Roots' music has received airplay on five continents and his Golden Disc-earning 2016 LP "Roots Music" remains the only blues album ever to top the sales charts in the Baltics. He has toured in the USA and throughout most of Europe, written music for film and theatre, and was an official Ambassador for last year's European Capital of Culture – Tartu, Estonia. The 2018 compendium "100 Years of Estonian Music" described Roots as the country's "internationally best-known player of pure blues", while his recent work has invoked comparisons with not just the heyday of Mississippi Delta Blues but also with Davy Graham, Leo Kottke, Ry Cooder and even acoustic Led Zeppelin.
"Musicians of this sort run counter to all expectations, and upset various purists," writes the American jazz critic and music historian Ted Gioia in The Honest Broker. "It's almost as if muddy waters were flowing into the Gulf of Riga."
Born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1976, Roots’ international breakthrough came in 2005 with the alt.blues trio Bullfrog Brown. Upon that group’s demise in 2010, Roots went solo, leading various bands and collaborating with friends like Dave Arcari (UK), Black River Bluesman (FIN), Steve Lury (UK), Ismo Haavisto (FIN), Jantso Jokelin (FIN), and Eric "Red Mouth" Gebhardt (USA) – with the latter, they even enjoyed a #1 with the Roots-penned "Redecoration Day". In 2018, Roots represented Estonia at the European Blues Challenge in Hell, Norway with the Tammepõld, Roots & Kadakas trio and released his first guitar-only album "Breakfast in September" soon after.
Roots' current release "Royal Spa Blues - Live from Temperance" was recorded at that intimate English venue in the town of Royal Leamington Spa in July 2024, right after performing at the 40th anniversary edition of the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival and the award-winning Upton Blues Festival. Launched with a string of dates in Wales and England in March 2025, "Royal Spa Blues" was voted 'Album Pick of the Month' by the UK's Independent Blues Broadcasters Association and reached #2 in the IBBA monthly airplay chart for February.
Endorsements: Sigma Guitars, Boney Toes Stompboxes, G7th Capos, ZT Amplifiers.
Festival appearances since 2010:
UK: Upton Blues Festival, Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival, Shetland Blues Festival.
USA: Deep Blues Festival (Clarksdale, Mississippi), King Biscuit Blues Festival (Helena, Arkansas).
Finland: Rauma Blues, Stompin’ At The Savoy, Lahti Grand Blues, Hamina Mosna Blues, Kymi Kantri, Joutsen Blues, Hotelli Tallukka Blues Party, Bluesia Karjaan asemalla, Bluemood Saimaa, Ruska Blues, Saimaa Blues, Martin Markkinat, Navetta Blues, Tammerblues, Louisiana Cajun Party, Floating Cockroach, Savonsolmu Winter Blues Party, Kaavi Blues, Leppävirta Blues Picnic.
France: Le Blues Autour du Zinc.
Poland: Suwalki Blues.
Norway: European Blues Challenge.
Estonia: Sõru Jazz, Sügisjazz, IDeeJazz, Jazzkaar, FiESTa XXX, Viru Folk, Urissaare Kantri, Ulila Rock, Tallinn Music Week, Pärnu Kitarrifestival, Mailaul, Intsikurmu Music Festival, 7 Linna Muusika, Pandivere Music
Festival, Tartuff Film Festival, Prima Vista Literature Festival, 20/20 Film Festival, Guitar Jamboree, Pärnu Bluusipäevad, Ugriblues, Augustibluus, UnderGround Blues, Baltic-Nordic Harmonica, Moosekants, Porkuni Bluus, Munarock, Loodusfestival, Vanalinna Päevad, Karlova Päevad, Emajõe Bluus, Linna Pea Rock.
