Nicolai Tanev, well known as Guitar Nick, is a guitar player from Bulgaria who started to play guitar when he was sixteen years old, although it was not until he met the most famous Bulgarian classical guitar teacher Dimiter Deutschinoff, that he decided to entirely devote himself to music.

He now combines his activities as musician and teacher, combining classical music with blues and Brazilian music, genres he passionately loves. He has also been one of the first Bulgarian musicians who has released albums of these specific styles in his country. As a curiosity, mention that in 2000 he was invited by the Bulgarian embassy in Spain to perform at the Casa de Cantabria in Madrid during an exhibition. As a classic guitar music composer, Nicolai Tanev annually presents his compositions at the “International Classical Guitar Composition Competition Andres Segovia” held in Spain.

When he plays blues, he usually does it with harmonica player Alexander Donchev, well known as Blue Al. In 2003 the duo released for Riva Sound his second album “Tribute to Robert Johnson” which reached huge popularity in his country.

Although now Guitar Nick moves between Bulgaria and USA, this album becomes a curiosity for us, because it was recorded in 2004 during a live show in Sofia, where Guitar Nick was on vocals, acoustic guitar and harmonica in the song “Bluzz Train”, and Blue Al was on harmonica. They were joined by Groovy Rus on keyboards and piano. The recording gathers eight songs, two of them Nick’s own compositions, together with versions of great blues classics.

As we listen to the album, we can gradually discover the virtuoso technique of these musicians who, little by little, wrap us with their skills and devotion to the music they perform. The album also serves to discover some excellent blues musicians who unfortunately are practically unknown to us.