Busy autumn days with folk music

It's in full swing here in the beautiful Danish autumn, and for me right now it's a lot about planning, rehearsals, concerts, radio and podcasts before I go on tour in and around Seattle.

The month of September ended with a big support party for RadioFolk.dk at Alice in Copenhagen. Here, a lot of good people and colleagues lined up and played for free to support the small progressive online radio station with the slightly strange name 'RadioFolk.dk'.

They were good people who Vokalselskabet Glas, Tailcoat, The Outermost Sea, Patternland, Drone music Denmark, Tissue and Kristine Heebøll and Bølgenband. Your support means a lot to us, it inspires daily and was a contributing factor to us almost doubling our listenership on the podcast that month 'The cat in the sack', which is precisely about the Danish folk music scene right now. Thanks for the help friends!

That evening my colleague and I stayed Erling Olsen by the way, something surprising called on stage by a musician, artist and jury member Poul Lendal, and was handed the genre organization Tempi's 'OOaward', who went to RadioFolk.dk for ours public service work with Danish folk music (See picture). We are both happy and proud and hope that the award can help us to strengthen our focus both on the station and on the music in the future.

RadioFolk.dk has also been nominated for one DMA Folk/World 2019 in the category 'People Mediator of the Year', where we are in sharp competition with e.g. the festival Music over Præstø Fjord', so it will be super exciting when the award recipients are announced at the big DMA Folk/World gala party on 10 November at Alice in Copenhagen.

That Denmark is a beautiful country, not least here in autumn, you can see that when you, as musicians, have the privilege of regularly traveling around the country.

Mia with my sister Stine Boline's two dogs during a break between filming in her kitchen in Volderslev, not far from Odense.

This October, I have been working with new material and playing concerts with the Danish singer with great pleasure Mia Guldhammer in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Aalborg, and a few days ago we shot a video in my sister's kitchen in Odense, together with my old friend and colleague, the filmmaker Jesus Paul. It will be the first of a series of kitchen videos that we intend to produce in the coming months. PS Mia and I play in Copenhagen Folk Club on The metronome at Frederiksberg in Copenhagen on 28 December, together with the trio Gangspil.

By the way, I got a pleasant reminder that Christmas is not so far in the future, when I was recently in a 'work camp' at the beautiful Vejle Fjord with a violinist Kristian Bugge and accordion player Mette Kathrine Jensen Strong. We met for a few days in Mette's parents' summer house at Bøgeskov Strand to plan our little Jutland Christmas tour in December, I'm looking forward to it, the concert program will be full of little Christmas surprises, I can promise.

In connection with my old father, Nice Alfred Larsen here in October can celebrate both 70 years of music and 80th birthday, I have produced an electronic album with a selection of songs from a handful of Fin's latest releases. You will find that on, among other things Spotify. In addition, I have been with him to play a couple of concerts respectively at Mors and at Falster, and it has been a great pleasure, very cozy and also very inspiring to be part of. And what a fantastically beautiful and diverse nature the two areas can each offer!

Fin Alfred Larsen turns 80 on 25 October. His mother gave him a banjo when he turned 10, and the promise of a penny every time he learned a new song.

The October edition of the Cat in the Sack podcast was, as usual, collected and edited here at home on the fourth floor, and this time we focused on the many awards on the Danish folk music scene, now that we, among other things, has OOawards, DMA Folk/World 2019 and the Tingluti prize. I interview both award recipients and anniversaries, and play a lot of new music in this no less than the 67th edition of the podcast The Cat in the Sack. Think about it: I now have to prepare issue number 68 of The Cat in the Sack – it's still something!

By the way, I am right now in the middle of the process of editing eight concerts as Peter Hellesøe recorded at Folk Spot Denmark at Tønder Festival last weekend in August. The concerts, which are presented in English, are not only good at showing the wider world what we have to offer here at home, they are also important documentation in a time when folk music in Denmark does not have much media attention.

At the end of October I fly to Seattle to play a handful of concerts with the American violinist Ruthie Dornfeld, who I have known and played with since the mid-80s. We have also composed music together over the years - yes, actually as recently as September - and we will continue to do so when we meet again.

Kristian Bugge, Mette Kathrine and myself in a break during the planning of our Jutland Christmas concerts in mid-December. Mette has put on the elf sweater, and Vejle Fjord is in the background.

While I'm in Seattle, I also interview different people for The Cat in the Sack, and meet with friends as well as colleagues and new contacts. And then we will go for a walk around and rummage through boxes at local flea markets and antique shops, it will also be fun.

In terms of work, I will round off my year with the previously mentioned Christmas concerts with Mette Kathrine Jensen Stærk and Kristian Bugge, and it will certainly be a fun way to get in the Christmas spirit. In fact, I regularly catch myself humming carols during these lovely autumn days, but more on that in my next update. We will hear from you