On Tuesday, December 22, alt.blues trio Bullfrog Brown will be premiering the video for “Papa Wolf” at Illegaard, their home venue in Tartu, Estonia. Directed by Asko-Romé Altsoo, the video can already be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=r_ZuCkNWlMA

“There was a different version of the clip circulating earlier this year, but this is the finished product we are all happy with,” enthused vocalist Alar Kriisa. “Same as last year, we are playing our last gig of 2009 at Illegaard and are very happy to combine that with the video premiere!”

From the album “Bullfrog Brown with Steve Lury”, released in February 2009, “Papa Wolf” features Bullfrog Brown guitarist Andres Roots still playing a dobro, while half of the band’s next CD “Moon and Central” and most of the seventy-plus gigs the band has played this year in the UK, France, Finland, Poland and Estonia were done with a Walden T550 acoustic – a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by the Portland, Oregon-based company.

"Walden Guitars is proud to add Andres to our list of endorsed artists," says Jonathan Lee, guitar designer and division manager of the KHS Fretted Instrument Division. "Andres’ and Bullfrog Brown’s blues is fantastic and we’re honored that Andres plays everywhere with our Walden T550.”

Employing several Walden guitars now, sessions for the next Bullfrog Brown album are currently afoot; the release date is provisionally set for summer 2010. The band’s two 2009 CD’s, “Bullfrog Brown with Steve Lury” and “Moon and Central” have been exceptionally well received by fans and critics worldwide, with the latter release praised as “Album of the Week” for both the Estonian national daily Eesti Päevaleht and the French radio show Maxwell Street on Terre Marine FM; the Belgian webzine Rootsville.be calls it "an absolute masterpiece of modern blues". Bullfrog’s 2008 EP “Mother River Delta” was declared “Best European Recording” of the year by Canada’s Blues Underground Network.      

Additional info:

Walden Guitars press release: http://www.waldenguitars.com/..news_2009_Andres_Roots.html

Andres’ Walden Guitars profile: http://www.waldenguitars.com/..artists_roots.html

"Papa Wolf" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=r_ZuCkNWlMA

Bullfrog Brown on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/..bullfrogbrown

Illegaard: http://www.illegaard.com

This Friday, November 27th, Bullfrog Brown will appear at the Endla Jazz Club in Pärnu - which is where Siret's graphics exhibition will open that same day. Among other treats, the exhibition will include the original cover drawing of Bullfrog's "Moon and Central" CD!




Beware: event details are in Estonian ;)

Hosted By:
Bullfrog Brown

When:
27 November 2009

Where:
Endla Jazzklubi
Pärnu

Description:
Reedel, 27. novembril esineb Pärnu Endla Jazzklubis Tartu trio Bullfrog Brown. Endla teatrikohvikus avatakse samal päeval ka Siret Rootsi graafikanäitus, mis sisaldab muuhulgas bändi viimase albumi kaanepildi originaali.

Click Here To View Event

Hear Cliff McKnight's podcast Nothing But The Blues, including:

* interview with Andres from The Globe in Leicester (Sept. '09)
* a selection of Bullfrog tracks '05-'09
* additional tracks by friends like Black River Bluesman & Alaska Kalan + original influence John Hammond Jr.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/cliff/nbtb59.mp3
http://www.nothingbuttheblues.co.uk/radio.html


 

PRESS RELEASE 21.10.2009

........................

The Estonian trio Bullfrog Brown have been forced to cancel all remaining October gigs due to ill health that has been plaguing guitarist Andres Roots since the start of their UK tour in September. Cancelled dates include the Scandinavian Blues Party in Kokkola and Kantis Goes Roots! club night in Helsinki, Finland, as well as a live performance on Estonian national television.

