Swedish mandolinists

[Oggy]

How many Swedish mandolinists hang out on this site? How long have you've been playing? What kind of a mandolin do you play? In what style? Do you play in a band? Do you have a webpage (or maybe a myspace profile) with your playing?

Sometimes I feel a bit alone with my passion for this instrument (with only a few exceptions… Hi, Jonas!). Mandolin isn't a very common instrument to play in this part of the world, living in Umeå in northern Sweden. Sure there are quite a lot of old and cheap beater Levins and Landolas laying around in attics and "under the bed", but you hardly see any high end mandolins, not even in respectable music stores.

So this is a cry from “no man(dolin)s land”… Am I alone or what?

[Peter Hackman]

I live in Linköping in southern Sweden. I am probably musically the least active and on the board the most active among Swedish mandolin owners here.
Besides, I'm first of all a guitar player, having played that instrument for 49 years; the mandolin off and on for 41 with long periods of silence.
I'm 63 years old, but young at heart.
As I retired last year I do have a lot of time to think about and listen to music.

My website http://www.huthyfs.com is mainly devoted to my other passion, mountain hiking, but there are about 20 examples of my playing there too.
Half of the tunes are originals.

I play a Collings MF5. I also own a Flatiron A5 Artist. I used to own a blonde levin Aristokrat, two-point with bound f-holes; the best one they ever made.
I own a few guitars, too.

[Keith Erickson]

Oggy,

Welcome aboard http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

My last name is Erickson and that's about as much of the Swedish language that I can speak I'm sorry to say. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

I know that there was a thread discussing Swedish Fiddle Tunes but for some reason I have not found it yet. Very interesting conversation that is one of my all time favorites.

[Paul Kotapish]

Yes, welcome Oggy.

Lots of great mandolinists over in Finland. Petri Hakala (http://www.fimic.fi/fimic/fimic.nsf/mainframe?readform&96F3B04092E6E9DBC2256834002B8F16), for example, is among the finest players I've heard, and several of the fiddlers in JPP are also mandolinists. I'm sure Niles will fill us in on some more. When I played Kaustinen some years back I was stunned at how many really great players were there.

[Scott Tichenor]

You are not alone. Here's a screen capture from my stats program that shows some activity from your country. This is for mandolincafe.com, not the message board so these visitors aren't necessarily board members.

[fatt-dad]

I'm Swedish, the child of a Swede - just never been there. I still have some distant cousins in Forshaga, whom I met this summer in Chicago. I'd love to learn some of the folk music from Sweden and have assembled a few tunes. Just haven't learned them yet. From what I've gathered, the old-time music in Sweden uses a fiddle and some crazy-looking box that I've never seen before. Interesting music from Sweden, eh?

fatt grandson-of-Karl-Bengtsson dad

[Oggy]

Thanks for the stats Scott, very interesting to see. Evidently I'm not alone.

That's a mighty fine mandolin you've got Peter! Where did you get it from? Are you pleased with it? Have you played it against other high end mandolins, and if so, how would you describe the difference?

[Peter Hackman]

I didn't really know what I was buying and I had nothing to compare with. I went
by reputation and recommendations and bought it by phone from Elderly Instruments. The story is I sold some shares at a substantial profit
in early 2004 and decided to spend some of it on a high end mandolin.

It certainly beats my Flatiron, more refined tone and superior playability.
People told me it was among the loudest around but I would have to jam with it #to know.
Whether it's worth the $7200 (in reality $9000 including shipping and taxes -
at the time roughly equivalent to 70 000 kronor) is not for me to say.
I could afford it. Sadly I'm beginning to lose my ability, something to do with coordination I guess. Age or lack of practice I guess.

[guitharsis]

Just returned from a Baltic sea cruise and got to visit your beautiful country (Stockholm). Loved it! It's so clean and beautiful and the people were warm and friendly.

Did get to the Opera House in Copenhagen, Denmark for an orchestra performance too. What a wonderful experience.

[Dagger Gordon]

I have the distinct impression that there is an interesting scene going on with Swedish fretted instruments right now, including the mandolin.

