These first two pieces are reprinted from the New Nordic Music mailing list. If you're looking for a place online to discuss these traditions, follow the link.
 
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Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 20:14:24 -0800
From: mai kiigemagi
Subject: Nordic Roots Festival

Last year was my first Nordic Roots so everything was new and exciting for
me. I wondered if this year's could live up to it. I am happy to report
that it was even better! My thanks to everyone involved.

Every performance was outstanding. I couldn't even pick a favorite. The
sound was very good. The padded seats helped relieve tired rear ends. There
was lots of camaraderie among the festival goers (hi Lisa, Rob, Heather,
any other list members), as we shared our love of the music. MC Nick
Lethert was even funnier, good monologues on the padded seat survey, the
one minute workshop on how festival goers can relieve stress during the
festival, and the "How Varttina Changed My Life" support groups (chapters
in all 50 states and DC!).

Nyckelharpa Orchestra: you can't have too many nyckelharpas. I liked Olov
Johansson's comment while tuning yet again, "We have to tune. That's a big
part of our lives playing these instruments."

Groupa was new for me, and they have a wonderful combination of
instruments, including keyboards, which are not too common in Nordic music.
Nice solos by Rickard Astrom! Madman percussionist Terje Isungset had many
interesting things to shake, hit and blow into. This might be considered
the intergenerational band, with the young and beautiful Sofia Karlsson on
vocals and the older but still beautiful Mats Eden on fiddle.

Hurdy Gurdy Project: MC Nick announced that there would be two notaries
present in the lobby so we could get an authentic certificate saying we
were here. A truly wonderful experience with all hurdy gurdies, some live,
some sampled. As Totte Mattson said, the hurdy gurdy "has a big
personality."

Ranarim: I really enjoy the singing of Ulrika Boden and Sofia Sanden, and
the accompaniment of guitar and nyckelharpa is a perfect match. Some of us
were talking about Ulrika Boden's group Kalabra (Markus Svensson of
Nyckelharpa Orch. is also a member) which has two releases on the Caprice
label. They can be purchased through www.swedishmusicshop.com. I like them
both.

Hoven Droven:The headbanging wild men of Swedish folk/rock were lots of fun
to listen to and watch. It looked like they were having fun, too!

Maria Kalaniemi and Aldargaz: The Finnish accordion virtuoso takes my
breath away. Maria introduced a song by bassist Tapani Varis by its Finnish
title,and then translated it as "Underwater, things happening there."
Apparently not an easy title to translate. Three members of Aldargaz form
the Helsinki Mandoliners, "a band within a band", as Maria introduced them
for an all-mandolin number. They are Arto Jarvela, Petri Hakala, and Olli
Varis. Before Maria started, we were treated to a number by the all-jew's
harp "supergroup" of  Daniel Sanden-Warg, Tapani Varis, Steinar Ofsdal and
Terje Isungset. Very cool.

Ellika Frisell played a solo concert on fiddle and viola, introducing many
of the songs as ones she learned from the older generation of Swedish
fiddlers.

Swap was one of my favorite bands last year and this year they were even
better. Great energy, very tight. Nick said he decided that the circle over
the letter a in their name meant "pronounce this differently every time".
All four of the members looked sharp (nice dresses, Carina and Karen), but
Ian Carr in his suit always stands out. He said that he's had 3 suits given
to him by promoters, they look at him and say "This man needs a suit!"

Hedningarna: Another intergenerational group with youngsters Magnus
Stinnerbom and Christian Svensson (percussion) joining founding members
Anders Norudde and  Totte Mattson. They were great, but I'm sorry to say my
head was pounding by this time and I couldn't enjoy them as much as I
wished. Anyone else?

Harv are now a threesome with the addition of guitarist Peter Stahlgren.
As has been commented on before, if Harv is any indication, the future of
Nordic folk is in good hands. Magnus announced that they were going to play
a song that "we understand has become a hit in the US, 'where are my
gloves, where are my hat'". Those who attended last year will remember this
song.

Bukkene Bruse: A fantastic set by wonderful musicians. Annbjorg Lien on the
hardanger fiddle is always great. Arve Moen Bergset has the voice of an
angel. Steinar Ofsdal played many interesting flutes. He commented while
watching the fiddles tune, "All my instruments are tuned at the factory."
This got a big laugh.

At the start of the Sunday evening show, Rob Simonds made his thank you
speech and also urged attendees to help find more sponsors for the
festival, to insure its continuation. Anyone with suggestions can contact
NorthSide.

Varttina: I love them, so there's really nothing else to say. Fantastic show!

Minneapolis is a special place. On Sunday morning we tuned into Dan Ryan's
radio show on KFAI which featured performances and interviews by Helsinki
Mandoliners and Harv. That night, Twin Cities Public Television aired an
hour long program on Nordic music with performances by Groupa, Vasen,
Gjallarhorn, Swap and more. In between, we saw three great bands. Where
else could this happen but in Minneapolis!

