The Undiscovered: Harry Tikander

Yes, you read that right; Harry Tikander is a Finnish guitarist who now is located in sunny Thailand. He submitted a mostly instrumental CD-R demo of 10 blues oriented tracks, recorded with a drum machine backing. All the improvised solos are first takes, because, as Tikander remarks, "I've been accused of making my music too polished, and therefore it didn't sound like real blues. So here it is, raw and real with all the mistakes and everything in it, no second takes on the lead guitar tracks." The ripping solos on "Southside Boogie" are reminiscent of a Molly Hatchet and Billy Gibbons shotgun wedding, while the vocal track "Gamblin' Woman Blues" offers bloozy, whiskey-soaked vocals and an almost Robert Cray-like feel in the lead guitar section. Tikander goes by the stage name Big-Harry Trouble, and he thought there weren't enough bluesmen on the Undiscovered pages - well, now there's one more!

Harry started to play guitar some 34 years ago, but from the middle of the 1980s to the middle of the 1990s he practically stopped playing for the entire 11 years. His inspirational heroes have been primarily Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, John McLaughlin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brian Setzer, the Rosenberg Trio and the late, great Finnish guitar-slinger Albert J‰rvinen. He mainly uses his '63 Hagstrom (Goya, red sparkle) guitar, being that it is really good for blues. Notably, the tracks "Southside Boogie" and "Gamblin' Woman Blues" are from Harry's band's first album "Trouble" and second album "Wind Blows 'Round" released in Finland under his own record label "Mekong Delta Music". For these tracks their band name was Trouble. Harry states that he's not necessarily trying to reinvent the blues, just trying to keep the blues alive.

Tikander's future plans are to continue to play his blues for as many people as possible, and someday he would love to go to the United States, play in some Texas blues clubs, and record some blues with the local blues guys.

Harry Tikander
Finland