The Detroit Festival of the Arts is to be held on September 16 & 17
in and around the Wayne State campus. The festival includes
"a juried fine arts and crafts show" (I put that quote in for Carla)
and an interesting assortment of musical performers.
For me, the star of the weekend is going to be the Swedish electric
folk band Hedningarna, who were my favorite band of the 1990s.
Hedningarna is scheduled to play one set on Saturday and one on
Sunday, and I'm hoping to make both shows.
Other promising musical performers, for my tastes:
Lo'Jo: French/North African hybrid, with a male lead singer
croaking somewhere in the Tom Waits/Leonard Cohen orbit,
backed by the harmonies of two Arabic sisters
Matapat: Quebec folk
Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: American folk/old-timey performers best known
for the soundtrack to "The Civil War" series.
In the evening there are Shakespeare plays.
Full schedule information is at: http://www.detroitfestival.com
45 responses total.
hedningarna is wonderful. many songs are about the pre-christian culture. i believe 'hedningarna' translates into 'heathen'
heh, I like that...
It does indeed translate into heathen. I *love* their stuff, and am going to the festival come hell or high water! Oh. Yeah. Matapedia is GREAT, too.
For those of you who aren't folk-music fanatics like krj and anderyn, and who may be put off by the idea of "electric Scandinavian folk", I still recommend Hedningarna. I'm not a folk fanatic by any stretch of the imagination, and I still enjoy their music.
did you know they are going to be in seattle on the 30th? nordic heritage museum.
my mistake it is actually september 29th
Could somebody please explain to me the difference between "folk-rock" and "electric folk"? Thanks
The terms are not well defined. In particular, folk-rock has two different meanings depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on. In the UK, folk-rock is pretty well understood to be traditional tunes and songs played with rock instrumentation. However, in the US, folk-rock has come to mean soft pop-rock music with an influence derived from the 60s folk revival, and most recently the term gets slapped on almost any band with an acoustic guitar. (Think: 10,000 Maniacs.) The "electric folk" term, in the 70s in Britain, unambiguously meant traditional material in a rock setting, but now I've even seen that term appropriated for bands playing contemporary material. So in writing for a musically inclined audience I've gotten even more militant and started pushing the term "electro-trad." But I decided that term would be entirely too cute for an item linked to Agora. Clear as mud? So, in Hedningarna, what you get are mostly traditional Swedish and Finnish songs and tunes, arranged for two women singers (I hope the women singers are on this tour!!), bagpipes, fiddle, rather intense percussion and electric guitar, and there are some other fascinating traditional and home-made instruments in the mix.
According to the press release from Northside, the women singers are on the tour. (I could ask Michele, if you want.)
Thanks for the explanation, Ken. So (just making sure I've got it right) "electric folk" and "folk rock" both meant about the same thing in Britain in the 60's and 70's? Hedningarna does sound interesting. I'd like to hear some, but I doubt any of my friends own it. :)
you can sample them at http://www.cdnow.com
OK, i'll look there... (It's on amazon too, I just looked it up...somehow I was under the impression that they were too obscure for internet retail places, but I guess I confused them with someone else...)
Hedningarna's American record label is Northside Records, at http://www.noside.com, and some links there might lead to some downloadable samples.
You can sample them some more on www.napster.com.
You can also see if you can buy either of the Northside "Nordic Roots" samplers..
(... which are "Cheaper than Food," at $3 each for a fully-packed CD.)
"fully-packed"-- oh stop it kenny. you're getting me all hot
Even without the Iggy-exciting properties of these samplers, they're still great deals -- you get 20+ tracks from various bands on the Northside label for very little money.
And they're quite fun. (though I've usually had most of the bands already.)
Thank you all for your suggestions. Within a few days (hopefully) we will be getting a faster modem (and a faster computer) so I'll give the samples on amazon and cdnow a listen then...
I will be stage managing the MGM Grand Detroit Casino Stage at the Detroit Festival of the Arts, tomorrow and Sunday. The stage is located in front of the Detroit Public Library on Cass, just north of Warren Ave.
