Rockabilly boom that sweeped over Finland in late 70's and early 80's was long gone and rockabilly was already oldfashioned when Heikki and Eino met at a gig. At the time Heikki was the lead singer of the Ballroomers and Eino had been playing guitar in the famous Rhythm Wheel Combo. During this brief meeting they got an idea to form a pure rockabilly band.

After several jam sessions, they realised that they need a bass player. Timo Uimonen was an obvious choice, because he had been playing in the Ballroomers with Heikki. The first official practise session was held in November 3^rd, 1984. The band's repertoire consisted of well known songs by Sid King, Elvis, Thumper Jones, Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly.

From the beginning, the aim was to play authentic rockabilly, just like it had been played in the 50’s. In November 26^th they had their first gig at Silvernight club (Helsinki) . It was arranged by Pete Hakonen who was the president of Suomen Rock’n Roll Seura (Finnish Rock’n Roll Society).

The band didn’t have a name at that time, but before the first gig they had to invent a name. Heikki was the lead singer and everyone thought he should have a stage name. Hal Peters was a mixture of Starday label's guitar hero, Hal Harris, and English rock’n roll gal Janice Peters. The band was named simply as Trio, so there it was: Hal Peters Trio.

Little by little the band got more gigs and they developed their skills by hard training. Record companies were immediately interested in this talented group. Goofin’ Records had been formed only a short time ago and Pete Hakonen picked the band on his label. The first recordings saw the light on Goofin’ Records’ compilation cassette "On The Move". The songs on that tape were It’s True,I’m Blue; Just Because and Tweedle Dee. These three tracks were recorded at Heikki’s bedroom with a simple tape recorder and the sound quality is quite primitive, at least if you compare these to their latest recordings.

That cassette roused some interest. Sunjay records from Sweden notified that they were interested in releasing more material by Hal Peters Trio. However, the first album Snatch It and Grab It was made for Finnish Moondogs label. On this album, Antero "Rudy" Ryynänen played drums. Rudy played on several gigs with Hal Peters Trio, but he was also playing in The Rhythm Wheel Combo with Eino. The record was released in the beginning of 1986 and around the same time Jussi Huhtakangas joined the band. He was the fourth permanent member of the band and played rhythm guitar and lap steel.

A little later Jussi started playing drums instead of rhythm guitar. At that time the band played two separate sets at their gigs.  On country & western songs Jussi played steel and jumped behind the drums on rockabilly numbers. Now with four regular members, it was time to change the name of the band.

HAL PETERS and his TRIO: 1988-November 25^th,1994.

From the beginning there was some demand from other European countries. First gig outside of Finland was in Sweden (summer of ’86 without Jussi). Next year they played in Hamburg (also as a trio).

1988 was a busy year for the band. During the spring and the summer, between the recording sessions, the band played twice in central Europe and they appeared also on several rock’n roll festivals in U.K.

The reputation of the band was already strong and it was natural that they backed up original U.S. rockabilly heroes while they visited Finland. In the fall of 1987 Joe Clay played in Helsinki (Lepakkoluola), "Sweden’s Hank Williams" Hank Edwards was at the same place with Hal Peters and his Trio in early 1988.

During the winter of 1989 Hal Peters and his Trio travelled again to Sweden. Mike Salminen had joined the band and played his first gig behind Mac Curtis. He wasn’t a regular member of the band yet, but played a lot with the band during next couple of years.

At this time their style had drifted towards Western Swing without forgetting their rockabilly roots. The band played several times with a Sun recording artist Hayden Thompson and started co-operation with a true Finnish rock’n roll legend - Jussi ‘Big John’ Raittinen.

Jussi Huhtakangas had bought his first pedal steel in late 1992 and from that point on their sound was much closer to traditional Western Swing. Around this time pianist Mika Siekkinen played occasionally with the band and he was also on Baby I'm Ready album, but left the band right after that. The band had already five regular members, but they were still looking for a fiddle player. It wasn’t an easy task to find a good fiddle player, at least from Finland. The first player was Pentti "Newsky" Nevalainen, who could play some mean jazz/swing fiddle, but he didn’t fit well to the band, probably because of his attitude and age. Pentti played only on several gigs, including one at Jumo Jazz club (Helsinki) where the band played with Ray Campi. After a mutual decision, Pentti left the band. There were several candidates, before they found Heikki Kangasniemi. Heikki had been playing folk and traditional Irish music for years, but not Western Swing. However, he was a very talented fiddle player and was very interested in this kind of music, so he fit very well to the group.

HAL PETERS and his COUNTRYMEN
November 26^th, 1994-March 5^th,1998

It was time to change the name of the group again, current line-up had six members. The Countrymen were introduced on November 26^th, 1994 on their 10^th anniversary show at Club Pariisitar (Helsinki). On this gig, Goofin’ records released a limited edition celebration-45, only 300 were pressed and this record is now a true collector’s item.

Hal Peters and his Countrymen played regularly around Europe, including Norway, Sweden, Spain and one very succesful show at Hemsby (U.K.).

In spring of 1998 the band recorded material for the new 10" album at Roinela movie theatre in Klaukkala.

HAL PETERS and his STRING DUSTERS
March 5^th, 1998-

When the 10" album Lonesome Hearted Blues was released, the band wanted to change their name to The String Dusters. The future looks very promising, the band has had lots of gigs and they even toured around west coast of U.S.A. (Seattle, Portland and Brisbane and San Diego in California). Hal Peters and his String Dusters were also one of the headliners of Viva Las Vegas #2 festival where they had a pleasure to play behind a true legend from the 50's - Curtis Gordon.

The story continues…

Copyright © 1998 Hal Peters and his String Dusters