Members of world-renowned modern blues band Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, who will perform two shows at Blue Note Napa on July 12, are (from left) Derrick “D’mar” Martin on drums and percussion, Lorenzo Farrell on keyboards and bass, Estrin on harmonica and vocals, and Chris “Kid” Andersen on guitar and bass. (Photo by Steve Jennings)
When the late blues guitar legend Charles Beatty retired in 2008, Rick Estrin was left feeling lost and adrift as he considered his future in the blues world.
But when an offer came up to play with a pickup band in Brazil, Estrin, the longtime frontman for Little Charlie and the Nightcats, a harmonica virtuoso and singer-songwriter, thought he’d take the job.
“They learned from Muddy Waters and other greats and pioneers of the past, but they also learned from us,” he said Sunday in a phone interview from his Sacramento home.
Estrin, 74, recalled that Nightcat bassist Lorenzo Farrell and then-drummer J. Hansen wanted the band to continue, but Estrin said he knew one thing for sure: “We didn’t want a scaled-down version of Little Charlie and the Nightcats.”
Fifteen years and a half later, with the addition of guitarist Chris Kidd Andersen and two-time Blues Music Award winners, The Nightcats are going strong. As part of a tour supporting the release of their sixth album, The Hits Keep Coming, on Alligator Records, the band will play two dates at the Blue Note Napa on July 12.
“He was the only guy who could step in and make the position his own,” Estrin said of Andersen, noting that the Norwegian-born musician was playing for fellow well-known blues harmonizer Charlie Musselwhite at the time. “Eventually, Andersen called me and said he was available.”
Farrell was the Nightcats’ longtime bassist before switching to keyboards (though he still plays bass), while newer member and drummer Derrick “D’Mar” Martin was rock ‘n’ roll legend Little Richard’s drummer for 17 years and has taken the band to “a new level,” says Estrin, a San Francisco native.
He described Martin as “the consummate professional, a great showman and a conscientious team player – just the perfect guy.”
With Martin on board, the Nightcats have become “close-knit, almost like a family, a group that supports each other,” he added.
“We have fun together and we enjoy traveling together,” Estrin said, noting that the new album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s blues chart upon its release May 10. The album features “The Circus Is Still in Town (Monkey Song),” an Estrin-written song about addiction that has seen frequent plays on YouTube.
![Longtime blues harmonica virtuoso Rick Estrin, whom I first saw at the San Francisco Blues Festival more than 15 years ago, will play two shows with his backing band, the Nightcats, at the Blue Note Napa in downtown Napa on July 12. The group just released their latest, sixth album.](https://i0.wp.com/www.thereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/RICKESTRIN-01-rotated.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
“I’m old,” he jokes about his age, but “it’s still incredible” to be an established performer in the international modern blues world, adding that he’s performed not only in the U.S. but also in Europe, Australia, Turkey, Russia and South America. “People have really embraced us.”
Consider what Blues Music magazine had to say about this quartet:
“This band is the best in the country…Superb songwriting brimming with wit, humor and naive insight, traditional yet adventurous grooves, impeccable musicianship, inventive arrangements, harmonica instruction and masterful production…Funky and original…Always fresh and vibrant.”
And Forbes magazine said, “Rick Estrin and the Nightcats are America’s greatest musical showmen. With their foot-stomping, joke-filled contemporary tunes, rockabilly, jazz, blues, rock and big-band swing, Estrin is a world-class musician and a most colorful and entertaining showman.”
The conversation inevitably shifted to the 2020-2022 pandemic and how it has affected the band and the music industry.
“A lot of the clubs went out of business,” says Estrin, who counted R&B maestro ZZ Hill, guitar legend Travis Phillips and R&B singer Roger Collins (“She’s Looking Good”) among his mentors as a teenager. In fact, Estrin credits the latter musicians with teaching him how to live and sing as a showman and look good onstage: hair in a bun, tailored suits of different colors, polished shoes and an infectious energy.
“There just weren’t enough places to play,” he added of the pandemic’s year-on-year effects. “People just got used to not going out at night.”
But in recent years, the paydays have come with festivals and shows on the East Coast: “The East Coast has a big club scene, and the cities are closer together,” Estrin says, adding that in May the band played the Iridium in New York City and clubs in Connecticut and Massachusetts, then flew to Switzerland for a festival before flying back to California.
Consistent with his early days playing in the Bay Area, his harmonica style is rooted in the mid-20th century tradition of Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) and Little Walter Jacobs, while at the same time evolving that tradition into the 21st century. Today, he is one of the blues’ foremost players, skilled at playing at fast tempos or slowing them down for dramatic effect.
His wry, tongue-in-cheek songs about everyday life, including “My Next Ex-Wife,” which won a Blues Music Award in 1994, have been compared to Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan, Willie Dixon and Leiber and Stoller. His songs, which have been covered by other blues musicians, explore human nature and its shortcomings, but also contain a wealth of engaging humor.
The band’s other Alligator recordings include “Twisted” (2009), “One Wrong Turn” (2012), “You Asked For it … Live! ” (2014), “Groovin’ In Greaseland” (2017) and “Contemporary” (2019), most of which feature Estrin’s original songs.
As he approached the mid-1970s, Estrin acknowledged that his vocal range was narrowing, but added, “I think I can communicate more effectively now than I ever did before.”
And while it’s “not as windy” as it was when he was 25, “I feel like I’m playing better than I’ve ever played before,” he said, “because I’m having a better time than I’ve had before and I know that’s showing in my performance.”
“We wowed the crowd, left them speechless and proved what we’re made of,” Estrin said. “We’re a really great band.”
“I was lucky enough to play with Charlie[Batti],” who died a few years ago at North Bay Hospital in Vacaville, he said, “but this is more of me. I have hundreds of songs, but I can still come up with songs that resonate with people, and I’m just so grateful.”
![Blues harp virtuoso and singer-songwriter Rick Estrin (bottom center), photographed at the San Francisco Blues Festival more than 20 years ago, was a member of Little Charlie and the Nightcats for more than 30 years until Charles left the band.](https://i0.wp.com/www.thereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/RICKESTRIN-01_9d5d27.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
If you go
- Who: Rick Estrin and the Nightcats
- when: July 12th at 6:30pm and 9pm
- where: Blue Note Napa, 1030 Main Street, Napa
- ticket: $25 to $39
- online: Napa
- phone: (707) 880-2300