The Blues Queen Biography in English
The Blues Queen Biography in English
Biography now also in English
Erja Lyytinen – Blues Queen is the life story of the 2000 era's
most accomplished Finnish blues guitarist: it's the account of
an uncompromising, strong-willed, gifted and persistent woman
and her musical career, which started as a teenager, as part of
her parents' house band. Eventually, her road brought her to
international acclaim amongst guitar aficionados everywhere.
It's the account of a woman finding one's own place in a blues
scene ruled by male counterparts for over a hundred years. It's
a story of quieting the catcallers that were abundant when she
started, and moreso, about breaking glass ceilings. It's a saga
of stubborn perseverance and a need for personal development.
It's a tale of one's own vision, footprint and gaining the respect
of one's peers.
It's a tale of one female guitarist's growth, on her journey amongst
the long shadows of her heroes and idols, to be able to rise to the
same stages are her esteemed predecessors and become a colleague
of equal standing.
The book is also an everyday account of coping and survival in the
crossfire of being a performing artist, an entrepreneur and a mother.
It tells of hard work and coincidences along the way, as well as key
people encountered along her personal journey – some of which are
deserving of praise, others not. This books sums up stories of luck
and tears of frustration, along with the compromises made along the
way and those left undone, which all have all contributed to the rise
of a never before seen phenomenon. A phenomenon that entails how
this blues woman rose from being an obscure, marginal musician to
becoming a successful solo artist, a television celebrity and a Finnish
national darling that garnered the praises of world-renowned stars like
Jennifer Batten and Carlos Santana, winning over critics of the blues
world en route to becoming a virtuoso lauded by the masses.