“Cancelling gigs is something we have never taken lightly and it has been harder than ever to make that decision now, with two Finnish shows we have very much been looking forward to,” Roots stated. “But for the last two gigs we played, I was performing under rather heavy medication, and not only did the concerts turn out more psychedelic than intended, the effort has not helped my situation. The doctors strongly recommend that I now cancel all travels for the remaining month, and sadly, I’m in no position to argue. With a bit of luck, we’ll be back soon, and hopefully will get the chance to redeem ourselves before our Finnish fans in 2010.”

Currently, the band is hoping to continue with their November schedule as planned; however, no foreign performances are to be scheduled until March 2010.

First off, this will be our last post for a few weeks - the band leaves for Scotland early Saturday morning and won't be back until the end of April, so while we expect to check our e-mail (bullfrogbrown[at]gmail.com) from time to time, all myspace friend requests and such will have to wait 'til we return.

Now, here's our Scots schedule again - please note that our performance at the Bellshill Music Fest will be a few hours earlier than first announced: with a certain Who track in mind, we take the stage at 5.15!

18 Apr Bellshill Music Festival @ the Bellshill Cultural Centre, Lanarkshire, w/ Rab Noakes, Swing Guitars, Tam Stevenson, Jimmy Conquer & Frank Henry

23 Apr The State Bar, Glasgow w/ Dave Arcari

24 Apr Whistlebinkies, Edinburgh w/ Lee Patterson

25 Apr The Moorings, Aberdeen w/ Dave Arcari, Son Henry, The Last Divide

26 Apr Bute Sunday Session @ The Rothesay, Isle Of Bute w/ Mike Smith, Acousticrat, Gurf Morlix 

And, since we're talking UK gigs, we'll be in England as a trio (!) in late August, playing Tower Blues in Blackpool (The Lawrence House Studio, Grand Theatre, tickets: 01253 290190 or www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk ) on Friday, August 28th and the Bob Dylan Acousticfest in Manchester (m19 Bar in Levenshulme, http://www.myspace.com/acousticfest ) on Saturday, August 29th, with a third possible gig in the area TBA. Major thanks regarding both trips go to the Estonian Embassy in London!

Meanwhile, BluesBytes ( http://www.bluenight.com/BluesBytes/wn0409.html ) has published a review of "Mother River Delta" by Terry Clear:

How about this for something different? A blues band from Estonia, no less. And they’re good! They may be for Eastern Europe, but Bullfrog Brown are rooted in Delta blues, and they know what it’s all about too. They don’t just take old standards and re-do them, they write their own songs and perform them extremely well – their music has a definite authentic Delta feel to it, made all the better by the different accent of the singer’s voice.

Six out of the seven songs on Mother River Delta (Kwaq) are written by Andres Roots, the remaining song is written by Alar Kiisa – and there you have it, this is a duo. Two guys who really enjoy their music, and their music is blues. There’s no pretentious long guitar solos, just lean and pure blues leaning on the influences of early Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White.

Alar Kriisa handles the vocals, and both guy play guitar with Andres Roots taking on some percussion along the way and playing some excellent slide guitar. You have a good look at these guys, and find out a lot more about them by looking at their web-site: www.bullfrogbrown.com.

This CD opens with “Nobody The Skull,” gravelly voiced vocals, slide guitar, strange lyrics, gentle, relaxed, pure blues – this stuff just makes you want more and more. Why don’t some of today’s “blues artists” play this sort of music instead of the wailing Stratocasters banging out the same old five-minute solos?

Onto track two, “Special Rider,” and the feel of early 1960s blues with Andres Roots providing some percussion and Alar Kriisa singing and playing guitar – all about a special girl who can make a deaf and dumb man sing and a caterpillar sting!

The next song, “30,” is, for me, pure Mississippi John Hurt – all about a guy reaching the age of 30, getting grey hairs in his moustache and feeling old (they must age early in Estonia!). This is a lovely contribution to the blues, from two guys who are obviously dedicated to the blues and who can write relevant songs and provide the musical backing as well.

