folk rock music

There's no doubt…this is fearless guitar playing

October 12, 2009

This past weekend, I featured the Norwegian band, Hellbillies, on Multe Music. You can listen to it here. The tune I used to open the show was "Tvil på travbanen (Doubt on the Racetrack)", a tour de force instrumental guitar piece by Lars Håvard Haugen, lead guitarist of the group. Haugen is one of Norway's [...]

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Kebnekajse live

September 15, 2009

Last month, I featured a video of the Swedish progressive rock / jazz fusion band, Kebnekajse playing a traditional folk tune. The group has posted a video to their MySpace page of a performance they did at Ögir in Köping in February 2009. It's much more in toward jazz fusion. I really like the energy. [...]

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An electric Leksands skanklåt

August 26, 2009

Over the last few years, I've made a real effort to get to know more about the folk rock and progressive rock scene in the Nordic countries, particularly in the 1970s. There was some great music coming out at that time. Kebnekajse was one of the best known Swedish bands of that period. Some classify [...]

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Hellbillies: På Ål Stasjon

August 7, 2009

I can never say enough great things about the Norwegian band, Hellbillies. They are, in many ways, the Norwegian equivalent of The Eagles or the Allman Brothers Band — the latter of which was and remains a great inspiration for them. They are called "country rock" but their music goes far beyond that and they [...]

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Popol Vuh: Queen Of All Queens

March 24, 2009

Popol Vuh was a 1970s progressive rock band from Norway. On ProgArchives.com, Hugues Chantraine of  Belgium writes about the group: Having roots as far back as 1959 with The Scavers and later releasing a single Arman Stumpe Dur Express, this Norwegian quintet that released two albums under the Popol Vuh moniker (a Maya mythology-related name), [...]

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Sax and Pellikvalsen

March 19, 2009

Pellikvalsen efter Lejsme Per Larsson (1822-1907) is a familiar Swedish waltz from Dalarna. Here it is done on a 1990 Swedish television show with a saxophone / trumpet group and a full complement of folk musicians playing fiddle, nyckelharpa and cittra. Swedish guitarist Kenny Håkansson Sr. also recorded this on his 1978 progressive rock album [...]

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Hellbillies: Mørkemann

March 10, 2009

I'm celebrating today, so I'm going to pick one of my favorite bands to feature on a special day — Norway's top country rock band, Hellbillies. I may have become one of their first fans in the USA when a Norwegian friend introduced me to their music in the mid-1990s. And while I have all [...]

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Do you still play banjo?

November 26, 2008

Scandinavian Music Group (or SMG) has answered that question reflectively in their song, "Do I Still Play Banjo?" This video, which was at least partially filmed in the USA, reflects the wistfulness of the song. The group, which formed out of another Finnish band, Ultra Bra, describes itself on the band's MySpace page as folk rock [...]

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Folque: Dansevise

September 9, 2008

Folque was a Norwegian group that came into being because of the influence of British folk rock groups such as Fairport Convention and Pentangle. Some consider Folque the most influential Norwegian folk-rock band of its era. I have a number of Folque recordings, some of which I share on the show from time to time. [...]

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