Dr. Helander
Country Boy
Guitarist and singer Dr. Helander (Ilkka Helander) is an archetypal bluesman of his generation. After being infected at the end of the sixties with British blues when listening to the valve radio, he later dived deeply into various blues genres and started a long career in music. Since the 1990's, Dr. Helander has released four albums, which have received praising reviews. In contrast to his previous albums, which mainly carried original material, "Country Boy", is a collection of songs which over the course of years have adhered to the 62-year-old man, leaving out the most obvious blues classics. Furthermore, Dr. Helander's guitar playing on the album is exclusively acoustic - while being famous for his electric guitar work, this should be not surprising as he has always included acoustic blues on his albums. The completely acoustic album "Folk Singer" by Muddy Waters is an example of the inspiration leading to the present music - a selection of songs was actually picked up from "Folk Singer". A special guest appearance on the album is made by harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite, one of the greatest living blues legends and Grammy winner for the best blues album in 2014. Long time ago, Musselwhite was one of the pioneering whites who started playing with the legendary blues performers in Chicago, such as Little Walter and Magic Sam.