Forbidden Fruit

Biography

Forbidden Fruit’ finds Finnish slide guitarist Erja Lyytinen taking the blues into the personal realm, to find new ways of expressing her feelings, understanding life experiences and realising her musical ambitions. From the deeply felt lyrics and well crafted songs, to the emotional input of her solos and expansive band harmonies, ‘Forbidden Fruit’ embodies the essence of everything we identify as the blues. Whether you could call it therapy, deeply held personal convictions, or more simply a c...

Forbidden Fruit’ finds Finnish slide guitarist Erja Lyytinen taking the blues into the personal realm, to find new ways of expressing her feelings, understanding life experiences and realising her musical ambitions. From the deeply felt lyrics and well crafted songs, to the emotional input of her solos and expansive band harmonies, ‘Forbidden Fruit’ embodies the essence of everything we identify as the blues. Whether you could call it therapy, deeply held personal convictions, or more simply a celebration of life, this album has it all. And as Erja humorously remarks; ‘It was all made without an auto tuner (laughs), so everything is played and sang as you hear it’. ‘Forbidden Fruit’ is a multi layered album. Peel away a layer and you will find another rich seam of lyrical meaning and intricate guitar parts. The heart felt lyrics match the deep guitar tones and sonic textures, all glued together by Erja own natural vivacity. Recorded at Helsinki’s Rescue Room Studios, the album’s sensual front cover photo was shot at Murder Mile studios in London by Finnish photographer Tina Korhonen. The all female crew added to an apparent statement of Erja’s self confidence. And there’s much to be proud of, as ‘Forbidden Fruit’ explores the full spectrum of life’s experiences; up, down and sideways. There’s a imperceptible meeting of old blues traditions – the art of story telling and sexual double entendres – with contemporary musical values and guitar solo’s that evoke lyrical meaning. For every well crafted turn of phrase there’s an intricate guitar part to match, ranging from co-producer Davide Floreno’s tremolo guitar figure on ‘Joyful Misery’ to Erja’s guitar- led wall of sound on ‘Jealousy’. She further explores the full tonal possibilities of her new custom shop Fender Stratocaster on ‘Forbidden Fruit’, ‘Joyful Misery’ and the dual guitar fest that is ‘Change Of Season’, while the radical arrangement and unusual chords on ‘Death Letter’ re-invigorate the blues standard and help integrate it into the albums sequential flow. Co-song writer Alan Darby (who has worked with Bonnie Raitt and Bonnie Tyler) provides the American feel on two relationship songs, the self explanatory ‘At Least We Still Fight’ and the deeply personal ‘Joyful Misery’. The latter is inspired by a 50 year relationship between her uncle and aunt. The lyrics of the title tracks pull no punches – ‘A flower in blossom attracts all kind of bees’ – as Erja achieves her goal of ‘sounding honest, beautiful and sad at the same time’, before she belatedly offers us a cathartic release with Lil Johnson’s ‘Press My Button’. ‘Forbidden Fruit’ is an album of real substance, emotion, superb band interplay and Erja’s very best vocals. The blues never sounded more essential. Erja Lyytinen – Forbidden Fruit Format: CD Label: Ruf Records Release: 28 January 2013 TRACKLIST 1. Joyful Misery 2. Hold On Together 3. At Least We Still Fight 4. Forbidden Fruit 5. Death Letter 6. Change of Season 7. Jealousy 8. Press My Button 9. Things About Coming My Way http://www.erjalyytinen.com/ Review: he Finnish Bonnie Raitt’ came with her appearance on the 2007 Blues Caravan. It brought a lot of praise, particularly for the girl’s undeniable slide guitar talents, but also a lot of expectation. In ‘Forbidden Fruit’, Erja Lyttinen’s fourth studio album for RUF, there is certainly a depth both lyrically and musically that leaps out from the earlier discs. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, and thankfully that’s also true of a CD. I remember a short conversation when Erja was last in Bonn, over the theme of sexual exploitation that revolved around the famed ‘naked’ Ana Popovic ‘Unconditional’ CD cover and the sale of tangas at Erja’s gig with her logo on them. The new Lyytinen CD has her depicted kneeling on a red duvet cover, in front of a red wall, and wearing red high heels. The ‘fruit’ alluded to in the picture looks anything but forbidden., and, given the cover shot, ‘Press My Button’ would have made a more fitting title track. No, the cover isn’t my thing at all. The photoshoot was an all female affair though – and since the average listener is likely to be middle aged and male, I guess it won’t harm CD sales at all. If you’ve been to a Lyytinen gig you’ll know anyway that the (not surprisingly red) guitar in EWrja’s hand is more than just a prop – and if you haven’t been to a gig then it won’t take more than a few licks from the music on offer to convince you she can play it very well indeed. Opener ‘Joyful Misery’ immediately shows the depth of feeling, both musically and lyrically, that the new CD offers. It’s a pop/folk construction musically and nods towards Blues only in it’s title. A tender love song –about man & wife, but with the twist that it’s about Erja’s Uncle and Aunt; and the love alluded to is for relatives who themselves not only loved, but were loved. Along with the tender lyrics there’s some equally tender tremolo guitar courtesy of Erja’s right hand man Davide Floreno. Erja’s Aunt and Uncle were clearly two people who lived the title of track two: ‘Hold on Together’ and the band too have to hold on together initially until the track finds it’s rhythm. Not that there is any problem with a tried and battle tested rythm section like bassist Roger Innis and drummer Miri Miettinen. Track three, ‘At Least We Still Fight’ is a silky smooth song about a bumpy relationship waiting only for indifference to set in. Like ‘Joyful Misery’ it’s co-written with American Alan Darby and lyrically more compact than the solo writing efforts of Erja (‘Forbidden Fruit’, ‘Hold on Together’), or Erja with Davide Floreno (‘Change of Season’). I won’t count ‘Jealousy’ in there since it’s lyrically wrapped around the slide riff that Erja is so brilliant at creating. I do wish that she had checked with a native English speaker for the pronunciation of the word ‘fruit’ though – I find my teeth gritting at her every chorus of “forbidden freut in the tree”. That apart, there is a lot to like in quirky lines like “I’m in the taste of the butter, on the bread you put in your mouth” (from ‘Change of Season’) and “A flower in blossom attracts all kinds of bees” (from ‘Forbidden Fruit’) Source: http://3songsbonn.com/2013/01/11/erja-lyytinen-forbidden-fruit-ruf-1188/ Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.