Andy McKay-Challen and Gavin Jack are the ‘Blues Guitar Duo’ you’re likely to find listed in your Fringe guide. Given the recent addition of a percussionist and the typical difficulty of identifying a band’s single genre, it’s much more helpful to refer to them as their proper band name here in Edinburgh - Hot Tin Roof.
Billing Hot Tin Roof as a ‘blues guitar duo’ oversimplifies their sound and is a little misleading. Truly, their music falls much closer to the pop blues-rock made popular by Jack White and others in the early noughties. Jack’s riff-driven solo-heavy guitar work is extremely impressive, and his style shows the influence of Stevie Ray Vaughan and other classic electric blues guitarists. McKay-Challen is clearly also a skilled guitarist, but his excellent chord work is easily lost under Jack’s distortion.
McKay-Challen’s vocals determine the band’s sound more than anything else, as his scratchy crooning clearly echoes Dan Auerbach. There are times when the band’s sound delivers hints of country or americana influences, backed up by the hint of a twang to some of McKay-Challen’s vocals, despite the fact that he identified himself as English early in the show. Whether he is going for it or not, it works well with Jack’s riff-work, since both at times ride the thin line between blues and country.
