However, if you believe that blues music expresses a human condition, not just a geographical or cultural one, then you’ll no doubt take great pleasure in the emerging artistry of Danish-born bandleader Peter Nande.
Nande is currently touring in support of his second CD, Big Boy Boogie: California Sessions Vol. I., produced by blues icon James Harman.
For the better part of two decades, Nande has dedicated himself to the passionate pursuit of creating legitimate blues music. It began in 1988 when, at age 16, he first heard the music of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and Sonny Boy Williamson (I and II) on LPs at the local library. He was inspired to buy his first harmonicas and, in his words, “started to mess around†with the blues.
“I was hooked on the sound of the blues harmonica and the blues genre,†Nande recalls. “I started out just wanting to play the harp, but as I got more knowledge, the blues grew on me. Suddenly I wanted to make songs and my own music, to be a singer and songwriter. It just sort of happened. The music and the ideas for songs were suddenly in my head and had to get out.â€
Nande moved to Copenhagen in his early twenties and devoted himself to studying such blues masters as Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf, as well as a younger generation of performers, including Harman, Charlie Musselwhite and William Clarke.
It took five years before Nande felt he was ready. In 1998 he founded Nande & the Big Difference, and for the next seven years served a working apprenticeship as a blues musician. In 2002, the band released a self-titled CD and began playing festivals in Europe, often backing the likes of Lazy Lester, Harman, R.J. Mischo, Gary Primich and others.
When his band, Nande & the Big Difference, disbanded in 2005, Nande turned his attention to fulfilling his dream of recording in the U.S. with American musicians he’d backed when those musicians toured Europe.
Thus began a year of planning and collaboration with Harman that culminated in May 2006 with Nande and ace guitarist Ronni Busack-Boysen flying to California to record. With Harman as producer, the project took shape in the laid-back Oceanside, Calif. home studio of Harman’s guitarist, Nathan James, who served as engineer and who also added guitar on three tracks. Guitarist Junior Watson contributed his wickedly inventive axe work to four tracks, and Harman co-wrote and sang a couple of tracks. Harman assembled a stellar rhythm section for the endeavor, with Carl Sonny Leyland adding tasteful piano, Buddy Clark on bass, Hal Smith on drums and Mike “Bonedaddy†Tempo on percussion.
Big Boy Boogie: California Sessions Vol. 1 features an abundance of danceable Nande-penned grooves - a mix of blues shuffles, swing, Louisiana swamp grooves, mambos and even a taste of ska.
As the CD title indicates, look for more releases in the future from the California sessions with Harman. Meanwhile, Nande performs as leader of the Peter Nande Band, and has earned a solid reputation throughout Denmark and Scandinavia. Nande plays locally in Copenhagen at such venues as the Mojo Blues Bar (a mojo in Denmark, after all!), and has his sights set on increasing his profile in Europe and perhaps even America.
The Video "King of Bad Excuses"
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