Award-winning, modern blues legends, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats – two-time winners of the prestigious Blues Music Award for Band Of The Year – currently celebrating the release of their long-awaited new Alligator Records album, The Hits Keep Coming, will perform as part of the Benefit for the new Nehalem Bay Health Center at the NCRD Performing Arts Center in Nehalem on Sunday, June 23, 2024. The Hits Keep Coming, the band’s first release in almost five years and sixth overall, packs a powerful punch, with phenomenal musicianship and streetwise lyrics—both serious and humorous. Vocalist, harmonica master and songwriter Estrin, along with multi-instrumentalist/musical mastermind/producer Christoffer “Kid” Andersen, keyboardist/organ wizard/bass player Lorenzo Farrell and endlessly creative drummer Derrick “D’Mar” Martin, have created what Estrin calls, “the best music we’ve ever made together. This band is killer. I’m enjoying this all more than ever,” says the man who’s been performing and recording professionally since the early 1970s. “It’s a blessing—there’s so much energy, so much collaboration. The band is just so good right now. And the live show is off the charts.”
Date: Sunday, June 23, 2024
Event: Benefit for the new Nehalem Bay Health Center
Venue: NCRD Performing Arts Center
Address: 36155 9th St.
City: Nehalem, OR
Phone: 855-444-6273
Doors: 2:00pm
Ticket price: $35 general admission / $100 VIP
Website: https://www.tickettomato.com/event/8701/rick-estrin-amp-the-nightcats
*All proceeds will benefit the new Nehalem Bay Health Center and Pharmacy project.
*See website for complete performance information
“This band is the best in the land…superior songwriting infused with wit, humor, and streetwise insights, traditional and adventurous grooves, impeccable musicianship, creative arrangements, harmonica tutorials and savvy production…funky and original…always fresh and vital.”
–Blues Music Magazine
“Rick Estrin & The Nightcats are a formidable force. They sound better than ever [playing] stellar rockabilly, jazz, blues and rock, often in the same song, creating a unique, time-tested sound rooted in the past, bolstered by harpist/vocalist Estrin’s time-warping original compositions.”
–No Depression
“Estrin defines his own brand of hip. Original blues and vintage rock-style tunes also harbor his superb harmonica work. Estrin emotes with just the right mix of kitsch and sincerity. The current litter of ‘Cats, including guitarist Kid Andersen, reigns as the best band anywhere.”
–DownBeat
“Rick Estrin & The Nightcats are America’s greatest musical showmen…foot-stomping, wise-cracking contemporary songs, a combination of rockabilly, jazz, blues, rock, and big band swing. Estrin is a world class musician…the most colorful and entertaining showman around.”
–Forbes
Produced by Andersen at his legendary Greaseland USA studio in San Jose, California, the album captures the band’s chemistry and magic in what is certainly among their strongest and most urgent releases so far. The Hits Keep Coming is modern blues at its most potent, intense and fun in all the right places, as Rick Estrin & The Nightcats deliver twelve groove-heavy, hard-hitting songs, including ten written or co-written by Estrin and two surprising covers (one obscurity from Muddy Waters, one from Leonard Cohen that Estrin would have liked to have written). From the foot-stomping opener Somewhere Else, to the harsh reality of the title track (with backing vocals by The Sons Of The Soul Revivers), to the musically infectious, lyrically harrowing song about addiction, The Circus Is Still In Town (The Monkey Song), The Hits Keep Coming is a lyrical and musical tour-de-force.
In addition to Estrin’s celebrated songwriting and peerless blues harmonica playing, he and the band are among the most entertaining and colorful showmen around. Estrin’s signature streetwise vocals and hipster-cool look, Andersen’s eye-popping, off-the-cuff guitar pyrotechnics, Farrell’s mighty organ, piano and bass work and D’Mar’s dynamic, acrobatic drumming make every one of their live performances a must-see event. “People don’t go out to see people who look like themselves,” says Estrin. “They want to see something special. I was schooled in this business to be a showman, and that’s what you get when you come to see us perform. We know how to put on a show. I feel sorry for anyone who has to follow us.”
Over the years, Estrin has won a total of seven Blues Music Awards, including awards for Song Of The Year, Traditional Male Blues Artist, Instrumentalist—Harmonica, and twice, the prestigious Band Of The Year (for Rick Estrin & The Nightcats). The band has performed at festivals and concert stages from San Francisco to Chicago to New York, and everywhere in between. They’ve toured extensively in almost every country in Europe, as well as in Australia, Turkey, Russia and South America.
The Chicago Sun-Times declares, “These are serious musicians having a hotter than hot good time. It’s tough to stay in your seat when Estrin and his musical cohorts get cooking.” As No Depression says, “This is a band that always delivers the goods.”
Music video for “The Circus Is Still In Town”:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qepBrUuDti0
https://www.alligator.com/artists/Rick-Estrin-and-The-Nightcats/
