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 Andrea Een (fiddle, Hardanger fiddle). The group plays 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.

Come and join us for an old-time dance at The Grand from 7-9:30 p.m. There will be plenty of good music and dancing. Multe will be playing waltzes, polkas, reinlenders/schottis and more!

The Grand will have light hors d'oeuvres and a great selection of beverages will be available.

And best of all — there is no cover charge! So bring your whole family for an enjoyable evening of music and dance and socializing with your neighbors!

The band will also be playing at a private function earlier that evening in Mankato.

Multe plays for Valdres Samband

On Saturday, 28 June 2008, Multe performed at the annual meeting of the Valdres Samband at the Holiday Inn in Austin, Minnesota.

The Valdres Samband is an organization of emigrant descendants from the Valdres valley of Norway and those interested in its history and culture. Valdres is approximately 100 miles northwest of Oslo. The Valdres Samband is the oldest bygdelag in America having been organized in 1899. Their web site, by the way, offers resources for those who are interested in their Valdres heritage.

From 2-4 p.m., Multe's own Ruth Marie Sylte led a class on traditional Norwegian music and dance for attendees and had them waltzing and dancing the reinlander in minutes! She also spent some time explaining what makes traditional music and dance from Valdres so unique and different than other areas of Norway. Ruth Marie has visited Valdres three times and she learned the dance in Valdres from Valdres, Valdresspringar, from tradition bearers in the region.

That evening, Multe provided the program for the Valdres Samband banquet. Our setlist included plenty of waltzes and reinlanders so that our new dancers from the afternoon could get in plenty of practice. Multe also performed some listening tunes.

After the banquet, we headed back to our hotel room for the night — where the party went on for a few more hours.

Earlier on Thursday, the Samband attendees went on a tour to Bear Creek Lutheran Church where they had a concert of Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music by Andrea Een, who sometimes joins Multe for our performances.

We want to thank the Valdres Samband stene committee (Earl Evanstad, Aaron Hanson, Tricia Lerohl, and Diane Lerohl) for inviting us. We had a GREAT time!

The Multe drupelets. Photo by Jake.

We finally got ourselves (or most of us) together to take a new band picture in preparation for some gigs this fall.

From left to right, Multe is:

• Drew Dixon (guitar, vocals)
• Virginia Windschitl (fiddle)
• Ruth Marie Sylte (trøorgel, vocals)
• Brad Easterson (fiddle / mandolin)
• Jon Thore Bjork (five row chromatic accordion)

Not pictured, Eric Paulson (string bass).

Most of us live in the Northfield area. Virginia lives in Farmington and Eric lives in Inver Grove Heights.

Nordic Jam's "brand" mascot, the Unknown Fiddler

This week, Northfield's Nordic Jam celebrates its sixth (6th) anniversary.

In 2002, Ruth Marie Sylte began to seek out others in the Northfield area who might be interested in getting together and playing traditional music from the Nordic countries.

On 16 September of that year, four people gathered at The Contented Cow on a Monday evening to give it a shot. After trying out some tunes for a couple of hours, it was decided to meet the next week. And thus began the tradition of a weekly Nordic music jam session in Northfield.

Monday evenings at the Contented Cow were pretty empty at that time, which was a good thing as the players weren't that good when Jam was young! But — little by little — more people joined in, music was learned and the rhythms started to flow.

This year, Nordic Jam celebrates its anniversary in a new home, the Ole Cafe near the St. Olaf College campus. On any given Monday evening, you'll find 10-15+ musicians gathered to play music and socialize, just like musicians have done for centuries in the "old countries".

Most of us in Multe met each other through Nordic Jam. Ruth Marie, as Nordic Jam founder, was first — of course. Then came Virginia Windschitl with her fiddle and years of experience playing with the American Swedish Institute Spelmannslag and in Danish groups. Next was Brad Easterson, who started on mandolin, but now also plays fiddle (as soon as we in Multe found out that he's a trained violinist!). Jon Thore Bjork started on guitar but switched to accordion (his first instrument as a child). Drew Dixon joined Jam on guitar. Finally, Eric Paulsen turned everything on its head and joined Multe first — and comes down to Jam every once in a while when his schedule permits.

Nordic Jam has been an incredible musical catalyst in Northfield. It has helped to give birth to two other jam sessions in Northfield — one bluegrass and one for northern European music, including Celtic. It has also been incubator for at least four performing groups, including Multe.

We honor our roots.

The drupelets of Multe salute Nordic Jam on six years of music and fellowship! There will be cake!

Multe will playing at a private function on Thursday, October 16 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band will play at a dinner-dance in the evening.

With the cold and snow upon us in the North, there's been a bit of hibernating here and there and lots of busy-ness in between.

Some of us have been using the winter period to do some remodeling on our homes and to spend more time with our families. That's always good.

Some of us have been playing with some of the other groups to which we belong. (The more, the merrier!) Coffeehouses to regional television. It's all good.

Our bass player, Erik, got a wonderful gig and is on the road playing with a non-Nordic band. We wish him the best of success. We"ll miss him and hope he'll come back to visit us once in a while.

We're looking forward to our spring and summer schedules. More gigs on the horizon. Some of us will be traveling to Europe to soak up more  traditional Nordic culture. The weather will certainly be warmer.

We hope that has been your winter of content, too!

KVARTS is (left to right) Øystein Rudi, Erlend Styve, Jo Asgeir Lie and Tom Willy Rustad

One of Norway's best known traditional music bands, KVARTS (Norwegian for "quartz"), will be visiting the Upper Midwest from March 28 – April 5, 2009.

They will be presenting a series of performances and workshops in Northfield and Fergus Falls in Minnesota, Decorah in Iowa and Mt. Horeb in Wisconsin.

KVARTS has twice won the Spellemannspris — Norway's version of the "Grammy" — and their recordings and performances have won high critical praise.

The musical backgrounds of KVARTS' members range from classical to contemporary, bluegrass and blues to folk music. This range allows them to experiment and improvise without weakening their bonds to traditional folk music. Individually, the members of KVARTS are recognized throughout Norway for their skills as solo and group instrumentalists, music educators, composers and arrangers.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, see the MulteMusic.com posting.

KVARTS has been a real inspiration to us in Multe, so we hope you'll come and join us for these events.