Erja Lyytinen (Page 1 of 2)

There are 2 opportunities to catch Erja in my corner of the world coming up shortly; later this month she's got a slot at the Durham & Cleethorpes Blues festivals (20th & 21st June) as well as a show at Darlington Blues Club in early October. They'll be my first chance to catch her live, and get the last signature on my RUF Pilgrimage CD.

Her work may lean a little to the "Country", but there's some very sweet slide guitar in there worth listening to.

Jeebers!!!    If I thought Erja’s hour long set at Durham Gala was awesome, then the 2 & quatrter hour show at Darlinton Forum wasn’t twice as awesome, it was awesome squared…...

Hard to believe it was her first time at Darlington R’n'B Club, so you can excuse the first couple of songs for her to get the feel of the place and the audience, but once she found out that they were with her from the get-go, then it just turned into one almighty party, with Erja ending up on the tables in the middle of the room belting out Tequila   

As per the earlier Durham show, the evening kicked off with a powerful cover of Spoonful with Erja lashing and coaxing the spangly blue slide guitar and just set off at a run with older material as well as newer and even debuting new songs for an upcoming new studio visit. A lot of Elmore James stuff was featured, being the inspiration behind the most recent studio release, so there was the occasional pause to re-tune to open D (for you guitar heads out there).

The 2nd set opened with just Erja and a guitar doing a haunting ballad before being joined by the rest of the band and they really turned it on for tracks like Change of Seasons,(complete with superb bas solo), The Sky Is Crying and another new song, Dark Ocean, the latter being a sublime mix of Erja slide over husband Davide Floreno's tuned down "twanging" tones. A rock'n'rol style instrumental lightened the mood and well as showcased the drummer and Erja table-top performance of Tequila.

What can you do for an encore after that? bring the roof down with a 10 minute+ Dust My Broom. Absolutely stunning show and one of the best I've seen at Darlington.

PS - Nice to bump into Britbabe & husband; first time in nearly a year.

I first saw Erja and her band back in 2010. And I've been back to see her every year since then apart from her gap year last year when she had twins. I saw her Thursday night, and right now, she is in the form of her life. A full two hour set with no break and she played a lot of songs that I've not seen her do live before. Not even room for crowd favourites like Everything's Fine and Grip Of The Blues in the set. But she did play my own favourite, an extra long version of Change Of Season. Erja's got a superb band backing her and I think its safe to say that everyone there was completely blown away by the performance. And, as always, it was great to see the merch table so busy after the gig. The guy in front of me wanted all eleven of her CDs and a T shirt!

Erja will hopefully be back in the UK sometime next year. She's been one of the hardest working musicians on the circuit for several years, tours relentlessly, and is one of the most charismatic and charming people you are likely to meet. If you've not seen her before, look out for tour dates next year, she always deliver a great gig.

Track 2 - Mississippi Callin'

Track 6 - Hand In Hand

Not sure of the name of track 5, I recognise it from the gig the previous night. I think it might be a new, as yet unrecorded song. Bring Me Water is also a new unrecorded song.

Erja has put this one up on her You Tube channel from the Live In London DVD, fimed at the 100 Club last year

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yzzwTHKB-0 The multi-layered Change Of Season

Oct 7th

The foxy, Finnish, firecracker filled the Forum with a flurry of feisty fretwork on Friday night…...Phew!

Another awesome night from Erja on her quick return to Darlington; featuring several new songs from her new album, due Feb 3rd, as well as digging well into the back catalogue with her cover of Tina Turner’s Steamy Windows, putting the “B” back into “RnB”. Change of Seasons, with it’s bass solo, a highlight as ever, along with Lullaby leading into The Sky Is Crying, and Hand In Hand. All that, with her thunderous Spoonful opening the show and the Tequila party at the end and a haunting People Get Redy as encore.

Change in the backing band, Davide Floreno not on this tour; instead of 2nd guitar, Eja has brought along keyboards, on this night, Antti Ikola, who did a superb job with 9 fingers (and one splinted), as well as Juha Vernona on bass & Kai Jokaiho on drums making her powerful backing band.

Vid from the night:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM0UyXwjfHI

Rest of the tour:-
   Oct 11 100 Club London, United Kingdom
   Oct 12 Pier Southern Pavillion Worthing, United Kingdom   
   Oct 13 Beaverwood Club, Chislehurst London, United Kingdom
   Oct 14 The Boom Boom Club Sutton, United Kingdom   
   Oct 15 Tivoli Ballroom Wimborne, United Kingdom   
   Oct 16 Square & Compass Ilminster, United Kingdom   
   Oct 19 Gemeindesaal w/ Honey B & T-Bones,... Lindewerra, Germany   

  Nov 04 Samlingsstuen Kerteminde, Denmark   
   Nov 05 Ulmhofschulen Kellinghusen, Germany   
   Nov 06 Bluescafe Apeldoorn Apeldoorn, Netherlands   
   Nov 08 Club Rio Eschweiler, Germany   
   Nov 10 Museumskeller Erfurt, Germany   
   Nov 11 St. Barbara Kirch Lichtentanne, Germany   
   Nov 12 Manitu Forst, Germany   
   Nov 16 Spirit 66 Verviers, Belgium   
   Nov 17 Topos Leverkusen, Germany   
   Nov 18 Bluesclub Troisdorf Troisdorf, Germany   
   Nov 19 Uhlenspiegel Rutesheim, Germany   
   Nov 22 Cafe & Matsal Ronneby, Sweden   
   Nov 23 Stampen Gamla Stan, Sweden   
   Nov 24 Östersund Blues Club Ostersund, Sweden   
   Nov 25 The Metropol Harnosand, Sweden   
   Nov 26 Amatör Teatern Solleftea, Sweden   
   Dec 08 Cafe Zoceria Espoo, Finland   
   Dec 09 Musiikkiteatteri Kapsäkki, Helsinki w/ Davide Floreno Helsinki, Finland   
   Dec 10 TTT - Klubi w/ Davide Floreno Tampere, Finland   
   Dec 15 Kuvakukko w/ Davide Floreno Kuopio, Finland

Expect a new album Feb 3rd 2017 - here's a taster track, Stolen Hearts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CEP0_EQik8

April 13th

Erja made a very welcome return to Durham's Gala Theatre on Thursday evening, doing an hour's opening slot before Chantel McGregor. Not quite her usual fret-burning performance, but nonetheless impressive and impassioned as she showcased mainly new numbers from her Stolen Hearts album. Have to say, from the opener City of Angels, it was a great show but Black Ocean and 24 Angels were my favourites of the night.

Erja Lyytinen has been back out on crowd funding for her upcoming album Another World, due early next year. Guest appearance by Sonny Landreth.

There’s still a month or so to get your pledge in - 20Euros to get a signed CD.
Website - https://mesenaatti.me/campaign/?id=1031#single/view
(And before you faint, there’s an English translation button for this who can't handle Finnish.)

Thanks for posting those  vids Banshee
She’s very talented singer and player