We Ain’t Drunk

:: ITALIANO ::I WE AIN'T DRUNK si formano nel settembre 1993 e si ispirano, per il loro nome, ad un brano di Ike Turner: “I Ain’t Drunk, I’m Just Drinkin’”. La formazione, composta da tre perugini e un americano DOC, propone un sound particolare, intriso di Blues e arricchito di Soul, Rock’n’Roll, Funky e Southern Rock. Nel 1994 partecipano alla prima edizione del “Tiferno Blues Festival” di Città di Castello (PG). Nel 1996 vincono il concorso per gruppi Blues del “S.Severino Blues Festival” (MC). Nello stesso anno producono il primo CD demo “Travellin’ Shoes” e vincono il concorso “Dollaro Live” di Perugia. Nel 1997 aprono la serata del concerto di Bo Diddley nell’ambito del “Deltablues” Festival a Rovigo. Sempre nel ’97 e successivamente nel ’98 e 2000 partecipano al “Trasimeno Blues Festival”. Nel 1998 partecipano al “Concero del 1° maggio” in “piazza IV novembre” a Perugia e vincono il concorso televisivo “Start”. Nel 1999 producono il loro primo CD intitolato “Frozen Fish Blues”. In tutti questi anni la band ha dato il meglio di se in concerti dal vivo in locali e manifestazioni in Umbria, Toscana, Veneto, Marche, Lazio e Abruzzo ____________________________________________________________ ____:: ENGLISH :: _____________________ WE AIN’T DRUNK formed at the end of summer 1993: their name was inspired by Ike Turner‘s song I Ain’t Drunk, I’m Just Drinking, a song that – among the large number of re-elaboration – passed also under Albert Collins’s hands. While their first performances started mostly around personal remakes of Blues standards – from Chicago to Texas, passing through Mississippi – the Band, formed by three Italians from Perugia and a true American, succeeds in improving a really particular and recognizable sound, obviously imbibed of Blues (the first great love with no doubt), but anyway enriched by the most different influences. From Soul to Rock’n’Roll, from Funky to Southern Rock, so reflecting the variegated background of the members, resulting from their individual experiences, matured in other music realities. FAUSTO GORACCI – a guitar player with great technical capacities, and a concise and imaginative style that is soft and stingy at the same time – had previously been a member of the Stage Blues Band, one of the very few bands acting in Umbria at the beginning of the 80’s, that was essentially turned to Chicago style. At the end of summer 1993, he proposed to LORENZO ABBONDANZA, formerly voice, rhythm guitar and harp player of Unwanted Sons, garage band in the Perugia’s area of 80’, and to BILLY SHAKER, a musician from Minneapolis, fine guitar player and very good slideman (ex member of Catfish Blues Trio, an acoustic combo of Perugia area), to form a band with Billy Shaker playing the role of bass player. RENZO CARDONI was then going to give the band a powerful and marked rhythmical support , thanks to the previous experiences with Twang, a Heavy Metal Band acting at the end of the 80’s in Perugia and with The Red Blues Band. A good occasion came in 1994, during the first edition of Tiferno Blues Festival in Città di Castello, when the band performed together with the most important artists of Italian Blues, as The Treves Blues Band, Aida Cooper, and Dirty Hands. And it is just right with Fabio Treves, a histrionic Bluesman that – some years later – they would succeed in having one of their song played by the national radio network Rock FM, during Treves’s Blues Programme. After further periods of running-in in various clubs in Italy, in 1996 they won a contest in San Severino Marche, that was part of San Severino Blues Festival; in August they recorded their first demo CD called Travelling Shos, live recorded in studio. During the following year they won the Prize Dollar Live in Perugia. 1997 was also the year of participation to Trasimeno Blues Festival and Delta Blues Festival in Rovigo, this last being one of the most prestigious Blues event in Europe; The Band, the only Italian band scheduled to play during the festival, gained good reviews from specialized critics performing the main day and on the same stage where Bo Diddley was going to play after them. In 1998 We Ain’t Drunk played at the Concert of 1st May in Perugia’s IV November Square, they won the TV contest Start ad took part to the annual edition of Trasimeno Blues Festival, during Il Popolo Del Blues (Blues People) an event organized by the musical critic Ernesto de Pascale. In December of the following year, they finally published their first CD called Frozen Fish Blues. Nowadays, the Band still demonstrates to have a heart beating to the rhythm of Blues, but also to be able to get – with a great power and a little bit of irony – any possible nuance of any musical genre turning around the historical twelve bars.