So, where would you celebrate your 50th birthday? If you are Finland’s greatest slide guitar player, it’s a celebratory concert in front of your most rabid fans. Ms Lyytinen makes fine records but her best work, and I suspect her favourite, is playing live, and this is a sublime example.
After she is introduced by her twin sons Massimo & Dante, she plays a short introspection (‘The Road Leading Home’) before exploding into ‘Ball & Chain’. You can hear the enjoyment she is having, playing in front of a Finnish crowd, completely in command of the music and, in common with only the best live albums, her sense of fun as well as some sublime playing comes through from start to finish.
The album covers a huge amount of her back catalogue, so much of the material is familiar to anyone who has been following her for a while. Live, the songs are more powerful, less structured, and her band punctuate with real solidity. But you come here for Lyytinen’s guitar work and there is no shortage of strong riffs and slide solos, coupled with her heavily accented vocals.
Favourite numbers abound. A terrific version of ‘Cherry Overdrive’ with heaps of smoking guitar, ‘You Talk Dirty’ positively spits her disdain, her guitar solo sliding up and down the scale. The first encore ‘Stoney Creek’ shows her earlier material – dark and brooding with a dense riff that is powerfully attractive. She is joined on ‘One Thing I Won’t Change’ by glam rock and punk-legend Sami Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks, New York Dolls, Joan Jett) on bass guitar and on backing vocals – it is also the first single from the album.
One of the most enjoyable live albums I’ve heard this year and it shows that there is life at 50.
