Life out of the Troll Woods

Johnny Logan won the European Song Contest three times

Life out of the Troll Woods isn't quite as docile and sedate and is a completely different world. The opportunity to play with Johnny Logan came up a few years ago and of course that had been a dream to play beautiful concert halls all over Europe with an entertainer and band that was professional all the way. What an experience!! We traveled all over Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The backup band was from Denmark, actually living not far from the Troll Woods and a lot of the young guys were conservatory trained and excellent on their instruments. The old Flamin' Fiddler had to really knuckle down and practice to keep up with the level of performance involved. 

There were so many great concerts including a highlight playing in Stockholm in a beautiful old opera house and also another time playing in Halle in Germany (the birthplace of Handel). We get to see so much on these tours that would maybe have never seen or experienced if not for the music.

Of course over the years there have been opportunities to join in with some artists from the States and maybe play some good old country music just for old times sake. I remember playing harmony fiddle with John Permenter and had to watch his fingers like a hawk to get an idea of what notes to add to the melody. 

One time playing in Norway, we had a chance to hear some traditional Norwegian folk music played on their rather different but beautiful Hardanger fiddles. Guess who jumped at the chance to play one of these instruments?  It was perfect for playing some Cajun music because of the sound of the sympathetic strings  that are underneath the strings that the bow contacts.  What a treat!

Martin Petersen  (he's 74 and still going strong

There is a big tradition for dinner music at some of the Danish parties sometimes lasting for 4 or 5 hours. These are great because we are pretty much free to play whatever we want. Of course I have learned many of the Danish folk melodies which constitutes a lot of what the Danes want to hear. My friends have taught me a lot of the repertoire that is popular for these parties including folk music from all over Europe which is known here as well. Jazz standards to romantic tunes from the movies are just some of the styles we play at these functions, and of course a few toe tappin' fiddle tunes thrown in just for fun.

Once in a while we get a chance to record in a studio in Randers. A good friend Morten Kjeldsen owns the studio and is an amazing musician, engineer and producer. We have spend many, many, many hours in his studio getting our recordings as good as possible and then he takes the tracks and makes his magic. There is a good reason why there is a saying among musicians. "We'll fix it in the mix". Incredible things are done by the engineers to make the final product sound professional.

Morten recorded quite a few of the tunes on my Cd. and perhaps I'll upload some of them in a future blog. We have also just finished a Cd with the Celtic Rock band that I play with: the Djursland Spillemaend, entitiled "StayWith Me Tonight" which I will also post some examples in a future blog as well as the charming animation that is included with the Cd.

Right now I'm working on my newest project a curation website for singers who would like to learn how to sing better. You can check out the website at http://www.howcanisingbetter.net This is a work in progress so if something doesn't work I'm still learning all about wordpress, SEO and all the other stuff that goes into marketing online.