Erja Lyytinen is a Finnish vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. She began playing the guitar when she was 15 years old. Around the same time, she started writing her own songs. In high school, she performed with various projects, one of them being a soul-influenced Brothers & Sisters band, in which she was the singer. At the time she was influenced heavily by artists like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. Later she found the music of Koko Taylor, and she mentions one of her favourite songs from Taylor was the piece “I’m A Woman” from The Earthshaker album. She also mentions Bonnie Raitt as a great influence. On 10 November 2002 Lyytinen was the opening act for Robert Plant, the former vocalist of Led Zeppelin. She has mentioned that the occasion is one of her most treasured concert memories.
Erja Lyytinen was the only Finnish act to perform at “Puistoblues” in 2003, the biggest blues festival in Finland, where she played on the main stage. Her second album Wildflower was released at the festival. The artists Koko Taylor and Bonnie Raitt, two of her biggest influences and idols, also performed at the festival, and Lyytinen had the chance to meet Bonnie Raitt there. n the spring of 2003, Lyytinen was awarded a stipend to attend the Musician’s Institute of Technology in Los Angeles. There she got to study with Scott Henderson, who has played in Chick Corea’s Electric Band, and with Keith Wyatt who, according to her, kept amazing lectures about the history of blues. Thomas Ruf from the German Ruf Records label brought his Blues Caravan tour to Finland in 2005. There Lyytinen got to jam with female blues artists Candye Kane, Ana Popovic and Sue Foley, who at the time had contracts with Ruf Records. After that Ruf offered a record deal to Lyytinen which led to recording her international debut album, “Pilgrimage”. The album was recorded in Memphis and Mississippi with two other artists, Aynsley Lister and Ian Parker.
In 2006 Lyytinen had a chance to record her next album Dreamland Blues in Oxford, Mississippi with local musicians. On this record, her playing is more slide guitar-oriented than on earlier albums. In Finland, the album was picked as the “Album of the Year” by Bluesministeri (The Bluesminister) radio show, which was broadcast on YLE (Finnish public service media company). In the same year, Lyytinen also toured with the Blues Caravan. The Grip of the Blues album was released in 2008. Lyytinen has mentioned that she think of this record as her first “real” album as it was the first record to feature her own band. The line-up for the album was Rami Eskelinen (drums), Iiro Kautto (bass), and Davide Floreno (guitar).
On the album Voracious Love, which was released in 2010, Lyytinen continued to push her musical boundaries. On the song “Bed of Roses”, she collaborated with the singer Marko Hietala, known from the bands Nightwish and Tarot, and with Paavo Lötjönen from Apocalyptica. In late 2010, Lyytinen toured for five weeks with her band in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and England. In England, she was the opening act for Walter Trout. Later in the same year, Lyytinen graduated from Sibelius Academy with a master of music degree. Her album Forbidden Fruit was released in 2013. The songs “Joyful Misery” and “At Least We Still Fight” were written in collaboration with Alan Darby, who has performed with Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney and wrote music for Bonnie Raitt.
In 2014, Lyytinen released the album The Sky is Crying, which was a tribute to the music of Elmore James. This more blues-oriented record turned out to be her breakthrough album on which she proved her skills as a slide guitarist. The Canadian “Underground Blues Network” chose the album as “The Best European Blues Album of the Year” and as “The Best Tribute Album”. The British Blues Matters! magazine placed it amongst the three best international albums of the year and honoured her by placing her second on “The International Solo Artist” chart. In 2015, following the release of the Live in London concert album, which was recorded at The 100 Club in London, Lyytinen was voted the number one International Solo Artist by Blues Matters!. She was also awarded “The Artist of the Year” title in the Finnish Blues Awards. The Stolen Hearts album was released in 2017. The record was produced by Chris Kimsey. In Finland Lyytinen toured extensively with the guitarist/actor Heikki Silvennoinen in sold-out venues and performed in India for the first time. That was followed by two successful tours in England and her first “Blue Christmas” tour in Finland.
