Erja Lyytinen and Dom Martin

Erja Lyytinen

Hot on the heels of Erja Lyytinen’s new single Bad Seed and new studio album Waiting For The Daylight, the Finnish slide guitarist and singer songwriter will embark on a co-headline UK with the award-winning Belfast-based blues guitarist Dom Martin from November 7-10 th . Tickets are available from www.erjalyytinen.com/tour and www.dommart.in/tour. Dates include Southampton, The 1865 (Nov 7), Bilston, The Robin (Nov 8), London, The Grace (Nov 9) and Grimsby, Yardbirds (Nov 10).

Finnish blues-rock slide guitarist and singer songwriter Erja Lyytinen will release her ninth studio album Waiting for the Daylight on Tuohi Records on Friday October 7 th . Featuring nine original songs, the highly anticipated new album is available to pre-order from https://erjalyytinen.com/waiting-for-the-daylight. 

The first single from the album Bad Seed will be released on Wednesday 29 th June 2022, and is available to buy and stream from https://ffm.to/pjjq61y.

Watch the official Bad Seed music video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/WTa8M29nxHc.

For musicians, the last two years have been a period of reflection and soul searching. What to do with oneself in the  bsence of life on the road? And would live music ever be able to return to the way it was pre-pandemic? Artists and music fans alike waited for that glimmer of hope and the return of some semblance of normality. Written largely during  he pandemic era Erja Lyytinen’s new studio album Waiting For The Daylight encapsulates these emotions.

With time on her hands, Lyytinen was able to pause, dig deep and fully process her feelings. Some of which she had been carrying for a long time. This journey of self-exploration proved to be a source of inspiration for the artist’s latest offering. Carrying on from the gifted guitarist's last two studio albums, Stolen Hearts, and Another World, respectively, Lyytinen continues to explore themes such as love, loss, heartbreak, and sometimes even revenge. Events transpiring around the world occasionally fed into the storyboard of Lyytinen's song writing.

The album was recorded during the first half of 2022, between Erja’s hectic touring schedule, with the bulk of the sessions taking place at the Hollywood House in Helsinki, Finland. Lyytinen was joined in the studio by long-standing bass player Tatu Back and drummer Iiro Laitinen. Having played on every one of Lyytinen’s albums since 2008, Harri Taittonen features once again on Hammond and keyboard.

Waiting For The Daylight illustrates a new chapter in Erja’s musical and artistic trajectory. The album was proudly produced by Lyytinen herself. Subsequently, Erja simultaneously explored sounds on the periphery of the blues-rock genre. She fearlessly pushed herself and the band further than previously before. During her formative years, Erja was schooled on the sounds of the 60s and 70s by her mother, and with her latest offering, she pays homage to rock greats such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Uriah Heap. With its heavy groove, atmospheric textures, and passionate delivery the title track is a testament to this. The song Waiting For The Daylight also features perhaps one of the artist’s most mesmerising and emotive solos to date. Lyytinen further showcases her chops during the album's hook-laden opening number and lead single, Bad Seed.

The artist pours her heart and soul into the cathartic number Last Girl. Erja describes the latter a cross between Satriani meets Iron Maiden. Says Erja, "The song talks about bullying in schools and how you can be left out of a friendship group. I always put something of my own in the songs as well, so it became a very important song on many levels.”

Just as the title dictates, at approximately seven minutes long, The End of Music concludes the release to great effect. “The song talks about missing being back on stage and the audience, as many of us musicians did during the pandemic,” explains Erja.

For Erja and her fans alike, the new studio album and her return to touring the UK is worth the wait.

Dom Martin

Multi-award winning and multi-nominated Northern Irish blues guitarist Dom Martin will embark on a co-headline November 2022 UK tour with Finnish slide guitarist and singer songwriter, Erja Lyytinen from November 7-10 th . Tickets are available from www.dommart.in/tour and www.erjalyytinen.com/tour 

Dates include Southampton, The 1865 (Nov 7), Bilston, The Robin (Nov 8), London, The Grace (Nov 9) and Grimsby, Yardbirds (Nov 10).

