This was a blast indeed..!!!

"..On October 15th, the Tartu Blues Society organized the first international resophonic guitar festival in Estonia. Taking place at the Tartu Rock Club, the Tartu Resofest featured Bottleneck John (SWE), Alaska Gavin Kalan & The Soul Hustlers (USA/FIN), Aleksandr Belkin Trio (LT), and Bullfrog Brown (EST). The common theme of the evening was definitely the Blues, but as demonstrated by the performers, the blues can come in various shapes and sounds from the acoustic spirituals of Bottleneck John to the sampled breakbeat rhythms of Gavin & the Hustlers.."

1. You've been singing and playing in a great variety of styles and band setups, as well as being a acknowledged songwriter yourself. What keeps bringing you back to the classic blues and spirituals?

Yes, that’s true, I like to keep a very broad style of blues, this helps me find more opportunities to play at clubs, festivals etc. You just say what kind of blues act you’d like and I can offer you just that! But it seems I’m always drawn back in time and place to the Mississippi Delta of the 1920’s and 30’s.. I guess this is THE music that touches my soul the most?! It must be, I haven’t found any music yet that can compare to these old recordings in terms of soul, feeling and honesty..

 
2. Who would you say are your greatest influences/inspirations?

No musician has meant so much to me as Eric Bibb. His music and lyrics has a strong influence on everything I do!! Without him I would not play and write music the way I do today… He’s got a wonderful soul in his songs. You MUST listen to mr Bibb if you haven’t already heard him!! However many, many others have  influenced me. To mention a few: Son House for the amazingly strong vocals, Blind Willie Johnson for his truly remarkable slide/bottleneck guitar playing, these two are people I just can’t hear to much of, I just love their music. And BB King’s soulful vocal style has also made a deep impression on me.

3. Anyone you'd really like to hear yourself being compared to?

Well, if anyone mention my name in the company of those I’ve mentioned above it really brings joy to my heart!! It has happened from time to time and I’m really proud of that, and this shows how strongly a person’s music can affect lives of others.

4. Among other things, you collect guitars; for your own playing, you seem to prefer the resophonic guitar as opposed to traditional acoustic or electric guitars. Why?

A very good question, why indeed? I guess there’s something in the tonal qualities of resophonic instruments that really affects me. I mean I really like some gritty, muddy electric slide guitar sounds as well as pure acoustic tone of an old regular acoustic! But as you’ve noticed I do tend do spend my time playing reso’s mostly, so they must have THE tone for me. I like the mix between acoustic and electric that I believe we find in the resonator guitars, I use to tell people who hasn’t heard one before that it’s an electric guitar without the electricity!! It’s basically a mechanically amplified guitar..

5. When did you play your first concert, ever? And your first as Bottleneck John?

Jeez, can I remember that..?! Let’s see, I guess my first concert can be said to have been held in 1987 at a school dance! We played our own home made hard rock. It was great fun and we were nervous like crazy, but the kids liked it and I just went on from there and then to where I’m today, playing all over.. Bottleneck John played for the first time a couple of years ago, some kind of outdoors one man concert in the swedish summer! I had a great time and decided to make it happen in the furure as well. My first public performance however was WAY back in 1974! I was three years old and sang in an old peoples home next to my kinder garten..!! I actually have it recorded on a tape somewhere!!

6. Why did Johan Eliasson become Bottleneck John?

It’s way much bluesier!! LoL! It tells the audience what I’m all about before they’ve even heard me. I guess I found that getting people outside of sweden saying my name wasn’t quite as easy as saying BJ.. So I just stuck with it, it works well and I can now use my real name for my singer/sonqwriter stuff, another side of me that not too many have heard yet. 

7. What would you say is the lot of blues artists in Sweden? Are there many, are they popular?

There are SO many blues artists, maybe thousands of bands, we have, say, 20 top names and then maybe 5 of those are the elite and they’re playing all over sweden. The blues is a big thing, many fans here!

8. Would you say that over the last 10-15 years, there's been a change in how the audiences perceive the blues?

I don’t know that really, maybe I can see a tiny tendence that the audiences appreciates more “genuine” blues these days, it has been very much of the “rock/blues” stuff going on. And acoustic music is getting more attention as well.

9. How well does your idea of the blues correspond to that of the audiences?

I’d say it works very well judging by the interest there is in my music!!

And I’m really happy and proud for this. My songs are somewhat unusual, I have a fling for having songs on my set-lists that not so many other acoustic artists play, a lot of standard material but also some of my own tunes and cover songs that appeals to me, if I like it, I’ll play it..

10. Anything else that you'd like to share and I wasn't bright enough to ask?  

Well, I think we’ve covered it!! I’m really, really looking forward to coming over to Estonia and play the blues!! See you soon!!

BJ