The Milkmen - You Can't Judge a Book (2022)

The Milkmen deliver raw, swinging blues jazz in duo format. The debut album "You Can't Judge A Book" they offer, among other things, Cigarbox guitar from Cognac, cut-off living room organ and the world's first blues song about knitting. Guitarist and vocalist Svein Erik Martinsen and drummer Hermund Nygårder sought-after musicians known from e.g. The Real Thing, Hot’n Spicy and HildeLouise Orchestra. In 2015, they started the duo The Milkmen as a sanctuary where they could cultivate their common interest in old blues and jazz in complete peace.

The album "You Can't Judge A Book" contains a mix of self-composed songs and classics interpreted in The Milkmen's playful soundscape, where they play everything from their own main instruments to homemade inventions. Martinsen and Nygård met as musicians in the Hilde Louise Orchestra in 2012, and it is therefore appropriate that their first album is released on Asbjørnsen's label Sweet Morning Music.

Martinsen (Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Looper), is educated at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, where he established the trio Hot N Spicy and toured for several years as a guitarist in Thorbjørn Risager band. Here at home, he plays i.a. with Julie Dahle Aagård, Prima Vista Social Club, Kaba Orchestra and Asbjørnsen. Nygård (drums, bass, banjo, vocals, harmonica, washboard, toy piano, carillon), has his education from Jazzlinja, NTNU in Trondheim. He has been a regular member of The Real Thing for a number of years, also plays regularly with Julie Dahle Aagård, Asbjørnsen, Petter Wettre, and has recently toured with i.a. Frode Alnæs and Peter Bernstein.