Biography now also in English

Erja Lyytinen – Blues Queen is the life story of the 2000 era's

most accomplished Finnish blues guitarist: it's the account of

an uncompromising, strong-willed, gifted and persistent woman

and her musical career, which started as a teenager, as part of

her parents' house band.  Eventually, her road brought her to

international acclaim amongst guitar aficionados everywhere.

It's the account of a woman finding one's own place in a blues

scene ruled by male counterparts for over a hundred years.  It's

a story of quieting the catcallers that were abundant when she

started, and moreso, about breaking glass ceilings.  It's a saga

of stubborn perseverance and a need for personal development.

It's a tale of one's own vision, footprint and gaining the respect

of one's peers.

It's a tale of one female guitarist's growth, on her journey amongst

the long shadows of her heroes and idols, to be able to rise to the

same stages are her esteemed predecessors and become a colleague

of equal standing.

The book is also an everyday account of coping and survival in the

crossfire of being a performing artist, an entrepreneur and a mother.

It tells of hard work and coincidences along the way, as well as key

people encountered along her personal journey – some of which are

deserving of praise, others not.  This books sums up stories of luck

and tears of frustration, along with the compromises made along the

way and those left undone, which all have all contributed to the rise

of a never before seen phenomenon.  A phenomenon that entails how

this blues woman rose from being an obscure, marginal musician to

becoming a successful solo artist, a television celebrity and a Finnish

national darling that garnered the praises of world-renowned stars like

Jennifer Batten and Carlos Santana, winning over critics of the blues

world en route to becoming a virtuoso lauded by the masses.