By Stevie Connor. Photo Credit: Siim Neerut.
Estonian-American-Finnish trio of Andres Roots, Red Mouth and Jantso Jokelin released "Retirement Blues" - the last of their lockdown-era songs cut in 2021-2022. The vocals were recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, USA, the harmonica in Helsinki, Finland, and the guitar in Tartu, Estonia.
"I guess we were all semi-retired or at the very least seriously considering it when Red and I started this recording project - in fact, "Retirement Blues" was largely written in a hospital bed," says Roots. "And then things got better and we all got busy again, which is why it's taken us a year to get around to mixing this one. The plan now is to keep going and to have an album ready some time next year."
Eric "Red Mouth" Gebhardt from Florence, Alabama and Andres Roots from Tartu, Estonia first collaborated ahead of the former's first European tour in 2010, recording "Redecoration Day" and filming a video for it long distance - the clip went straight to number one on Estonia national television ETV's now-defunct music show "Eesti Top 7", spending more than three months in the Top 3.
The Finnish harmonica ace Jantso Jokelin joined Roots and Red Mouth for their tours in 2010 and 2011, contributing with Red Mouth to Roots' first solo album "Roundabout" (2010) and to Red Mouth's 7" solo single "The Darkness of My Mind/Soul of a Man" (2011) in the process. In the spring of 2023, Jokelin and Roots hit the road together again, promoting their latest solo releases (Jokelin's "Silver Lining" EP and Roots' "Vol. 12" album) with a string of double-headers in Estonia and Finland.
An official ambassador for the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024, Andres Roots will be performing in Finland again in October and November, also returning to the UK for a weekend of acoustic solo shows in the Leeds area in December 2023.
The track is available for streaming and downloading on Bandcamp: https://andresroots.bandcamp.com/track/retirement-blues
Cover Art by Siret Roots.
Red Mouth on Bandcamp: redmouth.bandcamp.com
Jantso Jokelin on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist
Andres Roots on Bandcamp: andresroots.bandcamp.com