In August, the Estonian slide guitarist Andres Roots will be playing his first-ever Irish shows at the Howth Roots & Blues Festival. An ambassador for last year’s European Capital of Culture – Tartu, Estonia – Roots is set to open the Howth Roots & Blues Festival at the Summit Inn in Dublin on Friday, August 8th, followed by a second set on the Garden Stage at the Harbour Bar Saturday afternoon.
A guitarist/songwriter whose recordings have received airplay on five continents, who has toured throughout Europe and in the USA and whose Golden Disc-earning 2016 LP “Roots Music” remains the only blues album ever to top the sales charts in the Baltics, Andres Roots (his real name!) has also composed music for theatre, films and TV. The 2018 compendium “100 Years of Estonian Music” described Roots as the country’s “internationally best-known player of pure blues”, while his recent work has 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.
Roots’ current album “Royal Spa Blues – Live from Temperance” was recorded solo and acoustic in Leamington Spa in July 2024, right after performing at the 40th anniversary edition of the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival and at the award-winning Upton Blues Festival. Launched with a string of dates in Wales and England in March 2025, the CD was voted ‘Album Pick of the Month’ by the UK’s Independent Blues Broadcasters Association and duly reached #2 in the IBBA monthly airplay chart.
Additional information: https://www.andresroots.com