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- Born 1954
- I got sent to the usual piano lessons age 7-12 , some more at my initiative at 14-15 , played organ with blues bands ( Mayall , Ten Years After , Fleetwood Mac etc. )
- influenced heavily by Jethro Tull , studied the flute at Espoo Conservatory for five years
- After seeing Fairport Convention in 1972 formed folk-rock group Vanha Isanta with Timo VakkilaInen in 1973
- Won the finnish rock championship in 1973 with Vanha Isanta , playing souped-up British/Irish folk.
- Four albums with Vanha Isanta 1975-1979 . During
this time , as the bands focus shifted to bluegrass and country I found
my instruments : first the Dobro and a bit later the pedal steel . They
felt natural to me immediately and still do.
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In 1979 Ronnie Osterberg , the drummer of a top finnish group of the
day , Wigwam , asked me to join the reforming group. I , of course
accepted !
- Eventually renamed The Jim Pembroke Band , the
“new Wigwam” released one album “Flatbroke” in
1980 and I still consider it one of the finest albums I have been
involved with.
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By this time I was doing a fair amount of session work on the dobro and
the pedal steel and still do. I`ve played sessions for many top finnish
artists and bands with about 2500 recorded songs to prove it !
- 80-82 tours and sessions with various finnish artists
- Joined J. Karjalainen`s band in 1982 and played with him for over three years
- Four albums with J. Karjalainen ; 2 gold , 1 platinum…
- After Karjalainen , a nine year “stint” with THE instituton of finnish rock , the longest running rock band in Finland : Eero ,Jussi and the Boys. Three albums and lots of roadwork…
- During the Boys tenure I also played with various other finnish artists including Tuomari Nurmio , Mikko Kuustonen , Freud,Marx, Engels & Jung and Dallas Wayne.
- Nominated for “Musician of the Year” in the local Grammy Awards , The Emmas in 1993