In April 1996, a rather common event occurred: a box of CDs arrived at Rykodisc’s Minneapolis warehouse. If people failed to notice, you could hardly blame them. It was, after all, a CD warehouse. And when sealed, one box of CDs looks remarkably like any other box of CDs. At the time, it probably seemed unlikely that this particular Box would launch a record label, an annual music festival and a network of devoted fans willing to travel cross-country to see their favorite artists. For a while, it seemed unlikely that the Box would even get opened.
    This particular Box, however, did differ from other Boxes in the warehouse in one crucial way: its point of origin. It came from Xource, a Swedish folk label looking for U.S. distribution. But the Box was placed in a “choice location” and quickly forgotten by almost everyone.
    It had not, however, been forgotten by Ryko employee and diehard music lover Jay McHale (currently with the Cedar Cultural Center). That October, a curious McHale took the still-sealed Box home for a listen. He returned to the office with discs by artists such as folk-thrashers Hoven Droven, the electro-acoustic hybrid Hedningarna and the acoustic instrumental quartet Väsen. He played them for Ryko co-founder Rob Simonds, and the pair quickly became fans.
    “Whatever [music] excites me,” McHale explains, “I put it on tape and pass it around. I love to toot the horn for something that’s underrated. Hedningarna’s [third album], Trä, was my Revolver. Hedningarna was a pivotal musical experience for someone who didn’t think there was anything new. This was what I was looking for.”
    Simonds contacted Xource about licensing titles, and subsequently launched NorthSide, the only U.S. label devoted to Nordic folk, or “roots” music. In May 1997, the label released its first four titles (all drawn from the mysterious Box). By 1999, NorthSide’s audience was large enough to support an annual four-day Nordic Roots Festival, drawing fans from around the country (and around the world) to Minneapolis’ West Bank. This Thursday at the Cedar Cultural Center, the festival launches into its third season.
    In just under five years, NorthSide has released 56 titles by artists from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. The label also began booking tours for its artists and unleashing their live shows on the U.S. and Canada. The sounds of the festival range from the traditional Swedish folk of Triakel (violin, harmonium and vocals) to the Danish trio Sorten Muld’s fusion of venerable folk tunes with techno, ambient and trip-hop.
    The story of this music, however, is as much about fans as it is artists.
    The reaction of Simonds and McHale to the music is typical of those who fall for Nordic folk. Granted, few start their own label, but ordinary fans (myself included) are active—even obsessive—supporters of the music. They travel long distances to see shows; take touring artists into their homes; preach the Nordic gospel to their friends, colleagues and clients; drive through hurricanes to see a show; or simply move to a Nordic country.
    The level of devotion, however, seems to be the only common denominator amongst fans. Take a look at a Nordic folk audience and you’re likely to find business people, punks, aging hippies and several grandmothers who dance a mean polska and probably make even meaner hot dishes.
    Contributing in part to the wide appeal of the music is an ironic tonal and timbre similarity between the ancient drones of the hurdy-gurdy, Swedish nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle) and Norwegian Hardingfele, or Hardanger fiddle (a fiddle with unplayed “sympathetic” strings) and today’s distorted electric guitars and ethereal electronic music. This familiarity has opened the door for a fan base of young people raised on rock and techno, as well as for older and more traditional folk audiences.
    Simonds recalls a North Carolina fan who has flown out to festivals and driven up and down the East Coast to see NorthSide artists. After seeing Triakel perform at a Borders Books outside of D.C. (and bringing lunch for the band), the fan handed the musicians a tape of her band.
    “We got into the van to drive to the airport and we stuck this tape in,” says Simonds, who was traveling with Triakel. “It was hardcore speed metal . . . Here’s a woman who’s traveling great distances to see these bands—especially Triakel, which is this very gentle folk trio. You just don’t know what [fans’] interests are or their backgrounds are, and it doesn’t matter, because everybody is just friends and everybody is really warm and welcoming.”
    Carolyn Rush, a 33-year-old St. Paul massage therapist, fell for Nordic music one night in 1996 when McHale brought the Box to her home.
    “One of the fun things about the first [Nordic Roots Festival] was not only getting a chance to enjoy all of these great bands all at the same time, but to look out and see all of these people who were as passionate about this music as I was,” she recalls. “I remember there was this couple from D.C. who was delighted to see [a] Residents (progressive rock band) T-shirt. We were at the Hoven Droven show, and they were like, ‘Oh my God. We thought this was going to be a bunch of middle-aged folk stalwarts.’ They were just so glad to see young people who had cut their teeth on punk rock and other weird underground music.”
    Rush came to Nordic folk with a strong rock music background, and blames the “holy trinity of Hedningarna, Hoven Droven and Garmarna” for her conversion—especially Hoven Droven, a band whose repertoire of traditional Swedish tunes is performed with a near-metal assault of electric guitar, electric bass, drums, sax and amplified fiddle. “They’re my dream come true,” she says. “Everything about them kicks ass!”
    Rush says she fell into traditional Nordic music in much the same way that fans of Celtic rockers Boiled in Lead get into traditional Irish music.”They hear the kick-ass stuff and are like, ‘Hey, there are some nice melodies in there.’”
