Johansson och det starka bandet

February 18, 7:30pm Johansson och det starka bandet, a Swedish band from Goteborg on the Swedish west coast, will give an emigrant themed concert. Tickets are $12 evening of the concert or $10 advance sale, students $5.

The band is going to USA for a tour in February 2009 starting in Chicago February 14th and ending up in Minneapolis February 21st. “Johansson och det starka bandet” has released three albums and plays everything from rock´n roll to pure folk music. The latest album Amerikat is the reason why the band is going to USA to do this tour. The album is a rock-opera and contains 20 songs about the young emigrant Gustav Johansson from Sweden. The project started in 2004 when Martin Johansson, the founder and leader of the band, visited his relatives in Illinois and Minnesota. The trip to USA inspired him to create a story that starts in Dalsland Sweden and goes all the way to Clarkfield Minnesota.

The band will tour with Swedish-American emigrant songs. The repertoire contains both their own material and some really old covers. Some beautiful Swedish-American hymns as well. The tour brings the old Swedish American songs and stories alive and the American audience will understand the content through new translations. Everything is performed with great energy and artistic attitude.

The members of the band include Elisabet Eriksson, 28, viol; Niklas Ottosson, 27, mandolina; Claes Johansson 35, bass; and Martin Johansson, 36, guitar, banjo, harmonica. The band is touring to keep the great adventure of the emigration alive. This is a tour for all people with interest in Swedish-American history and culture. That is why the tour is important, entertaining and great fun.

by Martin Johansson

February 7th, 7:30pm Brian Wicklund and the Fiddle Pals band. Tickets $9 advance sale and $12 at the door. Teens $8 and kids twelve and under free.

Sponsored by Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association and the Whistle Stop Bed and Breakfast

A native of Minnesota, Brian Wicklund has carved out a name for himself with his fiddle and mandolin mastery and his stagecraft. For decades he’s traveled internationally as a sideman playing with professionally touring bluegrass bands Stoney Lonesome, Kathy Kallick, Chris Stuart, and Kane’s River, and his debut recording with the Rocky Mountain based acoustic power trio, Brother Mule, won the best Americana CD of 2005 by Indiemusic.com. Now Wicklund is excited to perform his own music with his own group of top notch Minnesota-based musicians, the FiddlePals. Bassist Pete Mathison and guitarist David Peterson have been integral players in the acoustic music scene in the Midwest for decades, and percussionist Jerry Montie joins the three playing acrobatic rhythm on a box-shaped drum called a cajon. Together Brian Wicklund & The FiddlePals play traditional and original American roots music with spontaneous musicality and uncommon fun.

Talvijuhla Winter Celebration

Ski and Snowshoe on February 7th at Sonnenberg Farm at New York Mills and learn about sustainable forestry practices

Enjoy a fun winter outing on Saturday, February 7th at Bob and Ingrid Sonnenberg's farm just north of New York Mills. We'll gather in a parking area (follow the signs) at the farm. To get to Bob's place go north out of New York Mills on #67. Go past the Sculpture Park and Cenex station slightly less than one mile and turn to the left on 395th Street. Go 1/4 mile and turn right onto the Sonnenberg driveway. Go another 1/4 mile, and park .
At 11:00am we'll ski (or snowshoe) to a warm cabin in the woods on the farm. A second group will depart for the cabin at 11:15am. You must supply your own skis or snowshoes.

There will be a simple lunch, and at 1:30pm Bob will give a talk on his sustainable tree farming operation. He has been harvesting and planting red oak and white pine since he returned from New Mexico to make his home at his family farmstead. Bob is an active forester trained by the University of Minnesota Forestry Department as a woodland advisor. He is a board member and chair of the Minnesota Forest Resources Partnership and a board member of the Minnesota Forestry Association.

At 2:30pm Bob will lead a skiing and snowshoing tour, showing the fruits of his efforts to create a sustainable forestry business on his 550 acre farm. The tour will arrive back at the parking area at 3:30pm.

On that same evening there is a bluegrass concert with Brian Wicklund and his Fiddle Pals band at the Cultural Center (beginning at 7:30pm-see below). After the concert, we'll gather again at the Sonnenberg farm for a moonlight outing of skiing and warming up. We'll meet at 10:00pm again at the Sonnenberg farm and ski back to the warming house for a chance to admire the moonlight, have a glass of wine, and enjoy the quiet woods. If the weather cooperates, February 7th should be a bright, moonlight night.