Bláa höndin

The Blue Hand

Bláa höndin — the Blue Hand — was announced in August 2021 as a brand new blues band, and made its live debut on 20 August that year at Hús máls og menningar in Reykjavík. What was new was the band; the four men in it had been on Icelandic stages for decades.

Jón Ólafsson, known as Kletturinn, plays bass. Jakob Frímann Magnússon, Segullinn, is on keyboards. Einar Scheving, Þýarinn, plays drums, and Guðmundur Pétursson, Skelfingin, plays guitar. The nicknames are the band's own, and they tell you something about how seriously these four take themselves.

Both sides of the Atlantic

They describe what they play as pure-bred blues, drawing on the Mississippi and Memphis traditions on one side and the British blues of London and Liverpool on the other. It is a repertoire built for players who have heard it all and know exactly where the beat sits.

Reykjavík Blues Festival

The band has been closely associated with the Reykjavík Blues Festival, appearing in the festival's advertising for its 2022 edition, and has become part of the regular furniture of the Icelandic blues calendar.