If you love pure, unadulterated, delta blues, then please give these guys a listen – you won’t be sorry! -- Terry Clear

Thank you very much, Terry! :D

As mentioned before, there'll be a Bullfrog special on Nebraska's "Highway Blues" on May 19th, featuring a phone interview with the band, and recording sessions for our next release are rumoured to commence in May as well. Until then and whether we see you in Scotland or not - cheers!

So last Saturday, fighting another case of the flu, we appeared as part of the Jazzkaar festival showcase @ Tallinn Music Week, held most predictably in Tallinn. Although it is usually the most horrific gigs that provide the best photos, we think it went pretty well - see the gallery here.

Back home, we sat down and taped bits and pieces of twenty-odd new songs, and are now in the process of figuring out what to record for our next album and - more importantly - how. The idea would be to have it out before the end of the year, but at this point we cannot honestly tell you if it will be a punk rock album or a country and western album - the songs could go either way, so it really is the "how" we need to address... For what it's worth, the working title of the disc is "Moon and Central" (as usual, predictably enough for those in the know).

Next up was our first "official" trio gig with Peeter at Illegaard in Tartu; that certainly was fun. After two hours of sleep, we found ourselves shooting a few additional frames for the "Papa Wolf" video, the live bit for which was done with Steve Lury at Trehv in February. That oughta be out in May...

And finally, Highway Blues on KZUM 89.3fm, broadcast out of Lincoln, Nebraska, will be featuring Bullfrog Brown on their May 19th show. The Bullfrog special will include music off the albums and a live interview to be conducted by phone across a pretty big pond. So if you know anyone in the area, ask them to tune in - cheers!



   

From the February issue of Muusika magazine - in Estonian, of course, but certainly long enough  : http://muusika.kul.ee/arhiiv/200902/lugu3.pdf



In other, newer and bigger news: our dear bassist friend Peeter Piik has agreed to join Bullfrog Brown full-time from May. Hurrah!

Which means tomorrow night in Tallinn may well be our last duo gig in Estonia - see you at midnight @ NO99 then!

Le Courrier Picard on the first gig: http://www.courrier-picard.fr/courrier/Actualites/Info-locale/Beauvais-Clermont/Le-blues-du-week-end-dans-toutes-les-tetes

Le Bonhomme Picard on the last gig: http://www.lebonhommepicard.fr/actualite/viewArticle.php?idArticle=524

Since phrases like "leur roots authentic" and "la virtuosité du guitariste" have a nice ring to them, we hope what they say is positive... Anybody speak French by any chance? 

EDIT: thank you Micu & Pat & Hannes for the translations! Now, where do we sign up for a French course...

Yes, we went to Paris!



Met a lot of wonderful people and had a great time.

And yes, we paid our respects to Mr. Mojo Risin'.



Then we went to Beauvais, and played for the Blues Autour du Zinc festival there.

One gig.



Two gigs.



Three gigs.



Met a lot of wonderful people and had a great time.

Then we went to Paris, again.



Met a lot of wonderful people, had a great time, and even played a gig there!



Then we went back to Beavais and on to Grandvilliers.

Where we - yes, you guessed it - met a lot of wonderful people, had a great time, and played yet another gig for the festival (young people rarely realize what hard work it is to be unpredictable in this day & age).



One kind soul even caught a bit of that last show on video:


"Nobody The Skull" also ended up on the 21-track festival sampler
(there must have been about 70 acts at the festival over the course of
two weeks?), and that has brought us unprecedented airplay on various
French radios.



There are 105 photos from this trip available in a gallery here. Mainly, courtesy of Siret Roots.



To name everybody who helped make this trip possible and so thoroughly enjoyable would take up an eternity, but we trust you know who you are - so we'll just say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Next up: Tallinn Music Week in - ahem - Tallinn on Saturday, then ten days in Scotland from April 18th onwards. Was it Guy Davis that had a song called "I Love My Job"?

And after Scotland, we'll have an important announcement to make: Bullfrog Brown will become a trio again, with Peeter Piik finally joining full-time on bass. But more on that when we get there. Cheers, y'all!