!

As Estonia seems to be heading into another lockdown, Arizona's Bman's Blues Report reviews "Tartu Lockdown": "A cool batch of instrumental blues... reminding me just a bit of early Jeff Beck." Read the whole thing HERE!

Keys and Chords Review

The Belgian webzine Keys and Chords has given "Tartu Lockdown" 4.5 stars out of 5! 

Philip Verhaege writes (thanks to Rod 'The Jook' Jones for the translation!): "The thirteen instrumental tunes are skilfully played by Andres. Working through like a guitarslinger, he squeezes his Delta Blues out of a three-string fretless Hobo 63 cigar box, or a one-string diddley bow, through his Lunchbox & Ampeg BA-112 amplifers. That's all it takes to make a cool album." 

Check out the whole thing HERE!

Pre-order "Tartu Lockdown" now!

On September 4th, the home recordings made by Andres Roots during this year's COVID spring will be issued as a CD album titled "Tartu Lockdown". You can order your signed copy for just 15.90 - shipping included! - if you place your order in August by e-mailing roots.art.oy(at)gmail.com with your shipping address and preferred method of payment - Roots Art Records accepts both bank transfers and PayPal.

The liner notes for the CD were written by the international blues journalist Norman Darwen, who currently contributes to magazines such as Blues & Rhythm, Blues in Britain, Blues Matters, RnR and Blues in the South in the UK, Bluesnews in Norway and Twoj Blues in Poland. Since the 1980's, he has provided sleevenotes for a long list of blues releases from Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf to Otis Grand and Buddy Guy.

"One positive of the whole COVID-19 pandemic is the music on this CD," writes Darwen. "Like some of the best blues, these are responses to a specific situation that also transcend it. This is totally enjoyable, thoughtful and thought-provoking music, however and whenever you’re listening to it."

For more details, click HERE!

"House Arrest 3" Available Now!

The third and most probably the last installment in the lockdown home recordings series, "House Arrest 3", is now available on Bandcamp: to listen and/or purchase, just click HERE!

Diddley Bow In The Snow

Early this morning, the schedule for the 10th Kaavi Blues Festival near Kuopio in Finland was unveiled - among many others, this year's festival will feature Ismo Haavisto & Andres Roots In Muddy Waters. Check out the full line-up here.

Diddley Bow Pics!

 

All photos by Siret Roots.

Diddley Bow Workshop

This Sunday, Andres will take part in a recycling workshops day at Kastani 38 in Tartu - if you have a tin can and a piece of board you're not using, come along and make yourself a diddley bow!

It was the Danish one-man-band Nikolaj Andersen who first made Andres' son a one-string diddley bow out of an old broomstick a few years back - the kind you play like a regular slide guitar. After toying with that for a while, Andres built his own "lap steel" model, which you play holding a slide in one hand and and a stick in the other, with which you bang on the strings - that was used for the tune "Duck Soup" on his "Roundabout" album. He also demonstrated the one-string to Scottish bluesman Dave Arcari, who ended up designing his own model - with an electric pickup!