Temperance Nights & Howth Pics

Here's a slightly closer look at the Arcari/Roots story from this month's Blues in Britain, with pics by Margaret McDonald, Leif Laaksonen, and Siret Roots.

Below are some cool pics from last month's Howth Roots & Blues Festival in Ireland, by Peter Mirolo.

August Tour Pix

The August tour in Ireland and England was a blast, starting with the Howth Roots & Blues Festival at The Summit Inn and The Harbour Bar in Dublin, and continuing with The Lamb Surbiton in London, Bournemouth Brewery in Bournemouth, Caroline of Brunswick in Brighton, The Royal Oak in Tunbridge Wells (a last minute venue change!), and Madison Heights in Maldon - the latter with Tim Aves, Richard Townend & Co. Here's a few photos by Siret Roots.

 

Ireland/England Tour Approaches!

 

More Käbliku Pics

...And a few more photos from Käbliku Beer Camp & Rock'n'Roll festival, this time by Taimo Arume.

 

Käbliku Pics

Here are a few photos from last weekend's Käbliku Beer Camp & Rock'n'Roll festival, by Siim Neerut and Mati Leet.

  

August Tour Posters!

The August tour of Ireland and England is coming together nicely - meanwhile, here's a few posters:

 

Hyvinkää Joutsen Blues Pics

Here are some photos by Leif Laaksonen from the Joutsen Blues festival at Oluthuone Joutsen in Hyvinkää, Finland on November 16th, 2024.

Finland In November

In addition to the October gigs, one last trek through Finland this year has just been confirmed for November:

Nov. 15 Armo in Tampere;

Nov. 16 Joutsen Blues in Hyvinkää, with Blues Bizarre (FIN) and Dr. Goodfeel (FIN);

Nov. 17 Villa Hakasalmi in Helsinki (NB! matinee!).

Poster design by Siret Roots, photos by Leif Laaksonen and Matti Suuronen.

 

Fööniks Pics and Tõge Approaching

The art, poetry & music festival Tõge will start on the shores of Lake Palalinn in Lähte on Saturday, July 6th at 2 p.m.

Meanwhile, here are a few pics from June 18th's Fööniksi Festival in Tartu, dedicated to the late poet and Beat Generation/Dylan expert Hannes Varblane. Photos by Siret Roots. 

  

 

 

This Summer's Gigs

The summer season starts with a free solo show in Mäntsälä, Finland this Wednesday, June 5th - and then we have...

Tallukka Blues Party Review & Photos

Last week's Finnish tour ended with a set at the Hotelli Tallukka Blues Party in Vääksy and Blues-Finland.com has published a detailed review of the event. Pasi Tuominen writes: 

"Even though Roots has been making music for a long time and has been performing actively in Finland for well over a decade, he remains part of the younger generation of roots musicians. And that shows in both his artistic and personal progress – it feels like this guy’s development curve is about to go through the roof.

"The Vesijärvi restaurant was nicely packed on Saturday, intensely alive with the masterful guitarist’s performance. Roots’ acoustic guitar playing exhibits almost endless inventiveness. When seasoning his playing with juicy basslines and percussive right hand effects, he sounds like a trio at the very least!

 

"The humorous stage banter further adds to the concert value of Roots (who speaks better Finnish than many Finns). Rarely do artists get an extra applause for what they say between songs. Andres got many."

 

You can read the whole thing HERE (in Finnish). Photos here and in the article are by Juha Seila. - see the full gallery HERE. 

 

Last Finnish Tour of the Summer!

The last Finnish tour of the summer and the overall fifth such trip in 2023 starts today from Helsinki - here are the shows and a few of the posters:

Aug. 15 - Bar Mendocino, Helsinki

Aug. 16 - Kulttuurikellari, Savonlinna

Aug. 17 - LiveLava @ Eikan Pub, Järvenpää

Aug. 18 - Pub Grönan, Hanko

Aug. 19 - Tallukka Blues Party, Vääksy 

 

Looking Back on 2022

It seems impossible to look back on 2022 and not mention the world going to hell in a handbasket, so there... Concert-wise, 47 gigs in 4 countries were rather a positive improvement on the pandemic-ridden 2021's mere 18, but still a far cry from the touring schedules of old.

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!

Hamina Mosna Blues

On May 14th, Andres Roots will finally get to play the Mosna Blues festival in Hamina, Finland - an event he was originally invited to play in 2020, but then of course the pandemic happened. Click HERE for festival details!

Andres Roots photos by Leif Laaksonen.