Issue 18 04/2001

• European Festival Trip
  From Scandinavian Magic to French Celts to German West Indies Weather - Michael & Christian Moll do a preview festival trip to the summer festivals of 2001 on Europe's continent.
  European summer festivals 2001

• Fiddles on tour
  Fiddlers' Bid from Shetland in Tasmania. Peter Grant tells us more about the young Shetish band and their trip to Tasmania: From the Shetland Islands off Scotland come Fiddlers' Bid - a fiddle-based group that's set to stir hearts while it kicks up dust during Tasmania's "10 Days on the Island" arts festival. Violins are apt to bring tears to the eyes. En masse, in the hands of young people, these will not always be tears of joy. The inexpert sawing of bows on strings, the struggle to stay in tune let alone in time, has defeated many a young string ensemble. But things seem to be different in Scotland.
  Shetland / Tasmania. Scottish music around the world

  

• Ranarim - new Swedish trad
  About folk music education, generously state-sponsored recordings, and of course a great band. A lot is going on these days in the Swedish folk music scene. Stockholm has benefited in particular by the introduction of Folk Music Studies at the Royal Academie for Music, bringing a fresh wind of young and innovative musicians into the scene. One of the discoveries of this new wave of Swedish Folk Music is without doubt the young four piece band Ranarim.
  Sweden - excellent young trad. band

• The Sound of Rain
  Diddle-dee-diddle in the North of Ireland. According to an ancient Irish Legend, Chieftain O'Neill found himself in a struggle with another Gaelic Lord about the Kingdom of Ulster. Both agreed to settle their dispute with a boat race. The first to touch the far shore would win the land. From the start the race was close. Nearing shore, O'Neill fell behind. But just before his rival landed, O'Neill grabbed his sword, cut off his own hand and hurled it forward. The bloody hand touched the shore the instant before his opponent landed... Tom Keller's trip to Ireland.
  Ireland - a musical journey.

  

• From Finland into the world...
  Värttinä - Finland's finest. It all started in 1983 in the village of Raakkyla in the Karelia region. The young singers and kantele players Sari and Mari Kaasinen started a project: they intended to recite Karelian poetry. They formed a group of 21 people and were immediately successful. This line-up recorded the first two "Värttinä" cd's: Debut and Musta lindu. Eelco Schilder finds out more about history and future plans of this band.
  Finland - music for the world

• The Swedes do it differently
  Scanfolk Part III: Moving on to Sweden. Folk Music educations, concerts and dance, a lot of great music... Stockholm is a very special town - also folk music wise. Having been in Stockholm now for more than two months, Michael Moll is trying to explain what makes the whole Stockholm, and also the Swedish, folk music scene special, setting it apart from most other countries' scenes.
  Sweden - Scanfolk Part III, insights into the scene

• WhirlyGig at The Shelter
  pre Patrick's day gig in Dublin's Vicar Street. Kathy-Ann Tan has visited a Whirly Gig concert at 15th March 2001 in Dublin: With a dress-sense like the British group Madness- yes, hats, suits, shades and all- and the sound of the early Pogues, this band set the venue alight wherever they perform...
  Ireland - Patrick's day concert

This has never happend before: Here are three reviews (by different contributors) of a festival: The second edition of the International Folk Festival in Tilburg. Five members of the FolkWorld team went together to see this winter festival - and three of them wanted to say some words about it:

• A great start of festival season 2001
  2nd International Folk Festival Tilburg, the Netherlands. In the middle of the winter (end of january) a still quite new festival brings sunshine into the cold and short days of continental Europe: In 2001 the second edition of Tilburg International Folk Festival took place in Tilburg, a town quite in the center of the Netherlands. It is not always easy to organise a follow-up to an excellent first edition of a festival - the organizers of Tilburg festival seemed to have no problems with this, writes Christian Moll
  The Netherlands, Tilburg Folk Festival review No.1

