Cover: Murru by Sturla Eide
There's a hardanger fiddle tune inspired by Northfield, Minnesota night life…sorta.
UPDATE 01 December 2009:Sturla has just released a video of him playing the tune in concert in Norway. We've added it to this page.
Sturla Eide, a musician and composer from Orkdal in Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, has composed and recorded a hardingfele (Norwegian Hardanger fiddle) tune called "A Train In The Night" on his new solo CD, Murru.
I first met Sturla when he came to perform at the Turlock (California) Scandinavian Festival.
A few years ago, Sturla came to Northfield with the Norwegian folk group, Flukt. The group stayed in town for a couple of days during which they gave a concert at The Grand Event Center, visited and played with Northfield's Nordic Jam and had a garage jam at a local home. Like many Northfield visitors and "townies", they were awakened in the middle of the night by the trains that come through town on a regular basis.
The tune, an interesting combination of a listening tune and an almost "bluegrassy" halling (2/4 dance), effectively uses the unique properties of the hardingfele to evoke the sounds of a train.
You can be sure that the next time Sturla comes through Northfield, he'll be asked to play this tune!
Sturla Eide's music is available through iTunes and Amazon MP3s. Flukt's music is available through iTunes.
Eide sometimes features the tune on his Sturla Eide MySpace Profile, where you can listen to the tune. If you have a MySpace account, you can leave Sturla a comment about the tne tune – in English or Norwegian. You might also want to visit Flukt's MySpace Profile and listen to their music.
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