News!!

5/5/10 - Yippie!!!!! Back in the studio and mixed 4 tunes on Saturday. Almost ready to start releasing singles. Long time coming.

3/20/10 - I felt I should make it known that my dear friend and amazing photographer and drummer, Thom Gilbert, is not playing drums with us anymore. This was a very difficult decision I think for both me and Thom. Peter and I both felt that we wanted to expand the roster of drummers that we would or could perform with. I explained this to Thom and he did not want to be a drummer hired for certain gigs and therefore decided to bow out of the Johnny Boots Band altogether. Gilly's dedication to this band over the years has been amazing. He has pushed me towards excellence and tried to continually push to develop me as an artist. For this and his friendship I am forever indebted.

1/1/2010 - Happy New Year. Well I must apologize that more than a year has passed from when I thought I would have released my second CD. Most tracks are done but I simply ran out of money to complete the record. Thanks for your patients. I can't wait to get it done because everyone seems to love the tunes when we play them live.

After the Tab show back in November, which went over just great, I hung out with him again up at Infinity Hall later that week. What a great venue that was too. I sat in with the band for the encore and it was fantastic. It is all up on youtube.com if you are interested.

Lots of love in the new year.

11/13/09 - Really psyched to open for Tab this Sunday the 15th with the trio. Going to play some new stuff for a change.  Went to see Tab in Mount Vernon, NY on the 12th at the Bayou and he asked me to jam with him again. Really a lot of fun. He is such a great guy. If things warm up, we may even tee it up on Sunday afternoon.

10/25/09 - While I still don't have enough money to finish the second CD, we seem to be getting a little busy with gigs. Most notable is that we have 2 dates at the Georgetown Saloon. That should be a blast. We have not played there in years and I am hoping to get back on a regular schedule there. We shall see. Next up the Blues Extravaganza at Rhythm. The big show is opening for Tab again only with the trio. All these are listed if you click the "Tour Dates" tab above.

7/4/09 - How did I miss the update on Tab Benoit? 3/21/09 I opened for Tab at the FTC with friend and fellow guitar player Chris Cross. At the end of the night we each had a chance to jam with Tab. You can hear me playing "Crosscut Saw" with Tab on the Johnny Boots Band Myspace Page here. Tab asked me to come down to the 6 annual "Voice of the Wetlands Festival" to play at the "Guitar Summit" opening night in October. Also got selected to be podcasted by Indiefeed. Really a great promo from the DJ at the end of Not Guilty. Listen here. 

In addition, I am still trying to finish the second CD. I kind of ran out of funding unfortunately. I asked my old friend Hook Herrera to play harp on 4 tunes and he agreed. While they are not fully mixed yet, the roughs sound great. Hook is amazing which is why he plays with people like Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers among others. I may post the rough takes on Myspace but I'm not sure yet. There is also a guest appearance by cousin Darro "Sparky" Sandler on drums on 3 tracks. If possible, I'll try to have it out for the holidays.

I am honored that the FTC has asked me to open for the legendary Rory Block on 7/9/09. I just can't believe it. She is amazing.

11/18/08 - Wow, somehow I think I deleted a bunch of info between last year and this year. Well, lets just say that a lot has been happening. We are back in the studio again working on a new CD. Should be a spring '09 release. Still getting very positive feedback on the first CD. Thank you all for your support.

We have been playing a few private parties and also added two new venues. North Star Restaurant in Pound Ridge, NY and Two Boots in Bridgeport CT.

Had loads of fun on WPKN 89.5 on Sunday 11/16/08 playing a one hour set on live radio and then into the studio for a follow up interview. Many thanks to Bill Nolan for inviting us on his "Antique Blues" program.

10/11/07 - Well, CD sales have been good and with this review from Eric R. Danton of the Hartford Courant, we hope they continue.

"Johnny Boots Band, 'Everybody's Got to Eat' (Boot in Yur Ear) - Fairfield guitarist Johnny 'Boots' Giannicchi burns up the fretboard on a set of blues-rock originals, a funkified version of Jimi Hendrix's "Fire" and a rock-solid cover of 'Crosscut Saw' (recorded by Albert King, among others). Giannicchi plays with a thick, dirty guitar tone sure to thrill electric blues fans, and sings in a voice that fits with the blues without ever sounding forced. He swings, he shuffles and he rocks, making 'Eat' tasty indeed.

Also, lots of fun on September 20th opening for Tab Benoit at the Fairfield Theater. Pete and I played as a duo and the audience really responded with both applause and interest in the CD. Tab is such a great person and player. Not just guitar but golf. We got a chance to play a round together the following week when his tour brought him back our way. Certainly a round of golf I won't forget.

