Ulrika Bodén and friends

A Thursday evening excursion into Uppsala for this wonderful concert and dance at V-Dala. I had not encountered Ulrika Bodén before and was very impressed with her musicianship and stage presence, if perhaps not properly appreciative of all the nuances of her songs in Ångermanlandsk dialect. I did love their selection of Christmas songs, all of which were unfamiliar to me except a couple of common texts we’ve learned about in class. And I am happy to report that they are just as wonderful on the CD, Allt vid den ljusa stjärnan.

One of the “friends” in the band is the inimitable Niklas Roswall — who said on stage that having a row of ESI students in the audience after spending the day teaching us about dominant chord progressions made him think, hmmm, I wonder whether they are noticing that 5-of-5 chord going by…

I think their dance set afterward was the first time I’ve danced to moraharpa — fun! and lots of great slängpolska tunes. Also a nice set by a student duo on fiddle and bass, and a rousing final set by the large and enthusiastic V-Dala Spelmanslag.

On the way home, our usual path became a snow globe, with enormous soft flakes, and we tried to take pictures that would do it justice. I’m afraid you’ll have to use your imagination.