• The snows of France and Holland...
  Tom Keller tell this thoughts about a very snowy weekend at Tilburg International Folk Festival... The historical Duchy of Brabant lies in the heart of the European Union. At the Westphalian Treaty which concluded the Thirty Years War in 1648 (actually just a few hundred metres from where I pen this lines now), the Duchy lost its northern estates to the Republic of the Netherlands. These estates are now called the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, which includes the industrial town of Tilburg. There seems only few reasons to pay a visit, especially in January when the cold winds from the North Sea hit the country. But now the International Folk Festival Tilburg offers a fine opportunity to bridge the quiet before the festival season is taking off.
  The Netherlands, Tilburg Folk Festival review No.2

• Second Tilburg International Folk Festival
  Anja Beinroth finds out more about a great weekend of music. Having heard much praise about Tilburg's International Folk Festival from the editors last year, five of us Folkworld writers travelled to Tilburg this January to find out what it was really like. And yes, it's every bit as good as we had been told - the weather was seriously wintry, but since the festival has some fine indoor venues to use, especially the purpose-built music venue 013 Popcentrum, it didn't matter much.
  The Netherlands, Tilburg Folk Festival review No.3
  

• The FolkWorld Readers' CD Top Ten 2000
  FolkWorld asked in its last issue its readers to name their favourite 3 CDs of the year 2000. Out of this we generated the Readers' Top 10 2000. This year, nearly all CDs voted into the Top 10 have been featured in FolkWorld.
  Readers choice: Best CDs of 2000

• The editors column
  About time problems of the editors of FolkWorld, and about the European music scene. Michael Moll writes this issue's editorial in Sweden...
  FolkWorld's Editors' thoughts

• Schmelztiegels Abenteuer...
  ...auf dem Tanz- und Folkfest Rudolstadt 2000. Erhard Ohlhoff berichtet (ursprünglich für die News der LAG Folk Schleswig Holstein) über seine Erfahrungen auf Deutschlands größtem Folk und Weltmusikfestival.
  Germany - festival report from the viewpoint of a musician

• Pondardawa-Folkfest in Wales
  Karsten Rube macht einen Festival Rückblick in das Jahr 1999: South Wales an einem Sonntag im August. Es regnet und in meinem Wales-Führer steht das Wort Pontardawe-Folkfest angemarkert. Der kleine unscheinbare Ort, eingeklemmt zwischen grünen Hügeln (oder sind das hier bereits Berge), wenige Kilometer von Swansea entfernt, liegt in sonntäglicher Verschnarchtheit in den Federn. Lediglich im eingezäunten Bereich am Stadtrand, dort wo das Tanz- und Folkfestival Pontardawe einmal im Jahr für drei Tage angesiedelt wird, purzeln bereits Leute übereinander.
  Wales - festival report
  

  

• Das Grundvergnügen, Musik zu machen
  Der Regen peitscht über Münster. Das macht er zwar an 364 Tagen im Jahr - bekanntlich ist der Sommer in Münster ein bißchen wie der Krieg der Sterne, mehr Hype als Substanz -, aber dennoch kann man immer wieder von neuem den Blues kriegen. Aber warum nicht den Blues mit Stoppok teilen, denn dann wird es zum Grundvergnügen ... Tom Keller beschreibt ein denkwürdiges Konzert der beiden Musiker.
  Germany - Stoppok & Worthy acoustic

• Die Zeitschrift Celtica
  Keltischer Kultur und Musik. Karsten Rube stellt hier eine Zeitung vor, die sich mit keltischer Kultur und Musik beschäftigt und von einem Italiener herausgegeben wird.
  Celtic newspaper 'Celtica'

• Neue Scheiben aus Irland
  Axel Schuldes berichtet über seine persöhnlichen CD-Höhepunkte der Irischen Szene des letzten Jahres. Ausserdem berichtet er - wie immer - über die neusten Trends der Szene...
  Ireland - CD-column

• Neues aus dem deutschen Norden
  Die Neuigkeiten-Kolumne der LAG Folk Schleswig-Holstein.
  Northern Germany - News
  

To (older) articles, live reviews & columns in issue 17
To (newer) articles, live reviews & columns in issue 19 (as soon as issue 19 is out)

To the content of FolkWorld magazine No. 18

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