Other than that I am working on some new tunes for the next record. So far "All or Nothing" is in a rough mix stage and I am looking forward to finishing that.

I will be competing in the CT Blues Challenge (acoustic) on October 28th. Wish me luck.

4/16/07 - The CD's are on sale now!

3/31/07 - The CD's are ready! I am finishing up all the distribution details. Official release date will be posted shortly.

2/16/07 - Just want to let you know about the overwhelming response we got from listeners of Beef Stew's Sunday Night Blues with Beef Stew on 106.9 WCCC last Sunday night. We were a "featured artist" with Stew playing two tracks from our CD. Check out these excerpts from Stew's email to me...

"Johnny,

I thought you might be interested to know...

Due to my live interview (and his promotional efforts) 
with Joe Bonamassa, I had a geographically wider than 
usual Internet audience last Sunday night.

Apparently quite a few of them liked the show and hung 
around after the interview, which enabled them to hear 
the two tracks I played from your soon to be released 
CD, "Everybody's Got To Eat".

Since Sunday night, I have received emails from 
Sacramento, CA, West Palm Beach, FL, Long Island, NY 
and several from here in CT as well.  All the emails 
are requesting to hear from Johnny Boots on my 
program.  I also had several phone calls after I 
played the tunes.

The only other CT based player that has ever generated 
that kind of excitement on my program is Jeff Pitchell.

It appears that myself and my audience are in 
agreement that the Johnny Boots Band CD is a hit."

In addition, Stew invited us to do a CD release party on 106.9 WCCC!

How cool is that?

Just need to finish the artwork for the disc and we are good to go. CD is DONE. Official release date to come.

10/1/06 - Well September was an exciting month. We got a lot accomplished in the studio and have almost completed our CD. We also competed as finalists in the CT Blues Challenge sponsored by the CT Blues Society. Unfortunately we did not win but it was a really wonderful day with many good bands playing. We will have to shoot for winning next year’s competition. We ended the month with a show at the Fairfield Theater Company's Stage One. We opened for Gregg Piccolo, founder of Roomful of Blues. We thank everyone that came out to that show. The applause was overwhelming at times and I truly thank you. It was great to play all those original tunes and get such a reaction. As far as Gregg and his band, wow. They were great and he is just a great musician. He was also very gracious and asked me to join him for a song. We had a blast and I hope to play with him again some day.

We are finally in the studio recording some original material! I am having more fun than I imagined. It has been a long time since I have recorded. We are recording at Long Hill Studio with Paul Opalach. Paul is absolutely fantastic to work with and his studio really has a great vibe. 

Just saw Johnny A. recently. What a great player. In addition, we went out after the show and had a couple of drinks together. He is a great guy with a fantastic sense of humor and timing. He incorporated that with his story telling ability into his show.

A dream come true - Back in the 90’s, I used to attend a trade show in Chicago every year. In fact, it was 8 years in a row that I attended. I always brought my guitar with me so that I could play at some “jam nights” at the local clubs. Some how I managed to hit at least 2 or 3 nights of playing. In some ways I considered it part of my blues education. A chance to play with some Chicago blues players both young and old that I considered the “real deal” no frills blues players. Over that period of time I never managed to go to "Buddy Guy’s Legends," the Chicago club owned by the legendary bluesman. I had heard that it was real cliquey and sometimes you might not get to play at all. Since I had limited time to play out there, I struck it off my list. Last year I went to Chicago and for the first time, I did not bring my guitar. But there were other firsts on this trip that I must report to you. I decided to go to Buddy Guy’s club on their jam night. A friend signed me up on the players list and a gracious host Chicago bluseman Jimmy Burns) let me borrow his guitar when it was my turn to play. At some point in the middle of our second song, a sound man began getting up and down and setting up and adjusting things. I was focused on the music and not really paying attention to what he was doing exactly other than the fact that he was back and forth a couple of times. The next thing I know, he is standing just off to my left putting a guitar and strap around no other than Buddy Guy himself. Buddy leaned over to me and asked me what key we were in and then he did his thing. It was a great experience. Eventually the guy that was singing turned around and saw Buddy behind him and then slipped off the stage to allow Buddy to sing lead. He stretched a slow blues number out with us for a good 20 minutes or more and then left the stage. While it was a great treat, it was also a tough act to follow. It was my turn to sing and we launched into a great version of Cross-Cut Saw. With the crowd already wired from Buddy’s surprise appearance, we were met with quite a round of applause. In fact, we were so hot they kept us up to back up Tommy McCracken a local Chicago blues artist who I played with in the mid 90’s on another trip. In total, we played for about an hour. Not too bad for my first open jam at Buddy Guy’s Legends.