Fin-A-Billy Part 7: Barnshakers

The other Finnish 'institution' when it comes to authentic Rockabilly and Hillbilly besides the Hal Peters Trio are the Barnshakers and I don't believe that there is a single (post 50s)Rockabilly collector who hasn't at least one of their records at home.

Founded in 1992 by request of Goofin' Records head Pete Hakonen who needed a backing band for Johnny Carroll the 4 friends who had gained experience in Whistle Bait, Dr. Snout and his Hogs Of Rhythm and Hal Peters and his String Dusters got together to play some of the most authentic Rockabilly the world had heard since the 50s. Just 10 months after their founding they already recorded their debut album for Goofin' Records, the 'Cool Enough' 10". The rest, as they say, is history. The band played every major Rockabilly festival on earth, released tons of records, were one of the very few European bands that had a release on Willie Lewis' Denver based label 'Rock-A-Billy Records'(the great 'Big Sandy' 45) and became a popular backing band. The list of artist they worked with truly is impressive:
Hank Thompson, Narvel Felts, Hayden Thompson, Alvis Wayne, Johnny Carroll, Sanford Clark, Huelyn Duvall, Sid and Billy King, Martí Brom, Shaun Young, Johnny Carroll, Darrel Higham, Kim Lenz and Mack Stevens.

The next dates where you can catch the band live outside of Finland are May 28th when they play the Screamin' Festival in Spain and July 17th at the Riverside Jump in Ireland.