    “Now that’s cool,” replies Hoven Droven drummer Björn Höglund. “When we first started we were afraid that the older, traditional players would hate us. But hearing that we were still true to the original songs—well, almost—they understood that people would discover traditional playing through us.
    “We get e-mails all the time from people in America who’ve really gotten an eye-opener,” he continues. “One person said he didn’t think it was possible to discover new music in the year 2000, but he certainly had, thanks to NorthSide and all the bands they’re putting out. That makes you feel pretty good.”
    The mix of traditional acoustic music and more experimental electronic work is one of Nordic folk’s biggest appeals, says Scott Clark of Charlottesville, VA. “There’s not so much of an attitude about ‘Is it traditional or not?’ The point is, ‘Is it good or not?’ Even the stuff that gets fairly electronic, it has so much respect for the roots it’s coming from.”
    Clark and his wife, Robyn Keller, both in their early 30s, were already involved in the local folk music scene when Charlottesville DJ Pete Marshall began adding Nordic tunes to his Celtic show on WTJU. Clark was working around the house when Marshall first played Väsen.
    “All of a sudden this new thing came on. I just sort of stopped and stood there and listened to it for the rest of the time it was on. I was just fascinated by the sound of it,” he says.
    That was five years ago. Since then, the couple has been tracking down domestic and imported Nordic roots releases, falling particularly hard for Väsen and Hedningarna. As late as 1999, though, they hadn’t seen any of the artists perform live. The couple decided to fly out for the first Nordic Roots Festival in 1999 and returned for the 2000 show.
    “Before this, we’d never considered traveling halfway across the country to go to a weekend of concerts,” Clark laughs. “I was just so into Väsen and Hedningarna and they weren’t coming anywhere near us. The other bands were the same story. So, when the opportunity came up, it was a little bit of a splurge, but I just really couldn’t avoid the temptation.”
    In addition to the musicians he was hoping to see, Clark also found a sense of camaraderie. “The first festival was a great series of concerts, and we met two great friends there,” he recalls, “but for the second festival, the out-of-towners got organized and managed to hang out and eat together between shows. And the jams at the [hotel] and the bar next door were great, even if people weren’t always playing Nordic folk. The jams made it more like a regular music festival, where the fans can play music and/or hang out together outside of the concerts.”
    Truly giving himself over to the spirit of the music, Texan Philip Page traveled to a festival and never came back. In 1987, the music business veteran made his fourth trip to Finland. On this trip, he attended the Kaustinen Festival, the country’s largest folk music festival. “I saw JPP and had my life changed on the spot. Never left!” he says. “JPP were and are in a world of their own. The sound of four fiddles mixed with harmonium was and is sheer heaven. Their music dances, soars, laughs, astounds.”
    In Finland, Page joined forces with Digelius, an independent record store, to start a music export business. He also spent five years doing a national radio show, and now manages Värttinä, JPP, Troka, accordion virtuoso Maria Kalaniemi, and avant-folk artist Kimmo Pohjonen.
    “These folk musicians of today are the real artists [and] composers of this world, not just local folkies rehashing the past,” he says. “What makes it affect me and so many others is that it all registers emotionally as well as intellectually.”
    “It’s the feel of it,” agrees Dr. Jim Baker, a 54-year-old dentist from the Queens section of Long Island. “I’m trying to search for the word—I guess it’s the soul of it. I can identify with it, in a musical way. I’ve always liked the rhythms. I like the fusion aspect of it, that it’s borrowing from different genres.”
    Sometime around 1994, Baker was listening to the radio show Mountain Stage, when Värttinä made an appearance.
    “My wife is Finnish, and I was married in Finland, and so on. I hear something about Finland and my ears pick up,” he explains. “So I heard them on the radio, and I went out and got their album and I got more involved with Värttinä and one thing led to another and to another. Then, all of a sudden, NorthSide came upon the scene.”
    If there were a hall of fame for Nordic Roots fans, Baker would certainly be a candidate. In particular, he’s become quite friendly with the members of Garmarna, driving through a hurricane to meet them in Delaware, taking the band to a batting cage in Boston (they’re baseball fans), housing them while they were in New York, and playing mouth harp with them during the second Nordic Roots festival. Add to that video taping concerts, selling CDs and playing Nordic music for his patients “if they’re amiable.”
    Baker’s interactions with the bands aren’t unique, though. There’s a lot of contact between the fans and the musicians, as well as the folks at NorthSide.
    “There’s no wall at all,” Baker says of the relationship. “They’re all very friendly and down to earth.”
    Rush agrees. “These guys are like the nicest people in the world. They’re so good-natured. They’re so friendly. So fun and light, yet the music [can be] so dark and fierce,” she says. “They’re up there like Magnus [Stinnerbom, of Hedningarna and the fiddle duo Harv], he is such a little stinker. I love him. The music he plays can be so serious and complex, and he’s just this little goofball.”
    As for Simonds, he’s glad that others have fallen in love with the music and musicians that inspired him to create NorthSide.
    “If there’s one thing that kind of puts the fans of Nordic music into a specific category, it’s probably that [they’re] people who don’t just stay at home and enjoy the music. They feel so moved by it [that] it compels them to be active in some way. They have to make sure that they’re bringing other people to turn them on to this music. That’s what you really find about that realm of fan. And thank God for them. That’s all I can say.”

