Award-winning singer/songwriter/harmonica player Salgado and revered Portland, OR guitarist Hager team up for an exhilarating romp through deep, intimate blues full of Curtis’ soul-shaking vocals and impassioned harp playing, and Alan’s exquisite way with a fretboard.
Curtis Salgado has been playing blues and soul-powered R&B for over 40 years. His last two Alligator releases, 2012’s Soul Shot and 2016’s The Beautiful Lowdown, have combined for over 17,000 scans and won him multiple Blues Music Awards. He and Alan Hager have been making music together since 2003 and in 2015, Hager joined Salgado’s band full-time as lead guitarist.
Salgado and Hager have performed at The Chicago Blues Festival, Canada’s Festival International du Blues and on the Legendary Blues Cruise. Salgado has performed in England, Germany, Austria, Canada, The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Switzerland and Poland, as well as The Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Saipan, Guam, Brazil, Chile and Panama. Salgado and Hager will be playing an acoustic segment at almost every Curtis Salgado Band gig.
Salgado is a long-time favorite of the blues community and Rough Cut will benefit from tremendous support at national and regional blues publications, plus on nearly 600 commercial and non-commercial blues radio programs across the U.S. Alligator publicity, radio and social media teams will also be placing stories nationally and on the web, as well as regionally around tour dates.
Rough Cut features six original numbers imbued with the spirit of the blues’ greatest traditions and seven vibrant takes on classic songs by Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Son House and more.
The songs range from front porch acoustic finger-picking to swaggering Chicago shuffles and dark, swampy blues, as Curtis and Alan play with the joy of kids in a candy store, delighting in the rich, captivating legacy of the blues.