New Norwegian hardingfele fiddle tune inspired by Northfield!
Current mood: inspired

There's a new hardanger fiddle tune inspired by Northfield night life...sorta. :-)

Sturla Eide, a musician and composer from Orkdal, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, has composed and recorded a hardingfele (Norwegian Hardanger fiddle) tune called "A Train In The Night" on his new solo CD, Murru.

A few years ago, Eide came to Northfield with the Norwegian folk group, Flukt, at the invitation of Ruth Marie Sylte (Multe member). The group stayed in town for a couple of days during which they gave a concert at The Grand Event Center, visited and played with Nordic Jam and had a garage jam at a local home. Like many Northfield visitors, they were awakened in the middle of the night by the trains that come through town on a regular basis.

The tune, an interesting combination of a listening tune and an almost "bluegrassy" halling (2/4 dance), effectively uses the unique properties of the hardingfele to evoke the sounds of a train.

Eide is currently featuring the tune on his Sturla Eide MySpace Profile, where you can listen to the tune. If you have a MySpace account, you can leave Sturla a comment about the tne tune - in English or Norwegian.

You can be sure that the next time Sturla comes through Northfield, he'll be asked to play this tune. :-)

You might also want to visit Flukt's MySpace and listen to their music at the Flukt MySpace Profile.

Currently listening : Spill By Flukt Release date: 30 September, 2003

06:13 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

PRESS RELEASE: Annual St. Urho’s Day Celebration in Northfield

Northfield, Minn.—The Twin Cities' Finnish-American dance band, Finn Hall, and Northfield's own Nordic dance band, Multe, will co-headline the annual St. Urho's Day celebration on Saturday, March 15 at The Eagle's Club, 304 Water Street South in downtown Northfield. The cover charge is $5 per person / $10 per family. There will be beginning dance instruction in waltz, polka and schottische from 7 to 8 p.m. with Ralph Tutilla and Ruth Sylte. A short St. Urho's program, with a possible visit from St. Urho himself, begins at 8 p.m. followed by music and dancing.

FINN HALL includes Johanna Doty (fiddle), Dennis Halme (accordion), Mary Oberg Hanf (bass), Cheryl Paschke (fiddle), Al Reko (accordion) and Ralph "Rauli" Tuttila (mandolin). Most of them have deep Finnish roots. They hope to be joined by vocalist Veikko Harala from Finland. The group is dedicated to preserving the music found in most Finnish-American communities from the late 1800s to the 1960s. They have performed nationally and internationally at ethnic festivals and events. Their music is especially appealing to dancers, from the high energy driving rhythms of Finnish polkas, humppas and jenkkas (schottisches) to waltzes and tangos. They have played thoughout the upper Midwest, including Saint Paul's Festival of Nations and FinnFest, as well as in Finland at the Kaustinen Folk Festival. Finn Hall released their first CD, Muistelmia / Reflections, in 2002.

MULTE includes Jon Bjork (five-row chromatic accordion, guitar), Drew Dixon (guitar), Brad Easterson (fiddle, mandolin, recorder), Eric Paulson (bass), Ruth Sylte (piano accordion, melodeon, vocals), Virginia Windschitl (fiddle) and, when possible, Andrea Een (fiddle, Hardanger fiddle). The group grew out of Northfield's Nordic Jam night on Monday evenings at the local Eagle's Club, which has been meeting since 2002. They play acoustic music from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland) and their immigrant communities in North America, most of it dance tunes. All have deep Scandinavian roots and together they represent more than eight decades of experience playing traditional Nordic folk music. Members of Multe have performed at venues in Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the USA, including the American Swedish Institute, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Nisswastamman and Norsk Hostfest.

St. Urho's Day reportedly began in the mid-1950s in Virginia, Minn. Oral tradition relates that some Irish-Americans were bragging during a St. Patrick's Day celebration and Richard Mattson, manager of the local Finnish-American-owned department store, Ketola's, suddenly proclaimed that Finland also had a patron saint who rid that country of pests the day before, March 16.

