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.
The September issue of Blues in Britain comes with a story that's introduced on their website as follows: "It’s pre-show at Temperance,
the basement venue tucked away in Leamington Spa, the delightful spa
town in Warwickshire, where a sold-out audience tonight will witness the
combined acoustic double-bill of Scotland’s finest paddle-boarding
bluesman, Dave Arcari and Estonia’s Andres Roots. Their performance styles are very different but they make a formidable pairing and they’ve been friends for over twenty years as they tell Blues In Britain..." Check out the mag HERE!
The Ireland/England tour starts this week - here's the updated tour poster (with the London/Kingston date added). And don't forget to check out the cover interview in Blues in the South and the track on RnR Magazine's covermount CD...!
Just released, the August issue of the UK's Blues in the South monthly features Leif Laaksonen's photo of Andres Roots on the cover and an in-depth interview by Ian McKenzie inside.
Click HERE to place your free subsciption and HERE to download the current issue in .pdf format!
The official album launch at the University of Tartu Library Music Department was a success - the release date is February 25th, so on Tuesday, the CD should become available at a variety of record stores in Estonia, as well as on the Andres Roots Bandcamp page.
On February 26th, Andres will be chatting to Al Lundy, live on his Highway Blues show on Nebraska's KZUM 89.3 FM - click HERE to tune in online!
Ahead of the upcoming UK tour, Andres Roots will be chatting to Gayle Lofthouse on BBC Radio Leeds' Daytime Show on Monday, November 27, 11:40 AM UK time.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos by Leif Laaksonen from last Sunday at Helsinki's Martin Markkinat, with Finland's own Jantso Jokelin on hamonica.
The last "Tartu Lockdown" launch concert will take place at the Rapla Blues Club in Kultuuriklubi BAAS on September 24th - you can purchase tickets HERE and check out the Facebook event HERE.
Meanwhile, you can revisit Andres Roots' last week's radio interviews about the album and its predecessor "Mississippi to Loch Lomond" - to listen to Klassikaraadio's Delta from September 7th, hosted by Liina Vainumetsa, click HERE; to listen to Vikerraadio's Andres Oja show from September 10th, click HERE.
8 p.m. UK time, 10 p.m. Estonian/Finnish time you can watch the second episode of Dave Arcari's Blues'n'2s live on his Facebook artist page - with special guest Andres Roots! Just click HERE and tune in!
Meanwhile, HERE's the segment of national broadcasting's evening news - Aktuaalne Kaamera - from last night that focusses on Saturday's Wild West event in Palivere, featuring footage of both the play and the concert.
The Tartu 2024 photo & video project "Spring 2020" features interviews with cultural figures of Tartu & Southern Estonia on how the global pandemic has influenced their life. With video by Hendrik Kuusk (Televant) & photos by Kiur Kaasik, the opening episode presents yours truly in his bedroom window, with his Hobo 63 cigar box guitar & ZT Amplifiers Lunchbox amp.
With the new live album arriving in March and a cover story in the current issue of Finland's Blues News, there'll be quite a few concerts coming up in Finland this spring - here are the ones already confirmed:
This year's first issue of Finland's Blues News is out next week, with an Andres Roots cover feature - cover photo by Peter Lee, interview by Leif Laaksonen. Check out the magazine on Facebook here or place your order via their website here. Andres' next gig is at The Blue Icicle festival in Pärnu on February 27 - showtime 7 p.m.!
In 2019, Andres Roots played 60 concerts in four countries: in Estonia (Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Haapsalu, Viljandi, Võru, Põlva, Toila, Kadrina, Palivere, Kohila, Muuga), in Finland (Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Rauma, Pieksämäki, Loimaa), in Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Milton of Buchanan) and in the USA (Clarksdale, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; Helena, Arkansas). 50 out of the 60 shows were solo performances, but Roots also appeared with Ismo Haavisto (vocals, guitar, harmonica) & Matias Partanen (drums), with Peeter Piik (bass) & Les Wilson (percussion), with Anneli Kadakas (drums), with Robert Floyd Stevens (drums) and with James Dalton (vocals, guitar, harmonica) & Les Wilson (percussion). There were mini-tours with Dave Arcari and Black River Bluesman, a 3-month residency at Von Krahl in Tallinn, a set for the international jury that would go on to declare Tartu, Estonia as the European Capital of Culture for 2024, a live-on-the-air set on Uuge Kojola's radio show on Finland's Roll FM, etc. etc.
With Dave Arcari in Milton of Buchanan. Photo by Alistair Mulhearn.
Altogether, the year included appearances at 18 festivals: Deep Blues Festival (Clarksdale, Mississippi), King Biscuit Blues Festival (Helena, Arkansas), Rauma Blues (Rauma, Finland), Savonsolmu Winter Blues Party (Pieksämäki, Finland), Sügisjazz (Tartu, Estonia), tARTuFF Film Festival (Tartu, Estonia), Pärnu Bluusipäevad (Pärnu, Estonia), 7 Linna Muusika (Toila, Estonia), Prima Vista Literature Festival (Tartu, Estonia), Vanalinna Päevad (Tallinn, Estonia), Munarock (Põlva, Estonia), The Blue Icicle (Pärnu, Estonia), Underground Blues (Põlva, Estonia), Metsiku Lääne Päev (Palivere, Estonia), Viljandi Õllefestival (Viljandi, Estonia), Pandivere Muusikafestival (Muuga,
Lääne-Virumaa, Estonia), 20/20 Film Festival (Tartu, Estonia), and Tartu Bluusikuu (Tartu, Estonia), which included an exhibition on the first 15 years of Tartu Blues – the first Estonian blues society founded by Roots, Alar Kriisa and Üllar Kärt in 2003.
