SLIDE guitarist & songwriter Dave Arcari’s alt.blues sounds owe as much to trash country, punk and rockabilly as they do rpe-war Delta blues. His debut solo EP Blue Country Steel was launched during a nine-night run of shows at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This was followed by two EP releases on Buzz Records in 2006 – Something old, something borrowed… and Something new, something blue. Arcari’s first full length CD album Come With Me was released in 2007.

Already this year (2008) he has been invited to showcase at the North by North East (NxNE) music festival in Toronto, Canada and he is in the top four finalists in the Indy Music Awards 2008.

A series of shows with the mighty Alabama 3 (by personal request from the band), gigs with Seasick Steve, Son of Dave and Jon Spencer along with a tour in Estonia (including headline slots at the 2005 Augustibluus Festival) have established Arcari as a formidable international solo performer who is fast building a media reputation as a 'hell-raising National guitar madman'.

Arcari’s growing reputation in the UK was endorsed in Spring 2007 when he was asked to put music to Robert Burns’ (Scotland’s national poet) poem Parcel of Rogues for a BBC Scotland special to mark 30 years of the Act of Union between Scotland and England. He also presented the entire programme, interviewing many high-profile political figures, musicians and historians along the way.

In 1996 he quit his first proper band role as guitarist with Summerfield Blues (which won the Alexis Korner memorial trophy for 'Scottish Blues Band of the Year' at Edinburgh International Blues fest in 2003 - the same year the band released it's debut, and only, CD album Devil & the Freightman) to concentrate on his new found National steel guitar. It wasn't long, though, before he was joined by harmonica player Jim Harcus and the intended solo career went by the wayside as Radiotones started to form and evolved into the force it is today. So while the electric Nationals and Marshall stack are on the back burner for Dave's solo appearances, his hard-hitting gravel-laden vocals and slashing bottleneck steel guitar make for an aggressive, dynamic blues-based sound that owes as much to punk, rockabilly and trash country as pre-war Delta blues.

"... a powerful solo performer whose strong compositions, unstoppable rhythms and Delta-inspired slide work stand without support."
Blues Revue Magazine

"There's no fleet-finger twiddlage here, just blasting bottleneck riddims and Arcari's scary Captain Beefheart vocal. It's the original blues message - drink, be merry, fall over. Hurrah!"
GUITAR Magazine

"... a truly authentic UK blues artist and let’s celebrate that."
Rock’n’Reel Magazine

More info at http://davearcari.com

From 8pm in The Speakeasy. Dave Arcari: 9.15pm – 9.45pm Congregation: 10pm –10.40pm. Admission £5. Advance tickets via http://www.wegottickets.com/event/31045