... and Leslie, Twila and I stopped by to say "Hi!" to Eric at the stage he was managing, on our way to the Hedningarna show. Quick thoughts about Hedningarna: gosh wow. The venue for Saturday's show was a cafe' set up with tables, under a tent, and we got the front center table, best seats in the place. Unfortunately the sound mix had a lot of problems; the band told us later that today was the sound guy's first day with them. Hedningarna takes forever to setup and run a sound check. We counted thirteen instruments on the stage, and we might have missed one or two. (We counted the drum set as one instrument.) The band has added a new member since I last heard any news about them: Magnus on "octave violin" (it looked like a viola to Leslie). It was fascinating seeing which sounds tied to which instruments. I was sure they used an electric guitar, but instead Hallbus Mattson primarily plays a ten string mandora (?) (or is that the lute?) with a taped-over soundhole, and one presumes extensive modifications. It sounds like an acoustic bouzouki; it sounds like an electric guitar; it sounds like an upright bass, presumably through some sort of signal processing. Some of the sounds which I had always been sure were bagpipes turn out to be hurdy gurdy. I was surprised at how extensive their use of electronics was, particularly in the bass and percussion sounds. Most of the repetoire I recognized was from the "Karelia Visa" album; one tune clearly from "Hippjokk", maybe two or three from "Tra", and the only song from "Kaksi" was "Vottkalina," which they did for an encore. We talked to singers Liisa and Anita, and Hallbus the instrumentalist, after the show. Liisa talked about some of her other projects; it sounds like all four of the women who have sung in the band are close, and they collaborate on a number of other recording projects. Liisa is particuarly happy about her album with Tellu called "Mateli." based on old rune songs, whatever they are. They say the next album, probably due late 2001, will be another all-instrumental project without the Finnish women singers. Liisa said that it's expensive to have the women in the band, because they live far away from the instrumentalists in Sweden.
Jazz note: The closing performance of the day, today and tomorrow, was (will be) the Harvey Thompson Quartet. Thompson is the vocalist, and very talented. He did the most realistic sounding Satchmo impression I have heard. Very nice!
Oops! Add "at the MGM stage" before the first comma above, in resp. #23.
Other very quick notes on the festival: we caught the last 10 minutes of a set by Lo'Jo from France & North Africa, and the last 20 minutes from American old-time/folk duo Jay Ungar and Molly Mason. Both were excellent: we get to see Lo'Jo again Sunday, but this was Ungar & Mason's one set at this festival. The Detroit Institute of Arts is having free admission during the festival, so we're going back tomorrow to spend some time in their temporary exhibit of art from the Ottoman Empire. It's only a small number of visual artists & craftspeople; probably smaller than the South U. component of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Leslie found a very nice cowboyish hat with some purple in it and lots of gaudy beads. I'm surprised that we have never heard of this festival before; I hope we can make it an annual event.
More notes -- there's a large children's component to the fair, too. I'm looking forward to seeing what's there today.
NP: MASS Ensemble, "Pleiades." This was a Sunday purchase from the festival. MASS Ensemble were a band I never got hear more than quick snippets from as we travelled in front of the DIA, always on our way to Hear Someone Else. :/ But the snippets were always intriguing, so I made sure to get a disc to take home. Their enormous "Earth Harp" was strung from the sidewalk on Woodward up to the top of the DIA building. This is a little more New Agey than I usually go, but the album has lots of percussion to keep me interested. Steve Andre' is gonna love this.
Repercussions Theatre Co. from Montreal did a hugely funny presentation of the Bard's "Comedy of Errors" tonight, of which I caught the last 3/4 or so. Their stage was just north of the Earth Harp.
