About this Event
GILES ROBSON — UP CLOSE WITH THE BLUES
International blues star and Blues Music Award winner Giles Robson brings the blues to you, up close and personal, in this intimate acoustic show — just 40 people, two musicians, and some of the greatest music ever written.
In Up Close With The Blues, Robson digs deep into the music of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Memphis Slim, Little Walter, B.B. King, Albert King, Sonny Boy Williamson and other giants, alongside acclaimed original material.
No big production. No distance between performer and audience. Just voice, harmonica and guitar, played with the power, humour, subtlety and raw emotion the blues demands.
And there could hardly be a better setting for the blues than this venue — a hand-picked, intimate room where every note, every story and every ounce of feeling is experienced up close.
Doors 7:00pm | Show 8:00pm–10:30pm
2 x 45-minute sets + encores
Giles Robson — vocals & harmonica
Louis Crosland — guitar
Only 40 audience members
“A BLUES GIANT. ABSOLUTE MASTER OF THE FORM”
— Alligator Records, Chicago
Giles Robson is one of the most highly regarded blues harmonica players of his generation.
He is the only UK or European artist to have appeared on Chicago’s legendary Alligator Records, and one of only three UK blues artists — alongside Eric Clapton and Peter Green — to win a Blues Music Award in Memphis, one of the blues world’s highest honours.
His albums have appeared at the top end of critics’ polls in MOJO, Living Blues and DownBeat, while years of touring — sometimes across 18 countries in a single year — have made him a formidable live performer.
Even Sir Mick Jagger, after hearing Robson perform at the Mustique Blues Festival, told him:
“You sound GREAT.”
Hohner Harmonicas calls him:
“One of the finest blues harmonica virtuosos in the world, an acclaimed master showman and singer.”
And Muddy Waters’ final lead guitarist, triple Grammy nominee John Primer, puts it rather differently:
“When me and Giles play the blues we put hot sauce on it so you can feel it. I love to hear him play.”
A SHOW BUILT FOR AN INTIMATE ROOM
Up Close With The Blues is the culmination of Robson’s years studying, playing and touring the music.
The format proved spectacularly successful at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where Robson sold out 10 nights of the show. In a festival featuring more than 51,000 performances across 3,500+ shows, Up Close With The Blues became the most successful blues show in Fringe Festival history.
Arts Reviews Edinburgh awarded it 5 stars, praising Robson’s ability to connect immediately with an audience and describing the performance as:
“A virtuoso display of just what a range and depth of music and emotion the blues-harmonica is capable of in the right hands.”
HEAR THE SHOW BEFORE YOU COME
For the closest preview, listen to Robson’s 2024 live acoustic album Seven Blues Classics, recorded at a sold-out Up Close With The Blues performance in the UK.
The album captures exactly what makes these shows special: powerful and nuanced vocals, imaginative harmonica playing, acoustic blues stripped back to its essentials — and an audience close enough for you to hear its reaction.
It reached No.1 on the UK blues radio chart for the entire month of July, received 4 stars from DownBeat, and was subsequently named a DownBeat Album of the Year.
The record takes on music associated with Son House, Junior Wells, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Robert Johnson, alongside one of Robson’s own pieces.
Classic Rock wrote:
“These joyous readings prove there’s still gold in those hills... Robson reminds us that he’s the man with the golden lungs.”
Blues In Britain called it:
“A brilliant album of blues. Giles Robson takes his harp playing to new heights without losing touch with his heart for the music as it should be played.”
American Blues Scene described Robson as a “harmonica genius”, while Rocktimes Germany called Seven Blues Classics “a masterwork of interpretation.”
French Blues Federation president and Blues Foundation Keeping the Blues Alive Award recipient Fred Delforge wrote:
“An exceptional work! An artist who, in addition to harmonica playing with technique, power and delicacy, possesses a voice tailor-made for the blues.”
MORE PRAISE FOR GILES ROBSON
“Inspired harmonica... a master of his instrument.”
— Living Blues, USA
“Worth his place in blues history. A genius.”
— American Blues Scene, USA
“Perhaps the finest harmonica player to come out of Great Britain.”
— Jefferson Magazine, Sweden
“Europe’s top traditional blues harmonica man.”
— Chicago Blues Guide, USA
“World-Class.”
— DownBeat, USA
Grammy-winning songwriter Terry Abrahamson, whose credits include Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Prince, perhaps captures Robson’s appeal best:
“Giles Robson is the sweetest, most honest and glistening advertisement the Blues may ever have of what feelin’ it down to the marrow sounds like.”
Agenda
🕑: 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Door Time
🕑: 08:00 AM
Showtime
Event venue & nearby stays
The Ox Row Inn, Salisbury, United Kingdom
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