Singing the blues in Stockholm

August 24, 2009

in Cultural differences,Stockholm,Travels

Robert and I were out last night, looking for a pub that was broadcasting the England vs. Australia Ashes cricket match. While Australia sadly lost, we did come across a great new pub on Gamla Stan. Just opened in June,  The Liffey (more details here) turned out to be a fun new find. Not only did we have some good pub food (I had an excellent fish and chips, Robert had a hamburger), but we also got to hear some great live music in a large and airy bar. Brian Friels’ Sunday Session was playing and we heard some of the best blues music I’ve heard in a long time. The band leader/singer/ saxophonist would regularly get down off the stage and circle through the crowd, playing his horn and working the crowd with his charm. Somehow, I need he had to be American, even before I heard him speak. He just did the blues and worked the crowd too well to be Swedish. In talking to him on break, I found out that the bluesman was from San Francisco but had lived here for 20 years. I would have to say that both the band and the bar are well worth checking out.

{ 2 comments }

1 roger August 24, 2009 at 14:25

Good finding, but (isn’t there always a but :-)) it’s not that new, it has changed names (and owners maybe). I don’t remember the old name, but it was an Irish pub before too. And me and John had a very wet night there last fall, as far as I can remember 🙂

//R

2 James August 25, 2009 at 13:33

When I was in Stockholm about 12 months ago there were a few Irish pubs, as I recall. I popped into one, one night and discovered the bar staff were all Australians! It was in Gamla Stan. On another occasion, a mate and I were looking for somewhere to go out on a Friday night and were suprised that everywhere had a cover-charge, which doesn’t happen so much in Sydney. “We’re not paying 100kr to enter an Irish pub” we agreed at one point.

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