Our friends organized a group to see a concert dubbed “blue grass and swedish.” The Swedes were bringing their Nyckelharpa. That’s not a word you see every day but it did trigger a thought. Hmm. I think I may have seen one once before.
Sure enough, after a little googling I found that the founder/director of the Museum of Jurassic Technology (only in LA is such a thing possible) plays a Nyckelharpa. I met him when he was playing the instrument while I was on a visit to the “museum.” That’s another story altogether.
Hawktail and Väsen appearing at Fuller Hall at 1000 Main Street in downtown Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. [(l-r) Brittany Haas (fiddle), Mikael Marin (violoncello da spalla), Paul Kowert (double-bass), Jordan Tice (acoustic guitar), Olov Johansson (nyckelharpa)]
Yee ha. Not bluegrass as I know it. Not Swedish folk music as I know it. (But you could hear hints of both.) It started off interesting, different, fun, but not necessarily rip-snorting. But they finished the first set with a rousing number that nearly got us on our feet—and a few did jump up.
By the second set they were a roaring and closed with bang. Everyone leapt up for an encore. It’s a Bakersfield thing. We do it for everyone. We’re just glad people play for us Okies.[i] Still the crowd was enthusiastic and the musicians seemed truly humbled. (It was a small crowd. Pat, the guy who runs it, was worried that he wouldn’t break even.) This was their first US tour playing together and the Swedes had never been to southern California so they were breaking new ground. Their stage presence was a little awkward. Their English rusty. As they said, the Nyckelharpa was a little nervous since they hadn’t been here before.
To top it all off we came out the door and there was a young hispanic guy selling hot dogs wrapped with bacon and a pile of fried onions. I thought I’d died and gone to hot heaven (Schlarfenland to Germans).
Yes, I bought one and it was damn good too. Perfect end to a perfect evening.
[i] Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath was set in Bakersfield. The county burned his book on the streets of Bakersfield in 1939.
