This is lovely. Give it ten or twenty listens. This is Norway-ana or Norge-ana, in the tradition of Canadiana and Americana. Fantastic stuff! How is that everyone in Norway speaks English. I’m a devotee of the Isdal Woman and the Death in Ice Valley radio documentary. That podcast interviews many ordinary Norwegians like Bergen cab drivers and hotel workers and they all speak flawless English. Norwegian cab drivers make themselves understood in English better than American cab drivers. (And that includes me, I drive a cab in America and because I speak with a particularly sarcastic brogue of Chicago English, I am usually misunderstood.) The Isdal woman herself spoke heavily accented English and (spoiler alert) that’s one way the Bergen cabbies knew she wasn’t Norwegian.
Singer, songwriter and bandleader BERITH is drawing on inspirations from both her native Norwegian roots, and those of Celtic and American traditions. She is living with her partner and two children where her family of sailors, fishermen and farmers has lived for houndreds of years; just about as far out into the North Sea one can get without a boat.
With her acoustic guitar and melodeon, Berith has been travelling the fjords and weather beaten west coast of Norway since her teens. But only recently has she decided to take a step further, and has partnered with the fine group of musicians that now make up her band. After catching the ear of the Norwegian music producer and writer Eirik Grønner, they have moved forward to record and release an albums worth of material on his new label Demningen (“the dam”)
The BAND: Dag Atle Håland: mandolin, guitars and backing vocals – Endre Aasebø: Guitars, banjo and backing vocals – Svein Henning Berstad: bass and backing vocals – Anders Vengen Jensen: drums, percussion and backing vocals.
The first single; “YOU COULD BE MINE” is a song about a longing. About having so much to give, but not that special one to give it to. This story includes a neglected child and a wish to make a difference in the world through the loving care of a child.
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