Steve Earle has had a long and sometimes bumpy career, but he has made more than twenty good CDs since his debut in 1986, and there is nothing that indicates that he will stop releasing new, good CDs in the future. Wednesday night he played a concert in Oslo and Thursday he played at Bergen Fest where I saw him.
Enslaved is the foremost Norwegian viking influenced metal band. They have played together since 1991 and they are one of the longest living Norwegian metal bands. Last night they played at the Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo, in a collaboration with music streaming services company Wimp. Update August 24.2013: You can hear the concert on Wimp here. Continue reading
Bergen fest is one of the best summer festivals in Norway. It is arranged June 12 to 15th at the outdoor venue Bergenhus festning. This year’s headliners are Mark Knopfler, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Biffy Clyro and Mew. The great thing about this festival, is that in adition to the headliners, they have a lot of very interesting acts in a diversity of styles. (Picture above: Nick Cave)
The thirteenth Working Class Hero festival happened this weekend, and it was an artistic success, with artists like Ida Jenshus, Morten Abel, Mercury Motors, Oslo Ess, Judy Collins, Valkyrien Allstars, The Felice Brothers and many other artists and bands. Too bad that the people of Drammen don’t understand how lucky they are to have people who spend a lot of time, energy and money to give them this happening every year. (Picture above: Oslo Ess)
Drammen is a town outside of Oslo, and they have made a great effort in using culture actively to make the town a better place to live and visit. One of the things they have done is to revive and old industry area to make – among other things – a very good concert hall, plus an adjoining hotel. Another thing is the festival Working Class Hero. This coming weekend it will be arranged for the 13th time. Here are some pictures of the artists from the 2009 and 2012 festival while we are waiting for this year’s festival to begin. (Picture above: Donkeyboy from 2009)
This blogpost will be in Norwegian because it is mostly for the Norwegian audience. Sauda is the place where Bjørn Eidsvåg and Reidar Brendeland, the leader of the band Vestlandsfanden grew up. It is also the town where I spent ten years from 1961 to 1971, and where I started playing music. On Friday May 24th Vestlandsfanden, Bjørn Eidsvåg and many other artists from Sauda played a concert there together during the yearly local festival Saudadagane.
On May 28th is John Fogerty turns 68 and he also releases his new CD, Wrote A Song For Everyone, with 14 songs, 2 new ones. The CD is recorded with many of Fogerty’s musical friends. I saw his concert in March at the SXSW in Austin, and I was impressed.
Lucinda WIlliams is one of the best songwriters in the Americana – country landscape for the last 20 years. She has won three Grammys and has been nominated for 12 more. Her commercial break through came as late as 1998 with Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. From that CD she has been up there as one of the leading female artists in the the landscape between country, rock and Americana.
Josh Homme is 40 years old today, May 17th. He is one of the leading musical artists on the newer hard rock and stoner rock scene, with present and former membership in bands like Kyuss, Eagles Of Death Metal, Queens Of The Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures. Here are some pictures of Josh Homme from different live concerts.
One of the concerts I enjoyed the best at SXSW this year, was with The Zombies. The band started out 51 years ago, but hasn’t been together for many years. But the last twenty years they have played together off and on, and this year they delighted a packed venue at SXSW with their songs.
Artist Pictures Blog 