Page 13 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2025

​​AR: There’s a whole lot more to Dave
than he lets on! :) We’ve known each
other for exactly 20 years now – and

incidentally, he was on that Shetland
trip, too. I got Dave his first Estonian
gigs in 2005 and he got me and
Bullfrog Brown our first UK gigs in

2006, and I have to say that hearing
Dave for the first time was a crucial
moment for me: that’s when I

realized it’s OK to do your own thing,
you don’t have to try to sound like
everybody else! I can never thank him
enough for that.

But yes, Dave probably knows the old
blues stuff better than I do, he was on
my very first album in 2010, and it’s

always worked fine – we did the
Temperance show together this
March and we were also at the Mid

Wales R&B Club in Brecon then... The
only occasional problem is that
Dave’s fabulous signature National is
twice as loud as everything else on

stage, but that just means it’s time I
got me one, too!

​BiTS: Do you prefer to do gigs in At Ground Zero, Clarksdale,
small clubs or would you like to Mississippi, 2019. Photo by Jeff Eaton.

play in a concert in a place like the
Estonian Concert Hall or that massive place in Tallinn ( I can't remember what
it’s called).

​AR: I have in fact played at the Estonia Concert Hall, which was cool, and I’ve
performed in front of thousands at open-air festivals in Estonia and Lithuania and
that was fun in its own way, too. But I must say that I do prefer smaller venues where

I can be close to the audience, so that I can see who I’m playing to and react to their
reactions, so to speak, making it more of a communal thing.

​BiTS: Do you practise much?

​ ​AR: Not as much as I should, and not as much as I’d like to – but if there’s more than

a few days between shows, I do like to go over the set-list to refresh my memory.
And I do play the guitar around the house in general, but if it’s not in preparation