Tigerman stands out, a portuguese musician born Paulo Furtado and ex component of prestigious Lusitanian acts such as the Tedio Boys. The Legendary Tigerman is a large as life one-man-band, armed with guitar, kazoo, bass drum and charles, ready to grab the blues bull by the horns, revisiting common places of this musical gender that eventually gave birth to R&R and... Well, to 90% of every kind of music that turns everyone of us on.

Paulo’s debut album is called “Naked Blues”, an explicit name that doesn’t lie to you about what you’re to find inside. Naked Blues. As naked as the girls’ bodies that accompany the great one-man-band in the album’s title track music video. The result of which is a delicate Super 8 work that is being censored on many TV stations due to the suggestive flesh exhibition. At least you will be able to watch and enjoy it if you buy the album, because it is included in a video track.
The album is enjoying quite an amazing success in Portugal and we hope Spain won’t ignore this great musician. Soon, we will see him on our stages and now you can get to know him a little better reading this interview...

-Are you happy with the result of Naked Blues? -Sure, I’ts one of the best sounding albums I’ve managed put out.

-You’ve had a variety of experiences with different bands but now you appear as a bluesman, why the change?
-I don’t think it’s a change actually. In everything I’ve done with Tedio Boys and my other bands, my guitar parts have always had plenty of blues. And now since I am a one man band the blues pressence has increased, but that’s all.

-But, even though original blues was a one-man thing, a one-musician with guitar and minimum percussion thing, What happens in a musician’s mind, when he has some bands that sound good but suddenly decides to start a solo career without the help of any other musician? -I’ve always been a blues and one-man-band fan, but it was really just a little bit of an accident. Tédio Boys were ending and I started rehearsing, since I had a bass drum and some charles I started trying new songs with them and it sounded good to me... So I decided to go in that direction!

-The result is good, which is all that matters anyway. But here it is not very common to hear of a portuguese bluesman...
-Nor is it in Portugal (laughs)... But it’s very stange because the album is selling far beyond what I could have expected. And from what I have been told, it is sold to all kinds of people, from rockers to regular guys in their forties. It’s funny, cause it’s a very specific sound but there is no specific audience for it, unlike with rock ‘n’ roll.

-Some say blues is dead, what do you think about it? -It’s not dead.



-At least as long as you are here... -I think it’s more alive than it’s been in many many years. You got RL Burnside, all the old musicians in Fat Possum playing in crowded venues, and that’s very important. Everything genuine and made with your soul has its public and is never outdated.

-Your album is called “Naked Blues” but we could say that there are more naked things besides blues in the clip included on the CD, we’ve been told you got some problems getting it shown.
-Well, it hasn’t been broadcasted very much on TV and the only times it has been, it’s been after midnigth... But I can’t understand why, it’s a very beautiful clip... (laughs)... In my live shows I have projections of some images filmed on Super 8 as the ones in the Naked Blues video, plus some other parts, that I’ve edited to adapt them to the songs. I play with a rearview mirror to check the timing of the images and go in synchrony.

-The video images show what the lyrics say: I come to a crossroads, I go with girls, I do it doggy style... Maybe it’s too explicit for some people.
-But the clip is not the only thing naked, the record concept, the music itself is stripped of ornaments, it’s naked... It’s a naked album.

-Why do you use such a blues cliché as “the crossroads” is? -On one side, it’s a classic, to meet the devil there, so he gives you the skill of playing well. And on the other side it’s got connections that help the concept of the video, which is a crossroads among people.

-Cheetah from The Inmortal Lee County Killers said that his blues could not be the same as the original because he is neither white nor did he grow up in a cotton field, do you think it’s the same with you? Is your music affected by growing up in a totally different environment? -I’m sure it affects me and makes it different, if someone from the Mississippi listens to this album I would bet they’re gonna say it’s a very strange blues. It’s not pure blues, it0s got many other influences by the way I make it, it has an european touch and it definitely has a rural air, not a big city’s; but its roots are in America.

-You were saying that this is a good moment for blues, but I think that this is not only because of people such as R.L., there’s also some more one man bands such as Guitar Fucker from Switzerland, duos such as ILCK, Soledad Brothers or even The White Stripes, that in their style they mix blues with pop and some country. Do you think it’s gonna become a trendy thing and that everyone will jump in the bandwagon for some months?
-Honestly, I’m not very worried about that. I think it always happens the same, there are moments in which people like your music more than at other times. I’ve been playing for 15 years and I have gone through all the phases, from being on top to being down in the very bottom. I personally think it’s a good moment, but a bad one could come soon.

–How did you become known as The Legendary Tigerman?
-“Tigerman” is one of my favourite songs ever, it’s by Rufus Thomas Jr, and I took the Legendary part from Legendary Stardust Cowboy, a great white one-man-band. My name is the mix of two important things for me and I also think that a one-man-band must have a great name to dignify his profession.

-I’ve noticed that you play the guitar with your left hand, but with the drums you play with the right feet. That’s kind of strange...
-I didn’t know it, I was told a few weeks ago, but I had never thought about it.