“Well the news is out and its good, the brilliant DAGO RED are on the way to Ireland! I loved them as soon as I heard the Cicada album, and now there's a chance to catch them LIVE on their upcoming Irish tour. This is roots music at its very best - beg, borrow [but don’t steal] a ticket, DON’T MISS THEM!” 

(Noel Casey, After Midnight, Dublin City FM)

“Now here’s a real surprise package. A self-produced, mostly self-written release from Italy with a delightful, old-school acoustic heart and soul that truly sings and delivers at pretty much every level. This is a genuine discovery, an album of remarkable tone, power and quality. A highly recommended release from a band to look out for.” 

Blues Magazine (UK)

“They love what they do, and they do it damn well - they are one of the best bands I’ve heard in a long time.” 

Frank Hennessy) (CELTIC HEARTBEAT BBC Radio Wales)

“Their records transpire of a unique style. Listening to them is like travelling with on a train with the songs / stories flowing out the window. Their tracks are full of nuances and sounds that suddenly overwhelm you. Their vocal harmonies, guitar plots, moving grooves and natural sound make their concerts a “coup de coeur.”

Le Blues - (France)

“Due to a festival cancellation, Italian blues and roots six-piece Dago Red were an inspired late addition to the newly established Stormy Sunday Blues Night at The Jazz Bar in Edinburgh. Very much an unknown quality, they engrossed an impressively populous crowd with a range of strong originals, work songs and reworked Blues and folk standards. Essentially a modern street band, which touch on the sounds of their influences, like Johnson, Leadbelly and Guthrie, Dago Red have the ability to make the familiar songs sound both fresh and dynamic. Sadly the band’s trip to the UK did not turn out as envisaged, yet they showed the quality in spades that would see them welcomed at blues and folk festivals everywhere.” 

Duncan Beattie, (Blues Matters)

Dago Red give a folk paint to acoustic blues. “Folk’n Blues Memories and Other Tales” is a relaxed cd, played and sang carefully. The classics of Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, St. Louis Jimmy, J.B. Lenoir, J.J. Cale e Woodie Guthrie are framed by two originals. They would earn to be more aggressive.

SOUL BAG (France)

They play a relaxed, nearly indolent, naturally expressive acoustic Folk-Rock and Country Blues, tastefully woven around Giuseppe Mascitelli’s wonderful voice. The repertoire features Blues classics and Ballads (with Tom Waits and Pat Garret & Billy the kid atmospheres) in addition to original compositions, which coexist in harmony with the standards. An intelligently pleasing set.

Andrea Carpi (CHITARRE, Italy)

The crystal clear simplicity of dago red’s “Folk’n Blues Memories and other Tales” defeats by itself the method of those who believe obsessive technology to be a must even when it comes to recording. The tracks have been recorded with just three microphones hanging in mid air, in front of which the five musicians, Paolo Cirulli (contrabbasso e voce), Giuseppe Mascitelli, (voce e chitarra), Nicola Palanza (chitarra e banjo), Marco Pellegrini (armonica, voce e chitarra) and Luigi Desiderio Rossi (dobro), sang and played rigorously acoustic instruments. The old and fascinating Blues and Ballads are performed with commendable balance between the parts, where no one overlaps another. Superlative work has been put into narrating ten beautiful tales, wonderfully represented by strip master Beppe Barbati’s pencil. The original spirit is left unchanged and gains new pathos thanks to these craftsmen of sound.

Silvano Brambilla (“THE BLUES” Italy)

The Blues is a strange beast, a definition escaping entity, living its own life only in the hands of rare individuals, capable of breathing its spirit thanks to an inborn gift or joke of nature. Making it your own, and assimilating it to the point of being able to communicate it with authority, is a close-to-impossible project for people from different cultures. Great and celebrated musicians spent their life desperately searching that moment of authenticity; the unrefined taste capable of drawing them closer to their myths. Now – these presumptions made – it is very rare for an Italian Blues record to give the thrills, and when this happens it is a great pleasure. Dago Red is a recently formed Band from Abruzzo, entirely dedicated to the Blues of the Roots, which produced a little jewel of essentiality and nude realism. An acoustic record, taken live in front of a handful of microphones, between Robert Johnson covers (a great “Love in Vain”), Leadbelly (“Good Morning Blues”), Guthrie. Giuseppe Mascitelli’s voice strikes with out-of-the-ordinary intensity, efficiently picking up J.J. Cale and Tom Waits’ inheritance, Nicola Palanza’s guitar phrases with rare elegance, the whole band swings and drags like few others. A real discovery

Stefano Tavernese ("CHITARRE" Italy)

A record that certainly deserves the attentions of acoustic Blues aficionados and others. Giuseppe Mascitelli, skilled guitar player and singer, is the composer of the opening track “What’s for”, where Marco Pellegrini’s harmonica alternates fluid phrasing to the outstanding emotional impact of the typically bluesy harsh voice. Pellegrini signs “Snapshot”, a Blues that opens on Paolo Cirulli’s bass lines, which account for a solid support to the guitar interventions, essential but eminently functional to the reconstruction of a genuine groove packed, relaxed atmosphere, worthy of the best American tradition. Woody Guthrie’s wisely orchestrated "I ain't got no home", Huddie Leadbetter’s "Good Morning Blues"; featuring Luigi Desiderio’s dobro and yet again Pellegrini’s harmonica, follow. Nicola Palanza’s banjo contributions and special guest Fausto Troilo’s snare drum are worthy of notice. From the mythical Robert Johnson there are "Love in " and "32-20", while "Railroad Worksong"; is taken from the never-ending repertoire of traditionals, those little sketches of nostalgia, bad luck and railroad tracks. Beppe Barbati’s illustrations are marvellous and explicit, in strip style the leading track of this interesting first work, which Dago Red dedicate to John Fante and Robert Johnson, both somehow connected to the music’s and strips’ world of dreams and reality.

Marcello Sebastiani (GUITAR CLUB, Italy)

It is a pleasure to see, or better hear, that genuine blues still exists in Italy and that in 2001 the roots of a genre which has given a lot to modern music are still alive. Listening to this project I was enveloped by naturalness and expression and I savoured spontaneity and style. Wonderful!

Eugenio Finardi (Italy)

Les musicians italiens qui forment Dago Red s’inspirent avec talents des worksongs et des ballades traditionelles. Leur jeu acoustique produit une alchimie subtile, envoutante. Dago Red est certainement l’un des plus dignes représentants du genre en Europe.

‘COGNAC BLUES PASSION’ (France)