Pictures

I am so bad about taking pictures of our recording sessions.  It is all about the sounds for me and I forget about the visuals.  Today I did mobile recording at Pam and John's house.  The session was great. Pam and John played with Bob and Lynn Dixon for their tune.  They also remembered to take pictures! I believe that my fearless roadie, Joe Fishbein, took these.

Minnesota Fiddle Tunes CD

Just because this blog has been quiet does not mean that I have been inactive.  A lot of my time lately has gone into the next phase of the project.  I am having almost 100 Minnesota musicians recreate the tunes that are in this repertoire.  The outpouring of support from the Minnesota old-time community has been inspiring.  All along the idea was for these Minnesota tunes to get a rebirth and a grand one I think it will be.  We are in the final steps of recording and there has been some special performances. I will post more details as we get closer to the release date.

I also have several more interviews I want to do for the blog when the snow melts and I can travel around in the spring.

Thank you for your continued support of this project.

Tunes of Art Bjorngjeld

We covered Art and his family in an earlier post.  I am now posting video for the 4 tunes from his family that I chose to be a part of this repertoire-

Myrtle Otis

Myrtle Otis is a mandolin player from southeastern Minnesota still going strong at 89 years old. I will be contacting her later, but for now I wanted to share this great story.

Sulo Hackman adds Finnish flavor to the repertoire

Sulo Hackman was born in 1912 on a farm near Duluth.  His father and his mother were both from Finland.  At age 8, Sulo started playing a fiddle made by his father.  His father, Charles, was also a fiddler and corrected Sulo whenever he would not play a tune in the old style.  Sulo and his brothers had a band called the Hackman Orchestra in the 1920's that played all over Northeastern Minnesota.

In the 1930's, Sulo and his wife owned a club in Northeastern Minnesota and brought in many Finnish and Scandinavian bands.  He would often sit in with the visiting bands. After that, his career led him on many paths, from working in a sawmill to being a dairy farmer.   All through this he was a part-time musician.

In his later years his band was called Sulo and The Musiikkats, which is where we get these tunes from.  Thanks to James Leary from the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, for loaning me the tape.

Gilmore Lee

Gilmore Lee grew up in northern Minnesota listening to a Canadian radio station.  He got his first Sears fiddle when he was 9 and learned whatever he could off of the radio.  His brother learned guitar and then they had a little duo. Gilmore became a part of the Red River Valley Fiddle Association and won trophies at many of the fiddle contests in northern Minnesota.  When that association started to fade, Gilmore and others started the Minnesota State Fiddle Association in 1986.  He has played in and judged hundreds of contests since then.

Swedish-Minnesotan songs from the Dahlin family

I covered Paul Dahlin and his family in an earlier post.  It is time to pick the tunes that I want to choose.  I chose three tunes from Edwin Johnson's childhood.  4 generations of this Minnesota family have played these tunes.  To purchase the original CD's that these samples of tunes came from, go here.