Micke Björklöf	Ville ”Lefty” Leppänen	Timo Roiko-Jokela	Seppo Nuolikoski	Teemu Vuorela

A unique world-class roots & blues band from Finland.

The BAND

Micke Björklöf - vocals, harmonica, guitar
Ville ”Lefty Willie” Leppänen - guitars, vocals
Timo Roiko-Jokela - percussion, vibraphone
Seppo Nuolikoski - bass, vocals
Teemu Vuorela – drums

BIO

Micke Björklöf & Blue Strip delivers a focused and mature collection of roots and blues songs.

Micke Björklöf & Blue Strip´s music features classic blues as well as what have become their trademark, mix of original material with R&B, blues, jazz ,roots rock and New Orleans flavours. It´s a musical and rhythmic adventure with influences from all these styles. Their unique rootsy sound is mainly based on the mix of electric and acoustic instruments all from national steel guitar to vibraphone and diverse percussion instruments to harmonica and of course including the dynamic rhythm section.

This hard working band is regularly touring through the year around Finland and Scandinavia and slowly also taking steps to Central Europe, playing from small clubs to largest festivals (Puistoblues, Porijazz, Imatra Big Band Festival, Raumablues, Östersund Blues Fest etc). The band has shared the stage with names like Fabulous Thunderbirds, B.B King, Robert Plant, Solomon Burke, Eric Sardinas, Michael Burke, C.J Chenier, Shemekia Copeland etc.
They have also performed on several national TV- and radio shows.

Micke Björklöf & Blue Strip has released three albums. First album ”From four until late” was released in –97, featuring blues classics by Robert Johnson and Willie Dixon etc.

Second album ”Swamp Baby” was released to critical acclaim in summer -99. Regional and national print media publications have published several articles and reviews on Micke Björklöf & Blue Strip, including Blues News, Rumba, Iltalehti, Iltasanomat and Jazzrytmit. Album introduces Blue Strip mostly with their own material, of fifteen tracks 11 songs are originals.

The latest album “Three times seven is…”was also released to critical acclaim by Bluelight Records in May 2002. Album is filled with rich originals as well as couple blue classics. Listeners of Bluesminister radio show on national radio voted album to the best Finnish Blues Album of the year 2002.

Albums single track “Ray needs a mojo hand” was also Rock/Blues category winner at Song Expo 2002, song-writing contest in Amsterdam, Holland.
“Three times seven is…” has also got lot of airplay by Radio stations and Internet radios around the world.

HISTORY

Micke Björklöf formed Blue Strip in the beginning of the nineties with bass player Seppo Nuolikoski and former guitarist Jari Korpi. They started playing under the name Tres Amigos, as an acoustic trio (acoustic guitar, dobro slide guitar and bass) performing blues and rock covers. Couple month’s later drummer Jaska Passinmäki joined the band and he stayed till -93.

After Jaska had left the band, Teemu Vuorela came in as a new drummer and soon also percussion and vibraphone player Sami Tervonen joined the band. This was the line up until the first album, “From four until late” which was released in -97. This first album was recorded by Kimmo Ahola in Haparanda, Sweden. During his studies Micke had also slowly built a career under his own name, so just before the album release they decided to change their name to Micke Björklöf & Blue Strip. Later at the fall guitar player Jari Korpi decided to leave the group.

In summer of -97 Micke met slide guitar virtuoso Ville ”Lefty Willie” Leppänen (also known from the Keystone Cops) at ”Roots´n´ River blues festival” in Rovaniemi, Finland. Micke was really impressed about Lefty´s playing and he seemed to be the right guy for the band. He told Lefty about the band and asked him to join it.
After talking for a while and shortly after when Lefty heard the
Later in the fall Ville “Lefty” Leppänen played his first gigs with Blue Strip

In -98 they started to write and rehearse new material for the forthcoming album. Later at the fall -98 Sami Tervonen was too busy to continue touring with Blue Strip anymore because of his teaching job at the music school. After a couple of phone calls they found percussionist and vibraphone virtuoso Timo “Roikis” Roiko-Jokela who was recommended by a friend. He decides to join the band right away. After one rehearsal he played his first gig with Blue Strip.

Couple months later they were in the studio recording new material for the second album. Album was again recorded by Kimmo Ahola, this time at his AMS-Studio in Kauhava, Finland. Recordings took place from December -98 to February -99. As guest musicians on the album visited legendary Finnish harmonica ace Pepe Ahlqvist, Veli-Matti Järvenpää on accordion and Jorma Välimäki on tuba.
This second album was called, ” Swamp Baby” and Bluelight Records released in June-99. Later in summer Blaze Records also released the album in Sweden.

After releasing Swamp Baby-album, they started to write new material for next album. After playing new songs on the road and having enough of new material they started planning the next album. At the July 2001 band had again their annual “Blues & BBQ” rehearsal sessions in Kauhava. They rehearsed in couple of new “last minute” songs and did the final sharpening on the band before sessions in August.
This time session took place at Seawolf Studios in Suomenlinna, Helsinki. Third album “Three times seven is..” was recorded by Hannu Leiden and Juha Paaso between August and December 2001. Bluelight Records released new album in May 2002.

Guest musicians on the album are Pekka Lehti on upright bass, Teijo Tikkanen on piano, amazing sounding Keylettes on background vocals and UB-horns, horn section.

Every now and then you can find Blue Strip on stage with Keylettes & UB-horns
as 11-piece line-up (“Big Band”) under the name Micke Björklöf & Blue Strip Special.

Micke Björklöf is also performing as an acoustic duo with Ville “Lefty” Leppänen.
Their debut duo album, called “Big Bag” is released by Bluelight Records in July 2004.

- ”I hope we can in future tour and get our albums released in other countries too. This band is something special with its unique sound and high-energy live performance. There´s nothing else like this, it´s different than anything you´ve heard before”, says Micke Björklöf. ”Everybody who calls him- or herself a music lover should get a change to hear and see us”.

FACT SHEET (under construction)