Preview

Catfish Keith

Over two decades, this American blues singer, songwriter, and bottleneck slide guitarist has established himself as one of the world's most exciting country blues performers. Catfish has eight No. 1 independent radio chart-topping albums to his credit, and has played his unique style of foot-stomping, deep delta blues and American roots music to packed houses world-wide. His never-ending tour schedule and frequent festival appearances have made him a firm favourite across Europe and the UK, and we're delighted to welcome 'the real acoustic blues king' to the Talbot.

'One of the most exciting guitarists of any genre' - Acoustic Guitar

'This man is flat-out spectacular' - Big City Blues

'... a solo revelation ... the star of the weekend' - Guardian

Keith Christmas

A prominent figure on the early British folk-rock scene, Keith recorded his first album, 'Stimulus', in 1969, played acoustic guitar on Bowie's 'Space Oddity' album, and appeared at the very first Glastonbury Festival. Through the 1970s he released four more critically acclaimed (and now highly collectable) albums while touring with the likes of The Who, King Crimson, and Roxy Music. His return to music in the early 1990s has brought with it a fresh approach to the blues and acoustic guitar music - backed up by 3 superb CDs - that's put this legendary player and songwriter right back in the spotlight.

Review

Part two of our autumn acoustic mini-season brought us, as planned, contrasting Keiths, each a master in his chosen style.

The early albums (especially Fable of the Wings and Pigmy) of Keith Christmas have been firm favourites here at Caped Cruiser Acres for well over 30 years, so it was a real treat to meet the man himself at last - and to purchase his Timeless And Strange CD which anthologizes those well-worn but still-magical LPs - music that reflects the early-70s London/West Country electric folk-rock scene of which Keith was a major element, alongside Al Jones, John Martyn, Steeleye Span, the mysteriously-disappeared Shelagh McDonald, Spirogyra, Gary Farr, and so many more ... all malodorous Afghan coats, scoop-neck vests, student flats, hippy festivals, damp country cottages, log fires, and rolling another number (Too much information. - Ed.) ... Keith Christmas's music, since his return to the scene in the early '90s, has taken twin new directions: lyrical instrumental guitar work, and the blues - and it was the latter that he mainly played for us. 'Heart, Soul, Body & Mind', 'Slave to Your Love', 'Don't Let the Devil Out of his Cage', and others showed him to be an excellent practitioner of that genre, with deft bottleneck guitar technique and suitably strident vocal style ... but for me (and probably for the other early Christmas devotees in the audience whose requests for old favourites like 'Brighter Day' and 'Robin Head' (sic) were firmly spurned), the highlights were 'Western Man' and, especially, the astonishing 'Stone With A View'; the latter, a recently-rediscovered 1980 song, was given its first-ever public live airing, and both these songs, in my opinion, displayed Keith's real and undimmed strengths - audacious open tunings, fluid guitar picking, poetic and thought-provoking lyrics, and his real voice, which is quite unlike anyone else's. We look forward to more in the same vein.

There's hard-working musicians, and then there's Catfish Keith. The Iowa-based acoustic blues supremo is on his thirtieth (!!) UK tour, and it's therefore unsurprising that his performance technique has been honed to the finest degree. The man is such a strong performer - no other word will do. His disarmingly relaxed presence pulls you right inside his compelling world of acoustic blues, but it'a as far from being a dry academic exercise as you could wish - taking us by the hand, Keith leads us unhurriedly down the cotton-plantation back-roads, introducing us along the way to the likes of Mississippi Fred McDowell ( 'Tell Everybody Down in Your Neighbourhood'), Blind Willie Johnson ('Dark Was The Night', 'By & By I'm Gonna See the King'), Bukka White ('Jitterbug Swing') and Lil' Green ('Knockin' Myself Out'); in addition, we got the hilarious phonetic 'Hawaian Cowboy', the Cajun tang of Clifton Chenier's 'I Gotta Pepper in my Shoe', and the simply extraordinary 'hypno-blues' of Jessie Mae Hemphill's 'Have You Seen My Eagle Bird', showcasing Keith's jaw-slackening guitar technique: snapped-out bass lines coupled to phenomenal harmonic lead patterns ... his hard-worked Welsh-built Revell guitar, unsurprisingly, begs constant retunings along the way. No less dazzling is his resonator steel guitar playing; and this, teamed with robustly authentic vocals and, with a tip of his trademark trilby, his graciously droll inter-song patter (it takes an observant American visitor to note the inherent absurdity of a shop sign like 'Family Butcher'), makes the Catfish experience one to be treasured - the vigorous CD merchandising conducted by Keith's wife Penny bore witness to his popularity. All in all, we couldn't have wished for two finer Keiths for our all-Keith extravagenza.