In the summer of 1998, three guys from Gothenburg put together a small band… Read Full Bio ↴In the summer of 1998, three guys from Gothenburg put together a small band in order to play on their buddy's upcoming wedding. The band consisted of guitarists Johan Johansson and Markus Kamarik, together with drummer Patrik Svensson.

This “power-trio” received good response on the wedding and they decided to develop the concept. It did not take long before bass player Anders Guttormsen joined and transformed this trio to a quartet.

After a number of minor gigs, where the band performed their own versions of blues and soul classics, they found that something was still missing. That's why Morgan Jacobsson joined on keyboards and contributed thereby with a new dimension to their original sound.

1999 the band had developed a repertoir which was a mixture of chicagoblues, soul and occasional country ballads. When the band was asked to play at a wedding, Morgan had unfortunately become ill and the band had to find a replacement. Johan Kjell got to take over the piano temporarily and took the opportunity to bring his saxophone to the gig as well. This resulted in him becoming the band's steady saxophone player.

A number of larger gigs were approaching and the band found it was time to expand this project into a full grown show band. Trumpet player Magnus Haggren joined together with choir girls Anna Uhlegård and Linda Filipsson. With inspiration from “The Commitments” and “The Blues Brothers” this developed to be an energic show band, soon to be named “McBlues & co".

They had a number of concerts troughout the west coast of Sweden, as well as in the Stockholm area. The band was engaged also in student arrangements, where there was a strong need of live entertainment and engaging music.

At the start of the new decade they got an offer to play as a resident "house band" on a restaurant in Gothenburg. Unfortunately this stage could not fit an entire band of nine people. This resulted in an unfortunate breakup, where Anna, Linda and Magnus left the band. Nevertheless everyone parted as friends and the band later got the privilegue to perform at Linda's wedding. At this time, the band also changed name to “The Bluesouls”.

During the following years, the setting remained as good as intact. The only exception was Morgan, who moved out of town. Instead of engaging a new pianist, the band chose to move on like nothing had happened.

In the summer of 2003, the band sat down and had a long and deep discussion. Certain members wanted to focus on being a regular bluesband and perform their own, original material. This resulted in Johan Johansson leaving the band. Once again this happened without complications and Johan begun a successful career as a troubadour.

Now Johan Kjell put his saxophone to the side and took over the microphone. Soon Simon Westman joined in on the piano and Christian Mellberg took over the lead guitar. The band wrote lots of own material, which became a success among the audience.

Now the band has got a faithful bunch of followers, who attend their gigs in order to hear them perform their own tunes and their versions of blues classics.

In the fall of 2004, Simon decided to move to Germany. Nevertheless you may occasionally see him perform as a special guest.

Other musicians that have made guest appearances with The Bluesouls are saxophone player Erik Kristoffersson and guitarist Henrik “Pilen” Pilqvist to name a few...