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.

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!

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.

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

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!

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.

At left is a picture of just a portion of the piles of coats spread like a smørgåsbord outside the J. Grundy's Reub'N'Stein Upstairs on 15 Feb 2008, where Multe  played a double-bill with Foot-Notes from Decorah, IA as a part of ArtOrg's Winter Concert Series.

More than 100 folks came out on a very cold night to listen and dance to traditional Nordic music — in the rich dialects of Minnesota and Iowa. They enjoyed  a veritable smørgåsbord of dance music — waltz, polka, reinlender/schottische, pols, hambo, gånglåt/snoa and tango — and the crowd was eating it up!

The energy was great.   The dance floor became so crowded that dancers had to clear out tables and start a second dance floor at the back of the hall! (Word to the Wise: Never get in the way of determined dancers…)

And the smørgåsbord extended to the crowd as well. There were teenagers to senior citizens — both on the dance floor and off. Some dancers were intrepid beginners and some were clearly experienced. All were having fun. Even the those who chose not to venture out on the floor were enjoying the sights and sounds. A brief survey of the audience also revealed a geographic diversity: Decorah, the Twin Cities, Mankato, Saint Cloud, Minneota and, yes, even Norway!

Our thanks to ArtOrg's Dave Machacek (a descendant of Norwegians from Valdres) for organizing the event and for the photos. You can see more pictures of the evening on ArtOrg's Flickr site.

The "ArtOrg AfterGlow" at The Contented Cow was packed and gave the two groups the opportunity to kick back and make music together into the wee hours.

We're still recovering… Let's do it again — soon!

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.

You can find information about our band here.

We're particularly delighted to be sharing the bill with our friends from Decorah, Foot-Notes.

The group includes Beth Hoven Rotto (fiddle), Jim Skurdall (mandolin, lead vocal), Jon Rotto (guitar, vocals) and Bill Musser (bass, vocals). The group formed in 1991 to carry on a tradition of monthly old time dances in a rustic two-room schoolhouse in Highlandville, Iowa, where area residents have been gathering for years. The old time music they play reflects their ties to Norwegian-American communities in the area. Most of their repertoire consists of dance tunes that were popular at house parties, barn dances, and "bowery" dances in northeast Iowa around the turn of the century and into the first few decades of the 1900s. They also incorporate a number of danceable tunes from European traditions including Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. Foot-Notes have represented Iowa at the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall in Washington, DC and have been featured on Norwegian National Radio (NRK). They have released two CDs, Decorah Waltz and My Father Was A Fiddler.

It's going to be a great night of music and dance. We hope you'll join us!