Famously, the British Blues Invasion in the 1960s saw acts like John Mayall, The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds adopt the American blues, to eventually take the music back to its country of origin.

This, in turn, led to American fans at large discovering Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and many more, finally elevating these musicians to the legendary status they deserved.

This Saturday (25th August) in Newcastle might not prove quite so earth-shattering, but there’s a fair chance of the ground moving at least a bit as Scotland stages a blues invasion of its own. Three of the country’s top blues/rock acts will descend on The Cluny under the banner of the Ouseburn Rock & Blues Festival for a top night of live music.

In a mouth-watering line-up, headliners The Stevie Nimmo Trio will be backed by the livewire Gerry Jablonski and his ‘Electric Band’ as well as Scotland’s top alt-blues troubadour Dave Arcari.

Despite breaking his arm in a cycling accident last year, Nimmo hasn’t slowed down, with near constant touring and a recently announced reunion with his brother Alan (frontman of King King) on the cards for a run of Nimmo Brother’s shows later this year. Despite the stubborn injury refusing to heal leaving him awaiting surgery, he has slowly gotten back to guitar playing (with the talented Dave Devlin deputising on the six string in the interim). The big man’s superb, soulful vocal talents remain undimmed, of course, and every show continues to be a masterclass of slick, modern blues performed with real feeling. Expect cuts from Nimmo’s most recent album, Sky Won’t Fall, along with some other favourites from his large repertoire.

Support comes from Gerry Jablonski and his band, who have just released their new album. Live At The Blue Note features seven expansive, high energy tracks performed in concert and provides a good flavour of what you can expect from the Aberdeen-based Scottish/Polish foursome. The band hew towards the rockier end of the blues spectrum - but also know when to take it down a step - and Jablonski’s madcap stage antics are matched by his lightning fretwork and harmonica specialist Peter Narojczyk’s superlative contributions - well, just about anyway!

Rounding out the bill is the high-octane Dave Arcari. Despite performing solo, and being a quietly spoken guy in person, when he gets on stage he takes no prisoners with his brand of visceral, intense country-trash-blues. Arcari recently dropped the smooth bluegrass single Whisky Trail and will combine lighter fare such as that with storming acoustic-slide cuts and deep blues grooves in what will be a breathless opening set.

An action-packed night in prospect, and well worth catching if you're anywhere near the Newcastle area. As Jablonski's harp man Narojczyk told us today, 'It will be great: A Scottish Invasion with a Polish twist... You do the math!!'

OUSEBURN ROCK & BLUES FESTIVAL 2018 PRESENTS:
THE STEVIE NIMMO TRIO + GERRY JABLONSKI & THE ELECTRIC BAND + DAVE ARCARI

25th August at The Cluny, Newcastle

Advance Tickets: £20

Ticket Link: https://thecluny.com/listing/orb18-stevie-nimmo-trio-gerry-jablonski-electric-band-dave-arcari/

Band Links

Stevie Nimmo Official Website: http://www.stevienimmo.com/

Gerry Jablonski Band Website: http://www.gerryjablonskiband.com/

Dave Arcari Online: https://davearcari.com/