Mai


"The power of music is so great that in legends of all nations its
invention is ascribed to the gods." --Karl Marx

Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 16:15:44 -0400
From: "Lisa Shannon"
Subject: another festival review

Hi all - this would be less monotonous if I just wrote a quick sentence
"everything was astonishingly wonderful."  I'm glad they're weren't any
additional bands because I've run out of superlative adjectives.
What a fabulous weekend!!!  It was a blast seeing everybody.  Thanks
Mai for providing the outline for this email!  My mind is a blur, I
couldn't remember half of what we saw....

The Nyckelharpa Orchestra and Groupa are unfortunately omitted
because we got in on Friday.

Hurdy Gurdy Project:  I think this is why my mind is a blur:  it's
not fair to do this to people's brains at the beginning of a festival.
The HGP is what made me decide I had to go this time- the amazing
energy and beautiful noise generated by those two when they perform
away from each other with their respective bands is so strong that
I couldn't imagine what it would be like when they performed together,
and it did indeed prove unimaginable.  A whirling maelstrom
converted into sound.

Ranarim:  Were marvelous, of course.  We were all psyched for
this because of how amazing the Rosenberg 7 set was last year,
and yep, they were amazing too.  Ditto for Hoven Droven, who
despite being very sleepy put on their usual hilarious heavy metal
folk show, and then Ulrike-Sofia! (as they were called that night)
appeared & blew us all away again. 

The Maria Kalaniemi and Aldargaz set:  She conveyed so much
emotion through her playing that I found myself weeping half the
time.  During her break in the set the subset of Aldargaz that
makes up the Helsinki Mandoliners played, and they were stunning.
This was really marvelous.

Ellika Frisell's show was the one I probably knew the least about,
and I had the impression going in that it would be an hour or
so of pleasant, slightly soporific fiddle tunes.  Yeah, right.
Her approach to the show was so wonderful - alternating a large
handful of forceful, wild tunes with stories of the people who
played them, the farmers, the old men who taught her, describing
the people's farms, etc.  I was completely mesmerized and now
want desperately to go to rural Sweden.

Swap:  It makes me smile just to think about these people -
they're just so darn cute, and they look like they just love
playing music.  They were great last year, and they were twice
as great this year.  I'm going to become a Swaphead and follow
them around on their tour.

Hedningarna were wonderful of course - I personally really liked
them without the singers, who are marvelous, of course, but I
get so hung up singing along with the songs in your head that
I don't pay attention to the music, which is wonderful.  I had
secretly hoped that Stefan B-F would sneak onstage and accompany
them on a second hurdy-gurdy, but that didn't happen.  They
played a couple songs from Anders Norudde's solo album - he
played on nyckelharpa, bagpipes, and flutes, one of which
appeared to be made from a couple pieces of PVC pipes taped together.  

Harv:  Were wonderful and goofy like last year, making faces
when they hit a microscopically impure note, complaining about
duct-taped nyckelharpa bow - really subtly hilarious and so
freaking GOOD.

Bukkene Bruse:  WOW - this was a great set.  I'd never thought
too hard about where the ethereal singing came from on the BB
cd that we've got, and it turns out that it comes from a man
who sings like an angel.  He was also wearing a very interesting
outfit - hair cut like a schoolboy with a blue twill janitorial-
style worksuit and black leather shoes with very elaborate 17th
century style buckles. The band was great, too, and the synth
wasn't mixed so high as to make it sound like Rick Wakeman,
which was my gripe about last year's Annbjorg Lien set.

Varttina: I found the first part of the Varttina set the only
let-down of the entire festival; I kept thinking "The women
look like people from TV - they're hired popstars fronting a
highly competent but bored session jazz band that wishes they
could get off stage and go jam with the other musicians."
Whine, whine, whine.  But then after the band did a hot set
without the singers (I've never seen a drummer play bongo-style
on a trap drum set before) something clicked - I really think
it's because they went back to their older, less commercial material.
Their accordionist, in particular, was wonderful.  The end of
the set was great.  

Future:

I've come to love this festival so much that I can't imagine not
having one next year!  Maybe, if some huge corporate sponsor
doesn't come through, would you consider saving money by starting
the festival on Friday instead of Thursday?  While that would
mean fewer bands, it would be better than no festival at all.
The other thing I thought of would be to do what opera companies
do and have some sort of donor-level ticket price (extra $50?
extra $100?) that would include some sort of additional incentive
(reserved front-row seating, a party, a t-shirt, whatever)?
I don't like that because of the elitist concept that it would
introduce, but it's again better than not having a festival at all.

Thanks **so much** to the NorthSide folks again for a third
mind-boggling festival,

Lisa Shannon
Silver Spring, MD