NORDIC TRACKS

VÄrttinÄ

With the power of a six-member-strong outfit, Finnish mainstays Värttinä blast away at traditional music with all the fury and passion of a good ol’ fashioned rock band. The group centers on the four-headed hydra of sirens that are Susan Aho, Kirsi Kahkonen, Mari Kaasinen and Riikka Dairymen. The ladies use their voices as the basis for some of the most infectious, engaging music to come out of the Scandinavian peninsula in a long time. This record sports a dichotomy of the sacred and the pedestrian with an invigorating and melodious honesty.
    The sacred angle on the disc is expressed by the Finnish creation myth. Starting with a tale taken from the ancient Karelian runos, the story of the goddess of Air and an eagle named Kokko unfolds with fluid reverberations and sweeping grandeur worthy of a nimble, progressive rock band.
    The pedestrian, likewise, is expressed in the song “Kappee” (which translates into “lousy dude”). Here, the four singers engage in an a cappella round of voices that—despite the language barrier—give the same impression as Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday in the throes of righteous indignation brought on by ill treatment from a male partner. Then on a cut called “Aijo,” (“grumpy old man”) guitarist Antto Varilo lets loose with a rap that would be the Karelian equivalent of old school hip-hop maven Rakim.
    Though the band centers on the singers, the players are fluent in both traditional and rock styles. This record is infectious, incendiary, and just plain addicting. If you only see one of the many and varied NorthSide bands, make it Värttinä.

Värttinä closes the Nordic Roots Festival on Sunday April 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cedar Cultural Center.


Maria Kalaniemi

Leave it to NorthSide. This album is at times dauntless, dizzying, and damn near perfect. Kalaniemi and her band, Aldargaz, know all the tricks of the trade, add some to the list, and use them to great effect. Whether it’s an interpretation of traditional Finnish music or their revamping of Argentinean tango tunes, this group plays with heart and soul, and passionate interpretation.
    Kalaniemi is the “Queen of the 5-Row Accordion” in her native Finland, and this distinction is only the tip of the iceberg. Another of the fascinating things about this crew is that they all are associated with the folk music department of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. This is the indication of this band’s passion for their roots, and the studied proficiency of the compositions on this record.
    While skillfully using traditional foundations, Aldargaz blend music from different eras, as well as different countries and cultures. The cultural diversity of the various styles in the hands of these musicians sounds sweet and silky to the limit. Sometimes the music borders on French influences, sometimes gypsy. It also touches on South American music with the adaptation of Juan Carlos Cobian’s tango, “Los Maredos.”
    Kalaniemi's band utilizes fiddle, mandolin, bass and piano to bring a cultural hybrid to what ultimately sounds like modern jazz. But the most engaging feature to this music is its spontaneity. Ahma has an intense sound of liberation that goes with the territory of any seeker of freedom.

