John Mayall – The Grandfather Of British Blues

John Mayall © Per Ole HagenJohn Mayall is 80 years on November 29th. During 50 of these years he has been one of the driving forces in British Blues, and altogether he is one of the most important figures in modern blues. His main importance lies in the way he has found and developed new talents, mainly guitarists. (Picture above: John Mayall at Notodden in 2004).

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Thomas Dybdahl – Songwriter and Performer Par Excellence

Thomas Dybdahl © Per Ole HagenThomas Dybdahl is one of a few Norwegian artists with an international following. He is also one of our best songwriters, and without writing typical hits. His most popular songs have become hits because of their inherent quality and complexity, not because of their obvious hit potential. In my book that gives many extra points. Combine this with a live performance that closely mimics the qualities from his recordings, and you have a recipe for a great experience. Last night he played at Sentrum Scene in Oslo.

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Lars Winnerbäck in Oslo

Lars WInnerbäck © Per Ole HagenLars Winnerbäck is one of the most exciting Swedish artists. His singer songwriter skills are surpassed by few, and he has been poring out songs for more than 15 years. During this period his music has evolved, through one man and his guitar, through Irish inspired recordings until his present organic rock based music. Tonight he visited Oslo on his Scandinavian tour and played for an enthusiastic crowd at Oslo Spektrum.

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Southern Rock With Royal Southern Brotherhood

Royal Southern Brotherhood © Per Ole HagenThe definition of Southern Rock is a definitely loose one, without many objective criteria. It is more a term that has been put on bands like The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band and some others because they play music that mixes elements from rock, country, blues, and most important – they are from the southern states of the USA. Royal Southern Brotherhood is a band that might be classified as a southern rock band, and yesterday they played at John Dee in Oslo for Oslo Blues Club.

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Delbert McClinton – The Smooth Voice Of Blues And Country

Delbert McClinton © Per Ole HagenIn 1992 Delbert McClinton recorded Tell Me About It with Tanya Tucker and reached number 4 on the American country charts. That’s his highest chart position for a single, while he has had four number one albums on the blues charts. He was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. November 4th Delbert McClinton is 73 years old.

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