Well. Twila has *finally* gotten her brain into working order after the
amazing day we had yesterday. The day itself, for those of you not lucky
enough to be in the Detroit/AnnArbor area yesterday, was perfect. Blue skies,
a nice breeze, and temperatures that made walking around comfortable. First
off, we had lunch at the DIA, in the little medieval courtyard. Wow. I don't
recall it from previous visits to the DIA (but then, I don't think I'd ever
eaten there, so...), so it was really a wonderful place to eat. Very peaceful
and soothing. Then up to the second floor and the Ottoman Art exhibit. There
were a LOT of Korans. Cool things which impressed me -- pages from Admiral
Piri Reis' charts and maps with bird's eye views (I think they said they were
topographical maps, but I was suffering from Islamic calligraphy overload at
that point) of various cities and fortifications -- Venice's picture was
REALLY amazing, although Ken said it wasn't too accurate from his memories.
However, it did show the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's.... Some *amazing*
carapaces for horses, and some enamelled pen and ink cases -- oh. And the most
interesting fact that I learned was that the pens used for this calligraphy
were all made from reeds, which are imported from Iran and then buried in
horse dung for four years to make them strong and waterproof. After that, we
didn't really have time for more museum-hopping, not if we wanted to ensure
that we made it to Hedningarna's set on time (which, for us, was about a half
hour ahead, enough time to get decent seats and to watch the band do the end
of their soundchecks).
We secured seats in the shade, about three rows from the front, or
thereabouts, on the left. I was really pleased to hear the amplified sound
check much less muddy and distorted than the day before, and when the band
left the stage for a few moments before the performance, I was a shameless
fan girl and secured autographs. They were all very kind, and Liisa told me
that they'd spent three hours on their sound checks that day, and I told them
that it sounded good from what I'd heard from out front. When I got back to
where Ken and I were sitting, some Grexers (font, otaking, and the former
hope) had arrived. There were others there, whom I didn't actually get to
meet, but whom Ken recognized.
The music was still very loud, but definitely better balanced than on
Saturday. The crowd was larger, more enthusiastic, and I think the band
enjoyed this set more -- there were more smiles, more dancing and the like,
which was good. Most of the songs were from Karelia Visa, although the Chinese
song ("We call it Chinese because we discovered it while we were there,
although it was from a book we'd brought with us...) and a new tune called
"hot and out" were as yet unrecorded, from what I could tell. There were about
four or five instrumental numbers on Sunday, more than on Saturday, and at
the end, the boys were really cranking -- I was afraid that the hurdy gurdy
would collapse from the workout Hallbus was giving it! There was no encore,
alas, since the stage was on a pretty rigid schedule, but it was probably the
most satisfying concert I've been to in years. We spoke to the band again
after the show, since Ken and otaking had to get their autographs. The gist
of what we heard was that they were happy to be in Detroit, and that they are
planning on a next album, probably an instrumental set, due out in early 2002,
late 2001. I asked how many instruments they had brought, and they said,
twenty. (Well, I know I counted at least fourteen that I saw being used,
but...)
After that, I split off from Ken since the stage for Lo'Jo' felt a bit too
far for my sore feetsies to make it, and I mosied on down to the stage where
Matapat would be, just about at the right time. Matapat is a Quebecois group,
three men, one violinist, one electric bass, and the third, who plays spoons,
accordion, and dances. They sing in French, and are very good showmen -- they
did one dance called "The Barbers Dance" which required someone from the
audience to sit while being danced around and shaved. (Of course, I am sure
it was not a really sharp razor!) They said it was a metis (spelling?)
traditional dance. Another dance required major audience participation, and
was really fun (though I am glad I didn't try to do the steps myself!). Their
music is good, although quite a change from Hedningarna, and their voices do
blend very well.
All in all, quite a wonderful day.
The Islamic calligraphy collection is one of the highlights of any DIA visit for me. (unfortunately I get so carried away with descriptions of the Rivera murals that I often forget to mention the calligraphy pieces when trying to convince people to visit the museum..)
The Islamic collection we saw was a temporary exhibit, "Empire of the Sultans," which closes October 8. Most of this was borrowed from another collection, never seen in the US before, etc. I didn't know the DIA had a significant Islamic component in their permanent collection.
It's not a huge display, but they've got some really beautiful illuminated manuscripts and some other pieces which are also quite nice. I'm sorry to hear that I missed a special exhibit on Ottoman art -- that would definitely have been worth a visit.
