Kal David returns to Infinity Hall

WINSTED — Blues singer-guitarist Kal David will be in Connecticut next week for a return performance at Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, where he performed to a standing room-only crowd in November 2008.

The return show happens Saturday, June 5, at 8 p.m.

Known for stinging Chicago-style blues guitar solos, David has earned notoriety for numerous career phases, including playing in blues bands in the 1960s, being the guitarist for Illinois Speed Press and classic rockers the Fabulous Rhinestones in the 1970s, performing with Etta James and Johnny Rivers in the 1980s and ’90s, opening his own blues club in the 2000s and carving out an ongoing successful solo career steeped in southern and midwestern blues tradition. His newest CD, simply titled “Kal David,†is due out this November.

“I have not stopped touring,†David said in a phone interview from his home in Palm Springs, Calif. “I’ve been touring all along, but I believe this recording is going to allow us to pick and choose where we want to play. I haven’t been able to get back to my hometown of Chicago for a long time. That’s a goal, to play all the music capitals — Memphis, Austin — all these wonderful places.â€

The band that performs on David’s new record, Kal David and the Real Deal, has been the guitarist’s group for the past five years and he says the trio is settling into a nice groove on its new recording.

“It’s a small group record,†David said. “It’s not produced with a lot of horns and strings. It’s just my band on a record. I think it demonstrates how we play live.â€

Still, no studio album can duplicate the intensity of a live performance, and Kal David and the Real Deal are no exception. The band delivers crescendos of rock tinged with varying speeds and textures, while an advance copy of “Kal David†is markedly mellower and even-tempered. David noted that he has been reworking some old Rhinestones songs, which appear on the record, along with a few Illinois Speed Press numbers. The tunes flow together in a soulfully arranged style.

On tour, the band’s exciting live performances have become popular around the world, including in Germany, where the group was featured in a live broadcast. David says he hopes to make it to Japan, where the band has had some chart success.

Back in the States, if fans think Kal David and the Real Deal comes from the Connecticut area, they’d be partially correct. The frontman noted that his wife, Lauri Bono, a singing partner on numerous songs, was born in Waterbury. The band’s manager lives in Winchester and David recalls performing repeatedly in Connecticut during his days with the Fabulous Rhinestones, who were based in Woodstock, N.Y.

“Whenever we would leave on tour we would do some gigs in Connecticut, then go out and tour, and then do Connecticut again before we went home.â€

David was also a regular performer at the legendary Shaboo Inn in Willimantic and a member of the Shaboo All-Stars.

Having performed at Infinity Hall once already, David said he’s excited to return.

“Infinity Hall is a wonderful venue,†he said. “It’s beautiful looking, of course, having been an opera house in the 1800s, and it has a state-of-the-art sound and light system. So not only are we in this beautiful old concert hall, but we can be seen and heard like never before in that place.â€

Tickets can be purchased online at infinityhall.com or by phone at 860-542-5531.

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