Dave Arcari

SLIDE guitarist & songwriter Dave Arcari is best known as frontman of alt.blues band Radiotones which has three internationally-acclaimed albums under it's belt.His debut solo EP Blue Country Steel was launched during a nine-night run of shows at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A series of shows with the mighty Alabama3 (by personal request from the band),a summer 2005 tour in Estonia (including headline slots at the Augustibluus Festival) and three successful Acoustic Mayhem tours have now established Arcari as a formidable international solo performer and attracting a media reputation as a 'hell-raising National guitar madman'. 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. With overseas engagements and opportunities calling from all directions, Dave is now in a position to fill obligations that are either unsuitable for a full electric line-up or are, for whatever reason, impractical for Radiotones. Radiotones and Dave's solo work will continue to develop together along with his part in the Cash-inspired Union Avenue. Dave's solo show is also part of Acoustic Mayhem - an occassional three-way touring package which also features Lee Patterson. 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 pertinent reminder that British people do backwoods hoedowns as well as anyone. By some bizarre accident, Dave Arcar;s bluesy growl owes as much to Long John Silver as it does to Big Bill Broonzy." BANG 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 "Dave Arcari’s gravel 'n' whiskey delivery falling midway between Tom Waits and Alabama 3's Larry Love, relayed over a backdrop that variously recalls Slim Harpo, Leadbelly and Vincent Gallo." LOGO Magazine