One of RootsWorld's loyal readers, Dave Smith of Massachussetts, sent
me this report, and with his permission, I pass it along to you folks
on this list.
cliff

----------------------------------------------

Nordic Roots Festival:
by Dave Smith

I have just returned from the 8th annual Nordic Roots Festival in
Minneapolis. This is a small, urban festival held at the Cedar
Cultural Center, a small non-profit center based in an old movie
theater which features music of all types during the year.

The festival features contemporary folk music from Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, Finland, Samiland, and other places where Nordic roots can be
found. They present a nice mix of music from those countries, with
attention paid to diversity in presentation.

I arrived on Thursday, and that night I was fortunate to see one of my
very favorite bands in all of music - VASEN. This is an amazing trio
of Swedish musicians (guitar, nyckelharpa, and viola). This is
powerful, melodic and intensely rhythmic music played with almost
frightening skill. To add to this wonderful mix, American fiddle
player Darol Anger joined them for about half the evening. Now, we
have all seen collaborations between musicians of different cultures
before. In my opinion, they mostly don't work. But here, we heard a
collaborative effort where Anger's very American-style playing blended
seamlessly with the Swedish song structures. It was an amazing and
magical show to open the Festival.

Friday featured the only clunker of the Festival for me. The band
VAJAS is from far northern Norway (near the Arctic Circle), and
featured Sami yoiks songs as well as fiddle and synthesizer. Sorry,
but the yoiks were more like squealing pigs, or loons out on a lake.
The singer was dressed in pelts, and the whole thing reminded me of a
bad experimental theater experience. I could only take so much, and
was very thankful when it ended.

The featured band of the evening was the GJALLAHORN. This is a band
that has been around for many years, and features the wonderful vocals
of Jenny Wilhelms, along with fiddle, percussion, and contrabass
recorder. Promoting their new CD 'Rimfaxe', the band effortlessly
moved through older and new material, with Wilhelm and Adrian Jones on
fiddle shining throughout. They play a lot songs based on Nordic
mythology. An excellent, solid band.

On Saturday afternoon, the Festival presented a tribute to the Finnish
Tango. After dance lessons for anyone who wanted to participate, the
Maria Kalaniemi Trio came on and played an hour plus of tango-inspired
music. I'll be honest and say that tango music is not at the top of my
list, but I think Maria Kalaniemi is one of the truly great and gifted
musicians playing Nordic-influenced music anywhere. A virtuoso
accordion player, she composes much of her own music, and teaches at
the Sibelius Academy Folk Music Department. A brilliant and endlessly
creative player, Kalaniemi puts everything into her performances,
creating a breath-taking musical experience. It was a great performance.

On Saturday evening, Kalaniemi returned again as a solo performer,
offering her own original pieces and it was nothing short of
breath-taking, as she used her accordion to paint many different
colors and textures with tunes she has composed over the years.

Saturday brought the Finnish band LOITUMA, who combine Finnish vocal
traditions with the sound of two kanteles (a dulcimer-like instrument
called the 'Finnish harp'). This band featured some creative vocal
work which had the crowd in thrall, as well as the two kanteles, and
fiddle. Very exotic and beautiful music, which sounded about as
far-afield as anything at the festival.

on Sunday, I audited a fiddle workshop in the morning by Ole Backstrom
of Swap, and then headed over to the afternoon show, featuring
Finland's TIMO ALAKOTILA on piano and a slew of his 'friends'. Timo
is considered one of the great accompanists in all of Nordic music,
and has collaborated with some of the very best - many of whom were at
the show.

Playing in various combinations, Timo played with Karen Tweed ('May
Monday'), Maria Kalaniemi ('Ambra'), some of Loitima, and students
from Finland's Augsburg Suzuki Ensemble. Timo's playing was just
seamless, and he supported and strengthened every act he played with.

Then, the final night show was one of high anticipation. This was to
be one of the last shows anywhere by the Swedish/English super group,
SWAP. Apparently, they have all found it too difficult to fit the band
into their busy schedules, and will pursue other musical adventures.
It seems like such a shame, since these folks are one of the very best
bands ever to come out of this scene. So it was with a touch of
bittersweet melancholy that I watched them for my last time.

Swap are English musicians Karen Tweed on accordion, and Ian Carr on
guitar. They are joined by the twin Swedish fiddle attack of Ola
Backstrom and Carina Normansson. And to me, this collaboration,
combined with their great playing and composing, makes them one of the
best and most powerful bands anywhere.

The show was absolutely stupendous! Perhaps feeding on the emotion in
the room, they all just played their hearts out, leaving the audience
spent. If you've never heard Swap, do yourself a favor and find one
of their CDs and prepare yourself to be floored by their incredible
mix of composing creativity, playing skill, amazing dynamics, and
simply charming music. To me, Swap are one of the best Nordic bands I
have seen, and they will always be remembered as such. After a
smokin' set, they did 3 encores and then were gone.

The headline act, incredibly, was not Swap, but the Swedish rock/folk
band, HOVEN DROVEN. Now I like this band, but after Swap, I felt a bit
deflated to see anyone else. Hoven Droven put on an excellent (if a
bit showy) performance which at times featured guitarist Bo Lindberg
lying on his back onstage, while doing an excellent Jimi Hendrix
imitation. It was like Black Sabbath married to some obscure Swedish
musician, all thrown together in a sonic stew. Weird, but a fun show.

So there you have it. To me, this Festival offers such great and
unique music, and unfortunately it doesn't travel to the east coast of
the U.S., so heading to Minneapolis every September is an
indispensable part of my musical calendar.. - Dave Smith

----------------------------------