Dom recently won two UK Blues Awards including Blues Instrumentalist of the Year and Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year (the latter for the third year in a row thus placing him in the UK Blues Hall of Fame). The tour features two guitarists who have been honoured with instrumental guitarist awards on both sides of the pond. Eric Gales is the proud recipient of Blues Instrumentalist of the Year at the BMAs in Memphis (Blues Music Awards).

Dom’s co-headline UK tour with Erja Lyytinen follows the release of his current album A Savage Life which has received rave reviews including Classic Rock Magazine’s ‘Blues Album of the Month’. Dom has also featured on the front covers of the UK’s leading blues magazines, Blues Matters and Blues in Britain. As the UK representative, Dom, recently reached the semi-finals at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee in May 2022. 

The music video for Dom’s latest single Echoes, is now streaming on YouTube.

Hailed by many as the blues’ biggest Irish export since the iconic guitarist Rory Gallagher, 2022 looks like it is going to be ripe for the picking for Dom Martin.

In 2021, Dom won the Acoustic Blues Act of The Year at the UK Blues Awards, as well as being nominated for Blues Instrumentalist of The Year and Emerging Artist of The Year. Prior to that, in 2020, Dom won the prestigious Acoustic Blues Act of The Year at the UK Blues Awards. He began this haul of awards in 2019 with Best Solo/Acoustic Artist in the European Blues Award. 

In 2022 Dom received an unprecedented five nominations at the UK Blues Awards including Blues Vocalist of the Year, Blues Album of the Year, and Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year, Blues Instrumentalist of the Year, and Blues Band of the Year.

“In some respects, the new album is like my 2019 debut album Spain to Italy, but still very different,” says Dom about his latest album A Savage Life. “It’s a mixture of acoustic solo and electric, however, I really wanted to keep this album under-produced so I can reproduce the tracks in a live setting. Similarly, to the Spain to Italy album, the tracks on A Savage Life are mostly based on my own life experiences.”

“A Savage Life is another part of my life story and is also, in a small part, in memory of a great friend who passed away in 2021. It’s my blues, it’s real and I must live with it!”

DOM MARTIN - BIOGRAPHY

Dom Martin is a Belfast born multi-award-winning artist, inspired but not constrained by the blues.

In 2018 Dom released his first-ever recording, a 4-track EP Easy Way Out which attracted the attention of the UK blues scene and BBC Radio presenter Cerys Matthews, who immediately played him on BBC Radio 6’s Big Weekend Show and invited him for a live BBC Radio 2 Blues Show session in London in September 2018. Cerys described his work as “absolutely wonderful stuff.”

In 2019 , Dom played two UK tours, a five-date tour in Russia, made his European Festival debut in Switzerland and played a further four BBC Radio live sessions prior to a first album release, Spain to Italy in late 2019.

“Spain to Italy is not just one of the best debut releases we’ve heard in some time but among the best albums we’ve heard from any artist this year” – Blues Power, USA

Now and again, you stumble across a rare talent of such sheer genius that makes you wonder whether what you have witnessed can possibly be for real. Dom Martin is one such talent.” – Blues in Britain

In early 2020 Dom completed his first European Tour and had just completed playing UK shows whilst returning to Ireland when the Covid pandemic hit.

During lockdown in December 2020, Dom performed a concert at the Harlington in Fleet which Dom recorded as one-off performance. As a result, in June 2021, the live album Live at The Harlington was released and highlighted the rawness and intimacy of his live performances. The critically acclaimed album was the 17th most played in the IBBA 2021 chart, above such artists as Tommy Castro, Jimmy Vaughan, and Joe Bonamassa.

Dom Martin is an exceptional talent and this shows him in a remarkable light. My guess is that, come the end of

the year, it will be in a lot of 'Best of 2021’ lists. Fabulous album.” – Music News.com, 5-stars

Dom has been compared to Rory Gallagher in style and execution and the great man would be proud to know his legacy is being so perfectly preserved. – Blues in Britain