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People keep asking, who is Ole Olsson, anyway? Ole Olsson, of Snoose
Boulevard fame, is the supposed leader of this group, but he has yet to
turn up at any gigs, and the band has been playing together for years.
Folklore has it that he once owed someone a musical favor, so he was
forced to scour the entire state of Minnesota looking for musicians to
make up a band. In the end, he managed to put together this all-star
cast. Olsson was quoted by "Lutefisk Today" to say: "Ya, dey sure can
play dose old time dance tunes, and dey work real cheap too." Olsson
was particularly pleased that half the band is composed of females."Der
is a lot less snoose chewing on stage," he noted. "I yust hate it when
dey dribble tobacco yuice on my microphones!" Nothing has been heard
from Ole since, but the band carries on, wondering if one day he may
appear......Ole Olssons Oldtime Orkestra Ole Olsson’s Oldtime Orkestra (usually referred to as O.O.O.O.) is a fun loving group of musicians who first met at the Good Templar Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota playing for Scandinavian dances in times gone by. Nowadays, they still play some pretty darn good Scandinavian music for oldtime dancing and/or just plain enjoying. They play fiddles, accordions, pump organ and guitar, and sing some funny Scandinavian vaudeville songs that may occasionally make Lutheran ladies smile. They play for festivals and lutefisk feeds all around Minnesota and even make it out of the state once in awhile in their old yalopy to perform in far flung places. They have traveled from New York City to Thousand Oaks, California; from Minot, N.D. to Swedesburg, Ia., all in their quest to spread the joy of Scandinavian folk music and perhaps find the perfectly formed piece of lefse. Here is an incredibly small sampling of places where O.O.O.O has performed: Stockholm, Wisconsin • Stockholm, Sweden • Thousand Oaks, Ca.
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Östbjörka, Sweden • New
York City, Ny. •GO
TO THEIR CD RECORDING PAGE: Ole
Olsson's Oldtime Orkestra • Scandinavian in Minnesota ·) Art Bjorngjeld lives in Brooklyn Park and is a
veteran performer, playing fiddle, accordion and guitar. He grew up in
a musical family and is a talented musician himself. He has been known
to sing “All Pooped Out” in the shower. Art also performs as a solo;
with the well known trio, the Minnesota Scandinavian Ensemble and plays
for the Swedish and Norwegian folk dance groups in the Twin Cities. ·) Mary Abendroth lives south of Deerwood, Mn and has been performing music for most of her life, starting with choirs in high school, going through travels around the world with COMEX, a singing/performing group similar to Up with People, to performing as a duo with her husband Paul Wilson all over the midwest for the last 28 years. Mary has a wonderful voice, singing in Swedish and has a very deft touch on her preferred instrument, the pump organ! ·) Paul Wilson has been playing traditional Scandinavian music for 30 years. With Swedish grandparents and Norwegian great-grandparents, Paul's wide interests have led him to studying musical traditions from all the Scandinavian countries. This is reflected in the festival that Paul founded called Nisswa-stämman. It is a pan Scandinavian festival embracing the music of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Paul plays 'drone' fiddles that he builds himself and also plays the 2 row button accordion, guitar and sings dialect "swinglish" songs like Nikolina. ·)Bruce Bostrom is a veteran performer and raconteur with a fantastic necktie collection. Bruce is one of the best munnharpe players in Minnesota and claims to have an inside track on the where-abouts of Ole Olson himself! Hear Bruce performing on his harpe here. Contact us: |
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