Maria Kalaniemi and her band Aldargas will play at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, April 21 at the Cedar Cultural Center.

THURSDAY APRIL 19

• 7:30 p.m. Nyckelharpa Orchestra (Sweden):
Five top musicians playing the beautiful, resonant nyckelharpa—the keyed fiddle that is Sweden’s national instrument. The blending of folk and classical idioms should make a perfect festival opener. The all-star cast includes: Olov Johansson (Väsen), Johan Hedin (Trio Patrekatt and Tryptik), Niklas Roswall (Ranarim), Ola Hertzberg and Markus Svensson.
Groupa (Sweden):
It’s impossible to discuss the Swedish folk revival without mentioning Groupa’s 21-year history. The band’s intricate interplay between flute, fiddle and keyboards is grounded by an earthy, often ferocious percussive assault. With the recent addition of vocalist Sofia Karlsson, this veteran act has added a hauntingly beautiful element to its already innovative arrangements.

FRIDAY APRIL 20

• 1 p.m. Nordic Dance Instruction

• 7 p.m. (Southern Theatre) Hurdy-Gurdy
Project (Sweden):
Tonight, Stefan Brisland-Ferner (Garmarna) and Totte Mattsson (Hedningarna) premiere their latest project. The ancient hurdy-gurdy meets modern
electronics as two of the instrument’s most dangerous practitioners pair up for an evening of twisted drones.

• 9 p.m. Ranarim (Sweden):
The vocals of Ulrika Bodén and Sofia Sandén (both of Rosenberg 7) seem to dance together to rather ethereal ends, as guitarist Jens Engelbrecht and nyckelharpa player Niklas Roswall lay down some of the best folk-pop around.
Hoven Droven (Sweden):
Perhaps the mightiest band on the planet, Hoven Droven delivers traditional fiddle tunes with the full-throttle thrash of bass, guitar, drums, organ, sax and
amplified fiddle. Absolutely not your parents’ folk.

SATURDAY APRIL 21

• 1 p.m. Maria Kalaniemi and Aldargaz (Finland):
With a combination of classical training and a passion for folk tradition, Kalaniemi handles the five-row button accordion with the ease that most musicians reserve for a kazoo. Her virtuosa backing band includes Timo Alakotila and Arto Järvela of JPP.


• 7 p.m. (Southern Theatre) Ellika Frisell (Sweden):
A member of Den Fule and Rosenberg 7, Frisell forgoes accompaniment as she brings her viola and a bag of traditional tunes to the Southern for what will likely be the festival’s most intimate performance. As a special guest, local dancer-choreographer Joe Chvala will join Frisell for a tune.

• 9 p.m. Swåp (Sweden/UK):
This meeting of Celtic and Swedish folk music proved a high point of last year’s festival. With two fiddles, guitar and accordion, Swåp sandwiches some of the most beautiful melodies ever played in between some of the most twisted jokes to pass from musician to audience.
Hedningarna (Sweden):
Hedningarna provoked a near-riot of spontaneous chair clearing and euphoric dancing when the band closed the first festival. This year, the supergroup’s
ever-changing lineup has been retooled as an instrumental four-piece. Expect large doses of new material from this electro-acoustic outfit.

SUNDAY APRIL 22
• 1 p.m. Harv (Sweden):
This is the future of Swedish folk. The fiddle duo of Magnus Stinnerbom (Hedningarna) and Daniel Sandén-Warg, both 23, packs plenty of fresh energy, virtuoso playing and just enough smart ass attitude to keep things interesting.
Bukkene Bruse (Norway):
The band includes Annbjørg Lien, who made her festival debut last year as a solo artist. Dual Hardanger fiddles carve out dark, moody melodies as vocals, flutes, jews harp and keyboards provide some wonderfully archaic textures.

• 7:30 p.m. Värttinä (Finland):
After 18 years, Värttinä reigns as Finland’s most popular musical export, and possibly the most successful of all contemporary Nordic folk acts. The band’s four-part female vocal arrangements virtually redefine the term “singing,” while accordions, guitars, basses, fiddles, bouzouki, sax, wind instruments, drums and percussion create sounds that start
with folk tradition and transcend all musical reference points.