Back before we had kids, Teddy and I drove to Nashville, from Sand Mountain Alabama, to attend an Americana music festival. We saw Jim Lauderdale, Cary Ann Hearst, Elizabeth Cook and several other amazing bands. We never made it back to that festival, but over the years, we've seen several of those artists in other venues. We were pretty excited to learn that Stockholm's Americana fest would be just a week after Teddy and the kids arrived, in Sweden. And it seemed like a good way to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary.
It's a new experience for me, to see my culture expressed so strongly in a place so far from home. When I lived in Senegal, I found restaurants called "Fast Food" even though it was NOT an English speaking country. These were hardly an American's understanding of fast food, though. Instead of greasy, cheap burgers and fried, they served delicious rotisserie chickens!
But here in Sweden, I've found both a love of Americana music and the Lindy Hop. The expressions of country music wear varied. The guy with spurs on and a whip hanging from his belt looked more ready for a rodeo than a music fest. And we did chuckle about the man who wore his Dickies pants with an ascot and a Ben Hogan hat, both days! But on the whole, we saw a lot of authentic and worn in boots and cowboy hats. And these people definitely know their US Country music.
My brother-in-law used to tour the Scandinavian circuit, and would tell us about the crowds singing along with all of his songs. The crowd was like that at this festival, too. They knew old and new songs of just about every artist we saw, to a level that I'm guessing doesn't always happen in the clubs back home. The familiarity with their work even brought a couple of the musicians almost to tears. We didn't just hear great American artists, either. We saw several Swedish bands that sounded like they were raised up pickin' and singing in a family band.
The weekend was a great way to celebrate our anniversary. If you want a taste of the music we heard, you can listen here and here. And if any of these artists show up in your town, I hope you'll go see them because you'll be in for a treat.
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