Back in 2006, J. Karjalainen took a proverbial left turn. He started singing in a different voice and the music he made became rawer, somehow more archaic. But who was Lännen-Jukka? A new Ziggy Stardust-style role or had the talented songwriter run into a block and had to now rely on outside help?

At this point in time, a good ways into the 21st century, J. Karjalainen had claimed his place as one of the foremost translators of American musical traditions into the Finnish idiom and now the different strains that had nourished this project started pushing through the surface of the music, like the sweat of a hundred-year dash.

According to the story, Lännen-Jukka was one of approximately half-a-million Finns to depart for America in the early 20th century. Unlike many, Lännen-Jukka came back, broufgh the music with him and infected the young Jukka Karjalainen, who was then spending summers at his grandmother's house nearby, with it.
The story was true for as ling as necessary and the something much more. 

Lännen-Jukka, that mythical creature, markeds the start of a project that combined musical archiving and fusion, the binding together of the artist's Afro-American and Finnish musical roots.  Listened to retroactively, Karjalainen's older records provide tantalizing hints of the coming dive into tradition... for example, Tyttöni mun on the first Electric Sauna album is like an old mountain ballad. Don't let the layers and layers of wailing electric guitars fool you. These examples abound when you listen to the old albums with new ears and in the right frame of mind.

Contrary to expectations, Lännen-Jukka found an audience immediately. The record was the surprise hit of 2006. A year before, a chart-busting record featuring the banjo in a prominent role would have been unthinkable. There was something irresistible about the world painted by the record, with its down-trodden but resilient 1930s vibe. It was under the protection of Hiski Salomaa, the original Lännen-Lokari (Western Logger). 

Once this wellspring where American melodies met Finnish words appeared to Karjalainen in the guise of his namesake in 2005, it just kept right on bubbling. Karjalainen recruited accordionist Veli-Matti Järvenpää to join him in his mission. The music moved forward in time and got a touch of gumbo from the swamps of Louisiana, as well as some flatness from the land of Pohjanmaa. The duo released a record called Paratiisin Pojat, which took us, in the words of professor Jim Leary in the liner notes, to “polkabilly heaven”, the craziest house party in the known universe. A pilgrimage to the Finnish songlands of the USA in Michigan's Upper Peninsula brought new depth and new material. The friendship with professor Leary provided access to treasures recorded by Alan Lomax himself. The patron saints of the second album were Viola Turpeinen of Michigan, the first woman to ever record harmonica tunes, and Dock Boggs, one of the true great of old time music.

What became a trilogy quite naturally reaches its conclusion with the latest release. Polkabilly Rebels once again double the number of musicians involved by adding the standup bass of Mitja Tuurala and the electric guitar of Tommi Viksten to the picture. The spirit of funky, mid-tempo rockabilly is strong in the resulting sound, but this is still its very own thing. The last installment is clearly dominated the toughest woman in the UP and Finnish-American songster by the grace of God, Jenny “Jingo” Viitala, who before her death presented Jukka with a c-cassette of songs she'd recorded. Four of the songs on the tape ended up on the album.

 Lännen-Jukka, Paratiisin Pojat and Polkabilly Rebels; this trilogy of Finnish-American folksongs is skillfully rendered speculative history. Each of the albums ring with music that could have existed in this form during the decades between the 1920s and the 1950s that each album refers to, but in reality the styles were born in the 2000s, in the hands of J. Karjalainen. The result is real world music. Over the last five years awards presented have varied from blues record of the year to an Emma (Finnish Grammy) nomination for world music record of the year. Live venues have varied from Helsinki's trendy underground clubs and galleries to concert halls in smaller cities and from the main stages of major rock festivals to the more homespun atmosphere of small town folk festivals.

This expedition into Finnishness across the ocean has naturally evolved from a rough one-man reconnaissance patrol to a full-bore attack by a whole orchestra, wielding the Finnish-American songbook in all its glory as a weapon.

We're all immigrants and this is our music.