GRITS & RATTLES/ Jo’ Buddy/RamBam Records RAM0004 ***

"Well, Finnish blues people must be like London buses:
You wait forever for one to turn up and then two arrive at once!
First there was Erja Lyytinen with Blues Caravan, now here comes
Jussi Raulamo - Jo’ Buddy.
This is his fourth album and despite the title, which sounds very rustic,
it is far from an acoustic set. Jussi’s take on the blues is to pare it down
with a vengeance, most tracks are just guitar and drums and one or two,
guitar and Jussi doing some 'flat foot’ stuff, like our own Dr Stomp.
The music is an electric mix of old sounding blues
(Jussi is the writer of all the music) with embedded sounds of Muddy,
and Elmore and many others. Jussi is very fond of his vibrato
and some of the tracks do end up sounding like Credence Clearwater,
nevertheless, this an adventure in blues sounds and grows and grows on you!
The singing is excellent and the guitar parts are adventurous.
Get Jo’ Buddy to the UK someone. Let’s see him live."
jobuddy.com

IAN McKENZIE, Blues In The South, ENGLAND (August 2006)