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.

Harold Sorenson

Harold Sorenson was born in Oklee, Minnesota on July 3, 1917.  Harold passed away just a couple of years ago in 2008.  He was one fine northern Minnesota fiddler who never did read notes off of paper.  His father was from near Grand Forks and his mother was from Norway.  His dad could play a few tunes on the fiddle. There were four fiddle players in his extended family.  He learned alot of his tunes from his uncle Sam who played the Hardanger fiddle. He lived most of his life farming near Climax, MN.  He served our country in World War 2.  Most of the music that the family played was around the living room according to Phil Nusbaum, who made these recordings in the 1980'sMidwest fiddler, Julane Lund, visited with him and carries on a few of his tunes.  She wrote about one of those visits in The Old-Time Herald.

Iva Dingwall

Iva Dingwall was born in Elk River, MN in 1877. She played the barn dance fiddle music that her father played when she was growing up.  This recording of her represents the only recordings we have of a Minnesota fiddler born in the 1800's.  Thankfully she also jotted down her accounts of her fathers playing and the tunes and dances that were used.  Here is one great story-

" How often do I recall my father and mother coming to the schoolhouse at three in the afternoon to take me home because he had to play for a dance perhaps ten miles away.  We were hurriedly dressed, and if it were winter, on our way by 4 o'clock because travel was so slow with a couple of old "nags" hitched to farm sled and we must be there no later than seven.  They liked to start the fun early, and dancing usually continued on until daybreak.  Then we started back home, arriving there sometimes as late as 8 in the morning- about time for father to begin his morning chores.  It must have been very tiresome for them, sitting in the cold and driving that distance after being up all night, but for my sister and I it was fun.  Straw was placed on the bottom of the sled and blankets spread over it to make a bed.  With the old flat-irons heated and placed at our feet, we were as "snug as a bug in a rug" and slept as one of their sayings went- "just like a log" ".

You can find more of her frontier writing here.


Sally Over The Water


Steamboat Quickstep


Captain Jinks