I have written about Ida Jenshus before, so this will not be a word-heavy blog. She played the Steinkjer Festival last weekend, as the first act on the Saturday. The interesting thing is that Ida comes from Steinkjer, and with her success the last few years, one would expect the locals to come running to see her.

The problem with places like Steinkjer, is that people aren’t very spontaneous, and when they go out at weekend nights, they start with a vorspiel at home, usually not going to town until 11or 11.30 PM. There is also a tendency in many smaller communities, that they don’t applaud their own artists as heartfelt as they deserve.

Ida Jenshus is one of Norway’s best younger artists, and her three Norwegian Grammies in a row for her three first CDs, should talk for themselves. Her live act has become better and better and her songs are good on CD, but get a new life live. I wrote a blog about her concert at the Crossroad Club in Oslo in October, and you will find it here.

The venue was far from full at the Steinkjer festival, but Ida Jenshus has become more and more professional during the years, and she didn’t make much of it. She played her set with her usual style, and got well deserved applaus. More people came during the concert, and when it ended, the venue was comfortably filled up.

Ida Jenshus is one of the artists I like the best to see live, and I will hopefully see her more this year. Those who don’t know her music can check out her three CDs. Every one of them has won a Spellemann (Norwegian Grammy), so they are well worth listening to. You’ll find them here.

All pictures are © Per Ole hagen and must nort be used without written permission.