Jan Tore Lauritsen and his band, The Buckshot Hunters, have been around for a lifetime and then some, but they’ve probably never been more relevant than they are now. It’s been a while since the band last played at Dark Season Blues, but this year they’re on the bill both with their own concert and as the backing band for the American artist Sugaray Rayford.
Last year, the band celebrated 30 years as recording artists with the album “Still Be Friends,” which, in addition to receiving rave reviews, won a Blues Music Award in the Best International Blues Album category in Memphis on May 7. The album was also nominated for a Spellemann Award in the blues category. The anniversary was celebrated with a concert featuring a number of guest artists in Lillestrøm last September.
The band was formed in 1991 and made its album debut in 1995 with an album that sold 3,000 copies. That wasn’t bad at all for a blues album back then. The follow-up, *My Kind of Blues*, came out in 1999. And—that’s exactly what J.T. & Co. have done: they’ve played their own brand of blues, gradually incorporating more and more elements of soul. Before *Still Be Friends*, J.T. and the band released *Blue Eyed Soul Vol. 1* (2018) and *Blue Eyed Soul Vol. 2* (2020). Lauritsen received the Notodden Blues Award in 2014, and the following year, he and the band took third place in the European Blues Challenge. The band also reached the semifinals of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2016.
In addition to J.T. (vocals/accordion/harmonica), The Buckshot Hunters consists of guitarists Arnfinn Tørrisen and Ian Fredrick Johannessen, Jon Grimsby (drums), and Morten Nordskaug (bass).
In August this year they were honored with a stone in Notodden’s Blues Walk of Fame.
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