Marcel Illetschko and lyricist John Cima met by happy coincidence some years ago. They started talking and discovered a shared love of the Blues and the music that it has influenced for well over a century. This conversation culminated in an impromptu rendition of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire”, which probably speaks volumes, and a subsequent decision to compose together. “Midnight Moon” is the initial result. 

On the album, The Raw-Cats featuring Millibird demonstrate a versatility and virtuosity that encompass echoes of everything from Country to Jazz and from Barrelhouse to plain and simple Rock ’n’ Roll. Nonetheless, the originality and authentic musical fingerprint of the band are constantly discernible. Therefore, although the Raw-Cats refer to the past and occasionally go back to the roots, they never imitate or descend into false nostalgia. Hence the fact that the resultant sound is not derivative and of yesterday, but instead vibrant, fresh and very much of today.

Midnight Moon

Hot & Bothered

A Storm’s Comin’

Raindrops In The Wind

Driftin’ Away

Fortune Favours Fools

Little Bird Blues

I Don’t Like It, I Love It

Three Days On The Road

On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his legendary speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in which he stated that irrespective of colour, creed or ethnicity every human being is created equal. This oration became known as the, “I have a dream” speech and sadly nearly sixty years later in many respects it has remained precisely that, a dream. It is this fact that led to the emergence of the “Black Lives Matter” movement in 2013 and the repeat of the March on Washington in 2020. 

Obviously, “Black Lives Matter” is primarily a socio-political statement, but nonetheless it can also be interpreted as possessing other connotations that relate to the contributions of gifted persons of colour to virtually every area of cultural life, whether this be art, cinema, dance, literature, theatre or verse, as exemplified to perfection by Amanda Gorman’s stunning poem “The Hill We Climb”. 

However, there can be no doubt that above all black artists have given most to the musical world and it is also no exaggeration to say that without them music as we know it today would not exist. Therefore, with “Black Legacy”, we as “The Raw-Cats” have sought to pay a modest tribute, not only to the iconic figures mentioned in the lyrics, but also the many thousands of other black musicians both legendary or forgotten. For irrespective of their degree of fame, their lives possess equal value and along with those of every child on this planet, deserve the respect of us all.

Black Legacy

The Raw-Cats is a young and ambitious rock n’ roll formation from Austria.
The Raw-Cats’ identity is rooted in the 1950s and on the basis of rockabilly, its oeuvre combines a variety of stylistic influences that range from jazz, blues and rhythm n’ blues, to country, swing and rock. The band can thus be elegant, but wild, rough and tough, or as smooth as velvet. 
The end result is a multifaceted, acoustic spectrum that is underpinned by rich and red-hot guitar and keyboard solos.

The Raw-Cats

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