I usually don’t like it when a concert review is more about the reviewer than the musicians, so I’ll apologize up front. But this time, it’s kind of all I’ve got.
The day started well enough (and – spoiler alert – it ended quite well as you’ll see), with a lovely if gray ferry ride from the burg of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, back to the British Columbia mainland. My companion and I were finishing up a refreshing early autumn visit to the central and northern parts of that island, facing a drive of several hours and a border crossing before arriving at our destination in northern Seattle. After a lunch break that took longer than expected and an inspection of our vehicle at the border because we were carrying dog food and an apple or two, we pulled into Seattle with barely enough time to grab some Vietnamese spring rolls before heading off to the Phinney Neighborhood.
So of course we took a wrong turn between the hotel and the venue and wandered around strange neighborhoods in the dark before doing the sensible thing and backtracking. As we slid into our seats in the back row – the only ones left – I was not in the best of moods for music. And I’m ashamed to say that it was midway through the first set before I finally let myself enjoy the dulcet tones and intricate harmonies of this trio of fiddlers from the northlands.
The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc is Olav Luksengård Mjelva of Norway, Anders Hall of Sweden and Kevin Henderson of the Shetland Islands. Their new CD Deliverance is one of my favorites of 2016. They all three have distinctive playing styles, reflecting their own personalities as well as their homelands’ music, and they retain just enough of these individual quirks while sublimating themselves to the needs of the ensemble. The result is rich and intricate, by turns playful (such as with Henderson’s tune “Talons Trip To Thompson Island”) and somber as Mjelva’s “Nødåret (The Year Of Sorrow),” but never less than a joyful experience.
The delights of the recording were magnified by the live concert. Henderson’s playing tends toward the lilting Scottish style, Hall’s muscular and solid with lots of forward motion, and Mjelva’s stately and occasionally intricate. They played most of the tunes on Deliverance and several more besides, and told stories to go with most of them. The crowd of about 100 on a very rainy Saturday night were intently focused on the music and very appreciative. The aged wood, stone and plaster of the so-called Brick Building of Seattle’s Phinney Center (headquarters of the Seattle Folklore Society and one of the spots where it holds contradances) added depth and warmth to the sound, which was amplified by a very good sound system.
So an evening that began in a major grump for me ended with everyone, I think, in a very good mood. That’s the power of music.
(Phinney Center Concert Hall, Seattle, Oct. 5, 2016)
