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Written in fRoots issue 329/330, 2010


JAAKKO LAITINEN & VÄÄRÄ RAHA
Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha
Helmi Levyt Helmi 038 (2010)

Fun, and perhaps a new Finnish music. Laitinen’s soulful baritone is like a Finnish tango star’s, while his songs, backed by nifty stuttering trumpet, accordion, guitar and drums, embrace Serbian and Romanian Roma and Russian influences, with hints of mariachi, humppa and trad jazz, and emerge not at all Balkanoid but as indisputably Finnish as Finnish tango. www.helmilevyt.com



© 2010 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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Links:
fRoots - The feature and review-packed UK-based monthly world roots music magazine in which these reviews were published, and by whose permission they're reproduced here.

Kansanmusiikki-instituutti (Finland's national Folk Music Institute).

It's not practical to give, and keep up to date, current contact details and sales sources for all the artists and labels in these reviews, but try Googling for them, and where possible buy direct from the artists.
Helsinki's Digelius Music record shop is a great source of Finnish roots and other albums.
CDRoots.com in the USA, run by Cliff Furnald, is a reliable and independent online retail source, with reviews, of many of the CDs in these reviews; it's connected to his excellent online magazine Rootsworld.com 

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