Welcome to the Torsåker Bluegrass Festival!

Welcome to the Torsåker Bluegrass Festival 2008
Time for first band: Saturday July 5th at 15.00 hrs
Place: Tors Loge, Torsåker, Gästrikland
Workshop will be held on Saturday afternoon
Artists and jam start Friday night at the local pub
Sunday afternoon brings a gospel concert in the church

The roots of Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music Swedish style has its stronghold in Torsåker in western Gästrikland. Here the mountains in the distance take on a bluish tone in the afternoon light - our own version of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the region known as Appalachia in the eastern United States. The kinship between the Torsåker area and Appalachia is not just about bluegrass; there are similarities in life styles, social structures and attitudes strongly rooted in both rural areas. Against this background Torsåker has put on an annual bluegrass festival for over 20 years, now grown to the largest in the country.

Bluegrass is music that comes from rural America. Its roots are in the music played by Irish and Scottish immigrants who found their way to what are now the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, the Virginias, Georgia and the Carolinas. The music is often associated with Country music, the difference being that bluegrass is played on acoustic instruments, usually banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and bass.

"It was Elvis that turned country music electric, you were forced to match his volume. Otherwise country would have sounded like today's bluegrass." – quote from the bluegrass film.

Bluegrass

The name Bluegrass comes from a bluish grass that grows in Kentucky; another association is with the Blue Ridge Mountains in Appalachia where the music has a strong foothold.

When some people think of bluegrass they think of bib overalls, a straw hat and a blade of grass in the mouth. It is also the endlessly long freight trains that wend their way through the countryside on the way to the big cities beyond the horizon.

Female artists on the rise

In Sweden bluegrass has had kind of a hayseed or hillbilly feel. Members of the festival audience are often dressed in cowboy hats and boots. Bluegrass has been a real man's music. But now the ladies are entering the scene with groups such as The Abalone Dots and Hillfillies. The music is attracting a widening audience through exposure in films such as the Cohen brothers "O, Brother Where Art Thou?"

The lyrics in bluegrass are often ballads in the sense that they are stories, sometimes grotesque, on themes such as violent disagreements about love that end in sudden death or a life behind bars.