It's still on through the end of the month, I believe. Definitely worth your time if you like Islamic calligraphy -- there were some really amazing pieces of art and a lot of information about scribes and scripts. Unfortunately, I am not as interested in Islamic calligraphy as I would have been in more everyday items -- I was hoping for something a bit more useful for research. But it was interesting, and I did learn some things I hadn't known before. C'mon -- anyone else want to tell about the Detroit festival?! I know there were at least four other grexers there!
Worth my time, yes, but it's a little out of the way now that I live in Washington..
It's only a four flight each way, isn't it?
hey mcnally... did you go to the seattle hedningarna concert last night? i did... that was great!
Yep, I went and dragged along former Grexer/M-Netter David Fred. It was indeed an excellent show -- the band played for nearly two hours and seemed quite pleased to see the crowd that turned out for the performance.
i was in the 3rd row on the inside aisle. hey, wasnt that young fiddler, magnus, a real hottie? YOW!!
Yeah, he was nice. :-) Though I have to admit, the drummer was also quite nice...
re #38: hmmm.. We were also on the third row, inside aisle, on the left-hand side of the auditorium when facing the stage.. Who knew?
So concert reviews mcnally, igor? Were they more comfortable in Seattle? What'd you think of the two women singers? Did they do more of the instrumental jam stuff or what? Enquiring minds want to know!
hahaha we were sitting right next to each other! hi mcnally! i had the aisle-most seat on your right. the next was my hubby, marcvh. then my non-online friend from microsoft. they seemed pretty comfy in seattle. it was an intimate venue. when it was time for the concert to start, a guy leaped onstage and started fussing with some things. he realized the whole audience had gone quiet.. and said something like "keep talking.. i'm just the sound guy". the band was in great spirits, and made jokes with the audience. i liked the women singers a lot. i wish hallbus had sung more than just one song, as he has a very powerful voice. they also did the instrumental stuff whenever the women left the stage. they would also pause sometimes to tell a brief bit about the songs.
The Seattle show was held at the Nordic Heritage Museum in the Ballard section of the city, which is a historically Scandinavian neighborhood (primarily Swedish so far as I can tell..) It attracted a fairly diverse audience of neighborhood residents and music afficionados from throughout the city. According to overheard conversation, the museum is a converted elementary school (which wasn't hard to believe, although I would wager that the sauna was probably added later..) The performance venue, therefore, was about what you'd expect for a converted elementary-school gymnasium, with a stage at one end and about 180-200 chairs set up. I think they even wound up selling a few more tickets than they had seats -- at any rate there were a few spectators forced to stand around the outside of the autidorium.. As I mentioned, the band played for almost two hours. I'm not sure what else to say about the performance, since I'm not familiar enough with the band's repertoire to report what they played. I found myself enjoying some of their longer instrumental pieces, but can't neglect the singers, who looked like they were having a really good time up on the stage. Sorry, Iggy, but I paid a lot more attention to them than to the young fiddler.. Actually, the whole band seemed to be having a good time and their mood was infectious. I brought along two people who'd never heard of the band previously and both enjoyed the concert.
I'll reuse this item for an early concert warning. Lo'Jo, who appeared at 2000's Detroit Festival of the Arts, are scheduled to return to Detroit for the Concert of Colors festival on July 14. More details when I can find them. Lo'Jo produced one of my favorite albums of 2000, "Boheme de Cristal," which is now finally released in the USA, with sound clips available on amazon.com.
Another reuse of this item: the schedule is up for this year's Detroit Festival of the Arts. For a handful of us, the big news will be that Ilgi is appearing, from Latvia. The Ilgi album SEJU VEJU is almost certain to be my favorite album from 2001, unless something *really* dazzling comes out. Other names: Kila, Spanish bagpiper Susana Seivane (directly opposite Ilgi, dammit), Simon Shaheen, Sol y Canto, Bob Franke, a Karelian folk band, and so on. Http://www.detroitfestival.org. I will start a new item after we roll the music conference, and when the show gets closer. Friday, September 14-Sunday, September 16
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