Tuomari Nurmio & Hunajaluut
(FIN)
Finno-Ugric blues & rock with country, folk & ethnic influence
It’s hard to relate the status of Tuomari Nurmio, internationally known as Judge Bean, to foreigners. You could call him the Dylan of Finnish rock, and it wouldn’t be inappropriate. He has had many different bands and he also plays solo, but this combo is his union with Honey B & the T-Bones, a long-standing world-class psychedelic blues band. Their collective sound is down-to-earth but rich, it’s driven by a mature vision and a fearsome authority. The songs channel the deepest waters of the Finnish psyche uncut. It’s too bad, if you don’t understand the language, but don’t worry: you will feel the substance.
Nurmio’s many albums have portrayed the Finnish mentality with scathing clarity, but never without humor that is as warm as it is ruthless. He received the Eino Leino (very famous Finnish poet) award for good reason.
Having started his career with a bang in the late seventies, he still has a chronic tendency to shovel the pack and find a new angle from which to dive into the timeless sea of blues, rock, country, folk, old time Finnish songs, tango and Balkan rhythms, and he does it with shamanistic intensity.