MEET THE BAND

Micke Bjorklof:

Lefty Leppänen:

Chef:

BIO

HISTORY

These two gentlemen started their musical collaboration in 1997 when the lead singer, harmonica player and bandleader Micke Björklöf (born –65) was looking for a new guitarist to his band, Micke Björklöf & BlueStrip (formed 1991) and asked Lefty Leppänen (born –66) to join the band. This world-class slide guitar virtuoso is also known from his previous work with Keystone Cops and his solo project Southpaw Steel N´ Twang. After playing few years together, they started talkin´ about doing some acoustic duo shows while the band was having a break from touring. They both shared a passion and love for older acoustic delta and country blues music; this would be great opportunity to play the music they both had strongly been influenced by. Their first show as duo, Micke and Lefty took place when they were asked by the festival organizer to fill up with an acoustic show due some cancellations. But a real kick-start came little later when they got a chance to open the show for Robert Plant and B.B King on the main stage at Puistoblues, the biggest blues festival in Finland, with audience over 10 000.

Musically it started as a spinoff from the MB& Blue Strip band, playing acoustic versions of the same material. Over the years it became and grew to a totally own band with original material and own repertoire. In the fall 2003 Micke & Lefty started to work on their forth coming debut album. “We thought it would be nice to get some upright bass on some tracks so we asked Mr. Chef Kivimäki to join us in the recording sessions”, says Björklöf. Those sessions were a blast! This talented young man has been cooking´ his bass rhythms and singing with Micke & Lefty since then. Nowadays Micke & Lefty perform mostly as trio with Chef but are still doing some duo performances every now and then. Their critically acclaimed debut album “Big Bag” was released 2004 by Bluelight Records. The album introduced strong original material among couple of unique performances of classic tracks.

2010 Micke & Lefty feat.Chef celebrated their 10th anniversary with releasing a new album “Up the Wall” (Hokahey Records!). This was already the fifth album where Björklöf and Leppänen were collaborating. With the follower to the critically acclaimed “Big Bag” album they took a huge step forward; hundreds of live shows had improved their unique band sound and made this trio very tight and groovy, which you really can hear on the album. The album was mainly recorded live in studio just to get as close as possible of the magic of a live show. Also bass player Chef has got his space as lead vocalist this time. Up the Wall album contains 11original tracks and 2 cover tracks, Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie” and Willie Dixon’s Big Three Trio’s “Come Here Baby”.

Key tracks on the “Up the Wall” album: “You Better Me”, the first radio single is strongly soul and gospel influenced song with great harmony vocals. This song also has some real crossover potential. “Up the wall” the title tracks for the album, with Micke on lead vocals. This is a really authentic down-home blues song. This will also be the first ever-filmed music video for the band. “Clean up” is a tight Louisiana flavoured rock´n roll song with Chef on lead vocals. “Guitar man” is an up tempo blues song with lyrics from blues guy’s hard but rewarding life; it’s also Lefty’s showcase of his fantastic slide guitar playing. He also sings this track.