With Black River Bluesman in Clarksdale. Photo by Jeff Eaton.
There were two Andres Roots EP's released on Roots Art Records in 2019: the limited edition live CD "Loch Lomond Blues" and the 7" vinyl "Waiting Around" – the first 45 ever pressed on location in Estonia. Roots also appeared on several recordings by James Dalton (USA), adding guitar to "When It’s Midnight Somewhere in the World" which appears on Dalton's spoken word release "Words" and is also included on the CD version of his "Troubadours" EP, and playing on all tracks on the live "Tartu Jämm", recorded at the Sügisjazz festival in Tartu with Les Wilson on percussion. In addition to an abundance of live footage from 2019, Asko-Romé Altsoo directed a music video for "Waiting Around", filmed at Genklubi in Tartu and featuring dancers from the Tartu Swing club.
Roots' 2018 album "Breakfast in September" reached #10 in the IBBA airplay charts for December 2018 and made it to #8 in the French-speaking blues radio association's airplay chart in January 2019. The press continued to be kind throughout the year – in addition to favourable album reviews, there was the Blues in Britain cover story by Jeff Eaton and longer pieces in Blues Matters! (UK), Blues Again! (France), Turun Sanomat (Finland), Blues-Finland.com (Finland), Jazzrytmit (Finland), KesKus (Estonia), Sakala (Estonia), Tartu Postimees (Estonia), etc. Incidentally, the current issue of Blues in Britain also features an in-depth review of the "Loch Lomond Blues" EP by Norman Darwen, and while the limited edition EP itself is sold out, there's a live album coming in 2020 that features those six acoustic tracks from Scotland PLUS recordings from the Deep Blues Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi and from the Endla Jazz Club in Pärnu, Estonia. Thank you all very much and see you in 2020!
The new live EP "Loch Lomond Blues" will become available digitally via Spotify and other online platforms on May 31; meanwhile, there are 45 signed and hand-numbered hard-copy CD's you can purchase at the upcoming gigs: May 23 at Illegaard in Tartu with Dave Arcari, May 26 at Von Krahl in Tallinn with Dave Arcari, and (should there be any left) June 1st at the Record Fair in Harjumägi in Tallinn, as part of the Old Town Days.
There is an interview in the current issue of KesKus monthly that was conducted in March, and there is also a review of the "Breakfast in September" album in Les temps du blues in France, calling Andres "an interpreter who's mastered all nuances of the slide" - watch the programme here. Soon, very soon there'll be more exciting news about this summer's gigs, so watch this space! :)
Last week's mini-tour of Scotland with Dave Arcari was a blast, with electric shows at The Glad Cafe in Glasgow and Leith Depot in Edinburgh and an acoustic night in at Memorial Hall in Milton of Buchanan - photos will be coming soon, but here's a video sample from that last gig, with Andres playing one of Dave's National guitars into an Ear Trumpet Labs microphone:
"Roots is possibly at his best armed with a resonator and bottleneck
slide where his picking is never short of top-quality, zinging,
rippling, and pushing the edges of true, pure, raw blues with an
apparent self-assurance and ability," writes Iain Patience in Blues Matters!. "Never afraid to experiment and aim
for innovation, Roots seems always to be turning out and delivering fresh blues with its own distinct innovative twist and purpose."
Next show: the Record Fair at the Red Emperor in Tallinn on Sunday, March 10 - showtime 1 p.m.!
The Turun Sanomat newspaper in Finland has printed a lengthy story on Andres and his latest album you can read here (in Finnish); there should also be a piece in the current issue of Blues Matters magazine in the UK. Meanwhile, the British Independent Blues Broadcasters' Association has published their most played album Top40 for December 2018, with "Breakfast in September" at #10; the CD is also The Bear Blues Show's current album of the week on Aycliffe Radio.
On Saturday, February 9th, Andres Roots & Anneli Kadakas will appear at the Savonsolmu Winter Blues Party in Pieksämäki, Finland. The duo have also published two new numbers, which you can hear below!
Next week, Andres Roots will kick off his solo tour of Finland & Scotland - Aamuset has published a short piece in anticipation of his Turku concert - click here to read it!
The Pärnu winter blues festival Blue Icicle will kick off on Friday, February 1 at the Pärnu Yacht Club, with Andres Roots, Jānis Vanadziņš, Randal Randoja, and Peeter Prints. Saturday's concert at Nooruse Maja will feature Latvian blues artists exclusively. In Tartu, Andres Roots and Randal Randoja will appear at Kolm Tilli on Thursday, February 7th, where they are joined by the Italian one man band J.D. Addams.
Meanwhile, the Finnish jazz webzine Jazzrytmit has published the Andres Roots interview, originally conducted for RollFM by the legendary photographer Risto Vuorimies last fall in Tartu, along with a bunch of photos he took there. Click here to check it out!
Photo by Risto Vuorimies.
Walden T550 with a Liivamägi Classic pickup. Photo by Risto Vuorimies.
Eero Palusalu, Andres Roots, Risto Vuorimies. Photo by Risto Vuorimies.
The Sawmill Roots Orchestra & Robert Johnson extravaganza will hit Tartu tonight: the location is Genialistide Klubi and it's doors at 7, music at 8 p.m.
Andres Roots will be discussing the concerts and the Sawmill album on Klassikaraadio's Delta programme today between 2 & 3 p.m. The tour ends on Friday with a show at Rockstar's in Tallinn!
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.
Meanwhile, HERE's the segment of national broadcasting's evening news - Aktuaalne Kaamera - from last night that focusses on Saturday's Wild West event in Palivere, featuring footage of both the play and the concert.
