Micke & Lefty feat. Chef – Live on Air
Hokahey! Records – 2025
https://www.mickeandlefty.com/
25 tracks; 1 hour 41 minutes
With Live On Air (2025), the Finnish blues trio Micke & Lefty feat. Chef offers a raw and dynamic double live album, showcasing both covers and originals capturing both the intimacy of the studio and the fire of the festival stage.
Recorded in collaboration with Deutschlandfunk radio, Volume One offers the stripped-down precision of a 2020 live studio session for DLF Radio’s On Stage program, while Volume Two roars with the raw energy of their 2023 Blues Baltica Festival performance in Eutin, Germany. Across 25 tracks—originals and time-honored blues classics—the Finnish acoustic power trio showcases 25 years of musical chemistry, inventive instrumentation, and deep blues soul.
Reflecting on the significance of the LP, which also celebrates the trio’s 25th anniversary together, Micke Björklöf said “Reaching this milestone is incredible, especially when this all started as a spin off of my main band. We wanted to share these recordings as a tribute to our long journey and audience. This live album is a real deal, raw performance as live as it can be with no overdubs.”
The album is inundated with funky rhythms, hot slide guitar, energetic harmonica, infectious bass lines, rock steady percussion, and passionate, yearning vocals. The trio remain fundamentally grounded in the blues, but venture into blues-rock, country, folk, and pop. Lefty Leppänen wrote 11 of the 25 songs performed and the group covers songs by Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, and Miikka Kivimäki.
The Baltica Blues Festival performance opens with Chef’s wailing voice on “I’m Lost Without You”, straining, full of emotion, singing “baby you’ve been gone so long… What’d I do to cause you to leave me?” An explosion of high powered, fast moving blues ensues, with snappy, energetic harmonica and Björklöf providing an avalanche of hard hitting percussion. The live energy is palpable, with dizzying guitar and harmonica solos.
Spicy, sensual guitar starts “The One”, a suspenseful simmering track from the DLF Radio recording. Tension and aggravation come through as Chef sings “Standing on the corner of the street, seeing the merciless black sky… it’s you I’m thinking about.”
Strong storytelling threads throughout the double album. “Good Friend” on Volume I kicks off with haunting, chilling guitar as Björklöf sings, coming in and out of falsetto “Love got me singing them down and out blues… Good friend, somebody to ease you when the blues got you feeling low… Good friend, better than gold. Gives a hand when there’s nothing to hold.” Harmonica reverberates and howls like a soul crying out in the night, with clear skill. The song lingers on, a dark, yet hopeful meditation.
While the band proves themselves to be solid studio musicians, delivering smooth, polished soulful tracks on Volume I, they deliver high energy, impassioned performances on Volume 2, clearly energized by the live crowd.
“I’m a Guitar Man”, a funky blues dance number employs gnarly, gritty guitar and slow, irresistible bass lines (provided by Chef). A freight train of steady rhythm pours forth, with guitar prowess on display by Björklöf and Leppänen. The track oscillates between fast and slow, and at its height is a frenzy of funky blues, and the band is clearly in synch, propelled by the crowd.
Mean, growling guitar opens up “Hoochie Coochie Man”, the Willie Dixon song most famously covered by Muddy Waters and an inspiration for the Rolling Stones. Shouting, groaning, and moaning, passion comes through as Leppänen sings “I’ve got a black cat bone, and a mojo too. In their fresh live interpretation, a spicy blues stew emerges – a testimony to the power of blues in general.
Leppänen displays incredible vocal range on “If I had a Possession Over Judgement Day” – growling, howling, crooning, and calling in falsetto on a song driven by funky blues guitar rhythm. The high energy song contains bursts of guitar and fires on all cylinders, and at one point Leppänen screams out into the audience.
The trio of singers howls and growls on Volume 1 as well, if a bit more restrained. Melancholy, deep guitar notes and strumming open up “Gotta See My Church” and Björklöf sings “When I grew up, I had great plans to get out there do some song and dance. Years went by… Gotta see my church til the day I day.” A catchy blues riff repeats, offering soul and vitality and the interplay between bass and guitar is fantastic. The vocals pour out strong and true and a chorus echo’s the lead singer’s lines.
The trio leans into honky tonk country blues, with multiple layers of sound on “Big Bill Blues”. On the rollicking, good-spirited blues about abandonment, they sing “You know I woke up this morning, feeling sad and blue. My baby left me and I don’t know what to do.” Tasty guitar twang rings throughout.
On Live On Air, Björklöf, Leppänen, and Chef prove themselves to be energetic, authentic blues performers. The double album offers intimate, polished blues in the studio and raw, foot-pounding entertainment at the Blues Baltica Festival. The Finnish group’s chemistry, built up over 25 years is palpable and they deliver a brand of funky, high-powered blues. This double album is an excellent introduction to their work and a testament to their long dedication to live blues.
