Press
Rock & Roll Globe: Six String Soul: 30 Years of the Chicago Blues with Dave Specter
New York Music Daily: Saluting a brilliant, individualistic Chicago blues guitar legend
Rolling Stone article/interview on Dave’s handwritten lyrics from The Ballad of George Floyd featured at the Woody Guthrie Center’s new exhibit: Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom
Dave Specter has been featured in publications such as Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Living Blues, American Songwriter, Guitar Player, Guitar World and Vintage Guitar magazines. Reviews and interviews in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Magazine, Blues Revue and multitudes of national and international publications. TV appearances include: Good Morning America, Wild Chicago, Chicago Tonight and WGN . Radio appearances and airplay worldwide include BBC, NPR and airplay throughout the US, Europe and South America.. Specter has been a 5-time Chicago Reader Critics Choice and in 2018 was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame.
“Dave Specter is a global ambassador of Chicago Blues” - Chicago Sun-Times
“One of the few top-tier guitarists” - Downbeat
“Quintessentially hip and swinging.” – Chicago Tribune
“His funky lines echo the jazz masters, but his grinding single-note work is greasy enough for any Windy City after-hours club.” –Guitar Player
“This is easily the best-recorded showcase yet for Specter’s classy guitar stylings.” – Living Blues (Speculatin’)
"Deeply satisfying, incendiary guitar playing, dramatically charged singing." -Chicago Tribune (Message In Blue)
"Specter's guitar playing swings, bites and slides throughout, singing it's heart out." 4 Stars -All Music Guide
"Guitarist Dave Specter is playing gutsy Magic Sam and Otis Rush Chicago blues with undercurrents of T-Bone Walker and Kenny Burrell. He is phenomenal here (on Message in Blue) cutting the figure of someone who is in complete control of his craft." 4 Stars -Downbeat
REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
THE BALLAD OF GEORGE FLOYD
BLUES FROM THE INSIDE OUT
MESSAGE IN BLUE
4 star review from Downbeat Magazine (2014)
4 star review from All Music Guide (2014)
Best Albums of 2014 (Downbeat Magazine)
WXRT Chicago’s Best Blues Album of 2014
2013 COVER & FEATURE - BLUES BLASTER MAGAZINE
2011 FEATURE - VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE
SPECTIFIED
LIVE IN CHICAGO
Named to Downbeat Magazine's Best Recordings of 2008
IS WHAT IT IS - Dave Specter & Steve Freund
Downbeat Magazine 4 Star review (May 2005)
SPECULATIN’
“His funky lines echo the jazz masters, but his grinding single-note work is greasy enough for any Windy City after-hours club.” –Guitar Player
“This is easily the best-recorded showcase yet for Specter’s classy guitar stylings.” – Living Blues
