Walter Rootsie and his Blue Connection

A great Americana band from Finland with a Dutch core ; singer-songwriter Walter Rootsie from Amsterdam Holland. They play a mix of blues, rock, pop, folk, country songs and pure singersong writer material. Walter is traveling a few times a year to play throughout Finland with the band. It is a band which is connected through a Dutch /Finnish collaboration for already quite some years with succes.

Walter" Rootsie" Hopmans started young in music. After roaming Spain and Finland for years where he played in different local bands, he played from 1993 till 2001 in the legendary blues rock formation Geronimo. An Amsterdam based rock band with blues influences featuring Herman van Boeyen and Pablo Minnoli. From 1992 onwards he plays in Finland together with Pasi Saharinen and acts as sideman in many bands from Finland (Tiny Tones, Groovy Eyes Duo, Bullet and Berryman, Ugly Acoustic Boys, Saltwater Jinx, Yo Buddy& Down Home King III and many more). A few times a year he comes over to Finland and plays. In Holland he played with several bands and artists(TJ Wheeler, Rockdogs, Hot Tamales, Ferdinand Volker Band, Blue and Red, Marble Tones, Jason Ricci, AMHG Band, Lee Sankey, Charlie Musselwhite, WRAF Band and many more) and plays acoustic solo sets or with his Dutch friends band the WRAF Band or music projects.
Pasi Saharinen played in the famous band One A Clock Hump and many jazz blues related bands. He met Walter in Porvoo, Finland at the end of 1992. From that moment on they played regular as a duo or joined several bands in Finland. They play already a lifetime music together.
Anssi Lehtivuori was studying jazz drum at the Sweelinck Music Conservatory at Amsterdam. He met Walter and they played from 2002 together music in Holland and later in Finland. Anssi played in many bands, musical and projects.
In 2004 they organized Walter Rootsie and the Backboners with Jari Virtanen on bass and Pasi Rytkönen on guitar. Here they started to play Walters own songs. From this point he concentrated more on writing his own material. In the summer of 2005 the band gets a new name “Walter and the Blue connection" .
Jan Smede Smedberg( Sun Connection) is joining as bass player summer 2019. A couple times a year they come together to play music having gigs and record in the studio. They start recording their own CD and playing many gigs around Finland. Released end of 2006 their debut album called "Get up and Go".
Received international good feedback, reviews and had a great and successful promo tour in 2007 and 2008 throughout Holland and Scandinavia. Walter Rootsie and his Blue Connection play mostly in Scandinavia. When Walter Rootsie is not playing with the band in Finland he plays in a small setting acoustic sets in Holland.
For the last two years they are preparing the release of the second album "Dark Water". A great album with a lot of international guestplayers. The focus lately was with the production of this album. the release through WRAF Records of the new album "Dark Water" from January 2013 a great tour is planned in Holland, Germany and Belgium followed with a Scandinavian tour .

Influences: J.Karjalainen, John Hiatt, Wilco and lots of blues

Esteemed live roots and blues band with original sound and songs from the heart