“These are serious musicians out to have a hotter than hot good time. It’s tough to stay in your seat when Estrin and his musical cohorts get cooking.” –Chicago Sun-Times

Sacramento-based rocking blues masters Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, currently celebrating the release of their new CD, YOU ASKED FOR IT…LIVE!, will be touring Europe between Thursday, November 6 and Wednesday, November 12, 2014. Harmonica icon/vocalist/songwriter Rick Estrin, along with The Nightcats — jaw-dropping guitarist Chris “Kid” Andersen, singing drummer (who plays standing up) J. Hansen and dynamic multi-instrumentalist Lorenzo Farrell (electric and acoustic bass, organ and piano) — serve up fresh and modern original blues injected with a solid dose of gritty roadhouse rock ‘n’ roll. Since the 2009 release of their celebrated Alligator Records debut, Twisted, and the 2012 follow-up ONE WRONG TURN, the band has toured non-stop, honing their creative synergy to a razor’s edge. Now they’ve captured that energy on, YOU ASKED FOR IT…LIVE!. Concert information is as follows:

November 06, 2014
Blues Sur Seine Festival
Jazz Club Etoile
Paris, France

November 07, 2014
Blues Sur Seine Festival
Espace Prévert
Savigny-le-Temple, France

November 08, 2014
Blues Sur Seine Festival
Espace Maurice Béjart
Verneuil-sur-Seine, France

November 09, 2014
Royal Irene
Venlo-Blerick, Netherlands

November 12, 2014
True Social Club
Bucharest, Romania

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Every night that award-winning harmonica player, singer and songwriter Rick Estrin and his cohorts The Nightcats perform live — wherever in the world that may be — a crowd of dancing, shouting, laughing and cheering people will be enjoying some of the best live music they’ve ever heard. On one of these nights — October 5, 2013 at San Francisco’s Biscuits & Blues – the proceedings were captured live. The result is Rick Estrin & The Nightcats’ irresistible new release, YOU ASKED FOR IT…LIVE!. The band was, as they always are, on fire. The hometown sell-out crowd was ready to explode, and the front man was celebrating his birthday. According to Estrin, “Cutting loose and stretching out in an intimate, nightclub type setting is the natural environment for the Nightcats to kick maximum ass. The fact that it was my birthday, in the town where I was born and raised, only added more fuel to the fire.”

YOU ASKED FOR IT…LIVE! has the immediacy, feel and fun of a true Rick Estrin & The Nightcats performance. “No matter how much fun we have and how relaxed we can be in the studio, there’s still nothing like being in front of, and interacting with, our live audience,” Estrin says. The album features some of Rick Estrin’s best loved and most requested songs, dating back to his days as lead singer, songwriter and harmonica player of Little Charlie & The Nightcats, (featuring Little Charlie Baty on guitar). The album is an up-to-the-minute and totally accessible slice of original wry and witty blues with a simmering, funky rock edge fueled by Andersen’s blazing genre-hopping guitar and Farrell’s and Hansen’s dazzling keyboard and rhythm work. One listen makes it clear that this is a group comprised of four world-class musicians, who together form one of the tightest and most original bands in any genre.

Rick Estrin, who holds the 2013 Blues Music Award for Best Instrumentalist—Harmonica, is, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, “an amazing harmonica player, a soulful lead vocalist and a brilliant songwriter.” He ranks among the very best harp players, singers and songwriters in the blues world. His work on the reeds is deep in the tradition of harmonica masters Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Walter Jacobs, while at the same time pushing that tradition forward with his unforgettable original songs. And his hipster, street-smart vocals are the perfect vehicle for driving those songs home. Blues Revue says, “Estrin has created some of the finest blues songs of any artist on the planet. His carefully wrought lyrics penetrate human weakness with the precision of a boxer, though more often than not, he chooses to leave you laughing after the blow’s been struck.”

For more than 30 years and nine albums, Estrin fronted one of Alligator’s most popular acts, Little Charlie & The Nightcats, featuring Little Charlie Baty’s one-of-a-kind guitar acrobatics. The band won international acclaim and toured the world repeatedly. They were nominated four times for the prestigious Blues Music Award for Band Of The Year. With Charlie’s retirement in 2008, Rick rededicated himself to his craft. Hansen and Farrell wanted to keep the band going. Estrin knew the only way to replace Baty’s crazed and unique guitar style was to find someone with an equally insane and individual approach, and he knew that would be a tall order to fill.

As luck would have it, Kid Andersen, who had been working with another harp legend, Charlie Musselwhite, became available. “Kid’s a fearless nut on the guitar,” says Estrin. “He’s really the only guy who could fit in with us.” With an unpredictable, no-holds-barred style that perfectly meshed with Estrin’s wildly imaginative original songs, the new band charged out of the gate with TWISTED in 2009 and ONE WRONG TURN in 2012. Blues Revue raved, “Rick Estrin & The Nightcats are one of modern blues’ most versatile and original bands.”

As a testament to their talent, audiences at their performances are often peppered with musicians wanting to glean a lick from these dynamic musical masters. Fans ask to go home with a CD that reflects what they just witnessed. Now, with YOU ASKED FOR IT…LIVE!, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats can satisfy their fans’ demands. Estrin recalls, “After shows, people are always asking, ’Are any of these CDs live? Which of your CDs is most like what you did tonight?’ Now, I can tell them, ‘This one right here. Thank you. We’ll be happy to sign it.’”


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