European Blues Award winner Erja Lyytinen has filmed and recorded a live album CD and DVD package that will be released on Friday 6th November as Lockdown Live 2020.
Ironically, the times we live in parallel Lyytinen’s those commented on within her own last studio album Another World. “I recently watched the music video we made for the title track and it gave me chills seeing the people in the video wearing masks as they tried to survive on their uninhabitable planet,” she noted.
Riding the crest of a wave, being busier than ever as the pandemic took hold, her touring and promotional activities were catalysed by a string of high-profile achievements during 2019. The previous year, Lyytinen had been bestowed the prestigious Savonmuan Hilima award by the Savon Sanomat newspaper, released her first biographical book titled Blues Queen (Blueskuningatar), as well as being recognised by the readers of Guitar World with a spot in their 30 Best Blues Guitarists in the World Today poll.
During the early stages of the lockdown, artists took their shows to the Internet via live streams. Lyytinen decided that she wanted to give her fans the best and most concert-like experience possible. When the opportunity arose, she headed to Bluesounds Studios in her hometown of Kuopio, Finland on Mother’s Day Eve to record and film the live album/concert performance. The concert was broadcast over the internet as part of a pay per view event, and now forms the basis of this notable studio-live album.
This live recording takes a retrospective look back on Lyytinen’s long and successful career, and so found Lyytinen quite literally “torn” between the songs to feature in her setlist and the subsequent concert album. The inclusion of tracks such as ‘Wildflower’ and ‘Dreamland Blues’ reflect her beginnings whereas soul-baring performances of songs from her last two studio albums Stolen Hearts and Another World brings the show up to the present date.
Lockdown Live 2020 can be pre-ordered from here.
At the time of writing, Erja Lyytinen’s February 2021 UK Tour is still scheduled to go ahead and tickets are available from here.