The story says that, many years ago, there were wild grapes growing all over Finland. One season, grasshoppers with a voracious appetite arrived and began to destroy the vineyards. St. Urho, waving his pitchfork, chanted "Heinasirkka, heinasirkka, menetaalta hiiten" ("Grasshopper, grasshopper, get out!") and the pesky creatures went away.

Those who celebrate the day do not seem to care if the story is reality or fiction. The celebration gives everyone an excuse for a two-day celebration during long, cold winters. In honor of the Finnish and Irish traditions, the official colors for St. Urho's Day are purple and green.

09:18 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

ArtOrg gig report up!

We've got a brief report on last night's ArtOrg gig on our Multe web site as well as a link to ArtOrg's Flickr site with pictures of the evening. The event attracted the largest audience so far in ArtOrg's Winter Concert Series with an enthusiast crowd for the whole evening. And the ArtOrg AfterGlow jamming at The Contented Cow was lots of fun!

14:22 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

Tonight - at the Reub AND the Cow!

Tonight Northfield's ArtOrg sponsors an evening of traditional old-time Scandinavian dance music on Friday, February 15 at the downtown J. Grundy's Reub 'N' Stein Upstairs at 503 Division Street, Northfield MN 55057. Two bands will split the bill -- Multe and Foot-Notes from Decorah, Iowa -- providing plenty of waltzes, polkas and even tangos for your listening and dancing pleasure.

There will be an introductory dance lesson at 7 p.m. Dance music will be the highlight of the evening from 8-11 p.m. There is a $5 per person donation for the evening and this goes to support the music. The evening's musicians have also been invited to play an informal set after 11 p.m. at The Contented Cow at 302B Division Street in Northfield.

See you there!!

Currently listening : Traditional Norwegian Fiddle Music By Sven Nyhus Release date: 19 February, 1992

04:01 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

New tunes by Peter Hedlund

Peter "Puma" Hedlund, one of Sweden's top nyckelharpa players, has just posted some new tunes to his MySpace site. Peter recorded the tunes with a couple of Norwegian friends, Ronny Kjösen and Öystein Sandbukt.

One of the tunes, "The Tee Waltz", is an arrangement of a tune that Peter played for Ruth one evening at Norsk Hostfest in Minot, North Dakota. Really beautiful!

Currently listening : Resonans By Peter Puma Hedlund Release date: 04 August, 2006

06:18 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

Takk til Arne Moslåtten!

We want to officially / blogfully thank Arne Moslåtten [MySpace | Facebook] in Norway for providing wonderful pictures of multe (cloudberries) taken in Norway for use on our http://www.multe.org web site. We're not the only ones who think Arne is "kjempekuul" (totally cool). Check out his fan club!

Tusen takk, Arne!

Currently listening : Sol Over Livet By Hellbillies

06:04 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

Multe.org opens; drupelets rejoice

It's been warp speed this week -- in gammeldans beat/takt, of course! Our web site is now up and functional at Multe.org. Thanks, Drew!

12:08 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

Gratulerer om Spellemannspriser 2007!!

We just received an e-mail from our friend, Gunn Sølvi Gausemel, telling us about the 2007 Spellemannspris (Norwegian "Grammys") awards. Congratulations to Sigrid Moldestad, fiddler from Nordfjord whose CD, "Taus" -- produced by Gunn Sølvi!! -- won "Best Folk Album" for 2007. And special congratulations to our favorite Norwegian country music group, the Hellbillies, for winning "Best Country Album" for their CD, "Spissrotgang" and for being named "Artist(s) of the Year". We understand that the party was great!

13:59 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

Multe’s MySpace site debuts!

We've been talking about it far too long -- so it's time to get Multe a web presence on MySpace. And here we are! It will be fun to see what friends stop by to say hello...

15:49 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos