Steve Future (Bror Stefan Pettersson) hosts the show Östersjöblues (“Baltic Blues,” broadcast on Radio Haninge) when he is not on tour and has celebrated more than 35 years as a musician having debuted at the Kristianstad Jazz Festival back in 1984. This his latest album was released on CD in 2018, then on vinyl the following year, and gets it name from it being recorded in seven different studios in different cities (and a few different countries). One of the songs on the album, “Brand New Day” broke into the Top 200 in the US, which is perhaps not too surprising as the whole album has a very American feel to it and that is probably the most commercial song.

This is music based heavily in the blues, and encompasses a myriad of styles within that genre, and while he brings in modern flavours when he wishes to, it is on the more sleazy and older style numbers such as “Rat Poison” where he really comes to life. He has that lived-in voice which makes the blues stand out, and he is a strong harmonica player who knows when the time is right to just play a few notes and let the guitarist take centre stage. There are of course other times when he right there in the mix, taking them on at their own game, and while he can be gentle on the vocals he can also be rough and ready and with a great female backing singer (whose name I unfortunately don’t know) there are some great combinations taking place. This isn’t about being flashy, but more about living the blues, and any fan of the genre is going to discover yet really interesting musician from Scandinavia.

Rating: 7/10

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Track list:
1. Bananas & Diamonds
2. Blue Heron
3. Waterfall
4. Civil War
5. Railway Layers Daughters Blues
6. Don’t Mean Nothing
7. Trinity
8. Black Water
9. Future Kids
10. Brand New Day
11. Rat Poison
12. Blended
13. Keyhole Massacre
14. Steal The Water
15. Burning Wheels
16. Boned Rock
17. Woman In Panoramic
18. Blue Volvo (Berlin)

Links:
https://stevefutureblues.com/