Dave Arcari & Andres Roots

SLIDE guitarist & songwriter Dave Arcari’s alt.blues sounds owe as much to trash country, punk and rockabilly as they do pre-war Delta blues and have been showcased via seven internationally-acclaimed solo album releases on labels including Buzz (UK), Dixiefrog (France) and Blue North (Finland).

After a successful Kickstarter campaign his latest album Devil May Care was released on limited edition red vinyl in November 2023.

A top three finalist in UK Blues Federation’s UK Blues Awards 2023 Arcari’s music features in numerous BBC TV programmes as well as popular USA series The Deadliest Catch.

While continuing to build his audience in the USA with once or twice-annual tours since 2013 – including official showcases at SxSW in Austin, Texas – Arcari maintains his presence on the UK and European touring and festival circuits with regular live shows throughout the year.

The ultimate validation for Arcari’s music and performance came in 2019 when National Reso-Phonic Guitars launched the ‘Dave Arcari signature model’ guitar. Arcari joins an elite and exclusive group of players who have signature models and is the first – and only – musician outside the USA to be honoured by the iconic instrument maker whose name is synonymous with the development of the blues genre.

ANDRES ROOTS

An official Ambassador for the 2024 European Capital of Culture, Andres Roots is a slide guitarist from Tartu, Estonia whose music has received airplay on five continents and whose Golden Disc-earning 2016 LP “Roots Music” remains the only blues album ever to top the sales charts in Estonia.

The former Bullfrog Brown guitarist and songwriter has performed in the USA and throughout most of Europe, with the 2018 book “100 Years of Estonian Music” introducing him as the country’s “internationally best-known player of pure blues”. Roots’ latest release “Vol. 12” has nevertheless invoked comparisons with not just the heyday of Mississippi Delta Blues but also with Davy Graham, Leo Kottke, Ry Cooder – and even acoustic Led Zeppelin.

“Musicians of this sort run counter to all expectations, and upset various purists,” writes the American jazz critic Ted Gioia in his “12 Outstanding New Albums by 12 Artists from 12 Countries”. “It’s almost as if muddy waters were flowing into the Gulf of Riga.”