The songs
I really love the songs of Kari and Ola Bremnes, so I was not difficult to ask when Sotra Husflidslag, a local handicraft club working to preserve traditional Norwegian handicrafts, asked me to sing “songs from the north” at their Christmas party.
Here is my setlist, with listening links to the original versions:
- Er du nord (Are you north?), by Kari Bremnes
- Desemberbarn (December child), by Kari Bremnes & Richard Wolf
- Ho Marit (My neighbour Marit), by Ola Bremnes
- Har du fyr (Do you have light?), by Ola Bremnes
- Folk i Husan (People in houses), by Ole & Ola Bremnes
- Månestein (Moon stone), by Kari Bremnes
- Nordnorsk julesalme (North Norwegian Christmas psalm), by Trygve Hoff
- Rødbrune seil (Red-brown sails), by Ola Bremnes
The last song, about the red-brown sails, I’ve wanted to sing ever since I first heard a small boy sing it in a NRK TV-documentary about Ola Bremnes from 2015. You can hear the song around 30 minutes into the film. It’s a lovely story of the trade between northern and western Norway, with small sail ships, the risks involved and the effect on families and societies living of and by the ocean, in the old times.
The Songwriters
Ola, Kari and Ole Bremnes comes from Northern Norway, hence the title “from the north”, and is some of the most beloved Norwegian singers and songwriters. Their songs have become Norwegian national treasures, which everybody loves to sing.
Almost all their songs are in Norwegian and difficult to translate, without loosing their poetry and feel (believe me, I have tried!), so you should listen to their songs in Norwegian.
Trygve Hoff was another songwriter from the North. He created “Nordnorsk julesalme” (Northern Norwegian Christmas psalm), which also has become tradition to sing around Christmas. Several artist has recorded versions of this song.
One of the ladies in yesterdays audience told me that Trygve Hoff had been her teacher when she grew up in Kvæfjord, in the north, so that was a nice story to hear.
The history
One of the reasons to why they wanted me to sing “songs from the north”, was because a local writer, Tordis Lunde, was reading from her book “Siste båt går i kveld” (the last boat leaves tonight). The book is about how northern Norway (Troms and Finnmark) was burned in the second world war and how persons living there (including her grandfather) were evacuated and forced to leave their homes and live as refugees in other parts of the country.
The Tea-chest bass
At yesterdays event, I was lucky to get one of the organisers to join in on the songs with her “tea-chest bass”. This really gave the music a boost and the mood a lift.
The bass resembles an oil-drum bass, which my son once made, but is square and smaller (until above the knee).
Instructions on how to make your own tea-chest bass can be found at:
Laila’s travel blog 
Leave a comment