On the MP3 page here on Mandolin Cafe you can hear young Swedish mandolinist Magnus Zetterlund playing a delightful waltz. #A quick Google reveals that he plays with Erik Rydvall in a trio of nickelharpa, cello and mandolin which you can hear on Erik's MySpace page.

One of Sweden's most influential folk musicians is Ale Moller, and he plays mandola (in a very individual fashion).
Vasen are an important band, and their guitarist Roger Tallroth uses an unusual tuning which seems to have influenced other stringed players in Sweden such as Mattias Perez. On Roger's MySpace page, he is pictured with a bouzouki, so my impression is that his influence reaches into the mandolin family of instruments.
You can hear some of Roger's music on his MySpace page including a mandolin track called Forslund, which appears to be from Vasen's new CD with Mike Marshall and Darol Anger. I have no doubt that this collaboration will inspire more mandolin playing in Sweden.

For some time now I have felt that Sweden was producing some very interesting music. One of my favourite albums is Norrland, by the sax player Jonas Knutsson and the guitarist Johan Norberg. Indeed, one of the distinctive things about the Swedish scene is the use of reed instruments along with fiddle and guitar.

A short time spent on MySpace moving around various Swedish 'friends' seems to me to confirm that there is a lot of good stuff around. There seems to be a willingness to experiment along with a lot of confidence in their own traditions. This is generally not music which is trying to sound Celtic or American. It is stuff that I intend to hear much more of.

[Peter Hackman]

Check out guitarist Simon Stålspets.

[Bluegrasstjej]

Hi Oggy, I'm from Vänersborg and I play the mandolin, though I don't hang around at the cafe much anymore. Anyway, I play mostly oldtime and some bluegrass and country, currently playing a Gold Tone but planning on ordering a Flatbush. I play in an oldtime band since a few months.

[Jonas]

Hej Oskar!

I understand how you feel. It's the same for me! But I'm glad that there's at least one more mandolinist in Umeå (that being you). I'm sure there are more out there hiding somewhere.

For the record, I play a mandolin that I built from a kit two years ago, and it's my only mandolin (a part from my beater Levin flat top http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif ). It sounds ok but is in need of a good setup now, playability is not where it should be!

I really love the sound from the mandolin, I just wish I had more talent!

[OlderThanWillie]

I played my mandolin recently in Vida which is near Skruv or Lessebo in Smaland. Does that count? I was visiting my cousin who still lives on the family farm from which my grandfather emigrated in 1891.

[bgjunkie]

I am not from Sweden, but got the chance last night to meet some of the nicest guys you could ever know that are from Stockholm. They are the bluegrass band G2, I recommend checking them out their CD "Where The Tall Grass Grows" is really good. The mandolin player, Erik Igelstrom had a brand new Flatbush mandolin that he let me try out - it had great tone and playablity. Erik made it sound much better than me, but it still sounded good even in my hands. He played my F9 and it was great to hear what my mando could do as well.

[bdeivert]

Hi Oskar (and everybody else)
boy am I late tagging in on this one, but I live in Värmland, formerly in Forshaga, now in Karlstad and play blues mandolin. I am crazy about Yank Rachell (was on the tribute cd just put out), Carl Martin, Johnny Young, Howard Armstrong and string band music.
I am primarily a guitar player who has had a mandolin laying around but only could do a few chords on it, until about 5 years ago when I got a Gibson A-3 that was FUN to play and started learning to play listening to old records by Yank. I learned a lot and have made some nice friends.

I have been looking for blues mandolin stuff but there isn't a lot out there.
Have most of the things done by the above artists, and have of course bought cds by Rich DelGrosso, my favorite contemporary player, as well as cds by Jimi Hocking, Steve James, Gerry Hundt, and Billy Flynn. If there are others I have missed who FOCUS on blues mandolin, just let me know!

Cheers
BERT
www.deivert.com/blues.html

[billkilpatrick]

drat - i wish people wouldn't substitute an alias for their proper name ... i can't find her! long ago, i encountered a wonderful mandolin player from sweden - married to a guy in ireland - who sometimes logs on. she confessed to being a bit wary of the "attitude" she encountered here at the cafe but if there were more contributions from those in the old country, i'm sure she'd be more inclined to log on ... we'd all be better off for it.

- bill* (yankee in europe ... long way from disneyland)