The UK tour starts on Wednesday 5th November
Thanks to the radio stations that have played my instrumental track ‘Illmarinnen’s Ride’ and to Fatea for this revue https://www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/news/Singles97/?fbclid=IwY2xjawN0QjxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBqb0RJdVRlSG1xYVlOMGYwAR5tEQvDpQCHVc-iFIv_i5UWjv9x1xB0MUo65UNod-no6mpYXShj-NrhIce__g_aem_IMwGYfeaBIo6A4ymouY-hQ
A word about Illmarinnen: Illmarinnen is a character from the Finnish epic poem Kalavala; he was an amazing smith, a skilful, strong young man, rather dirty (being a smith) and without a girlfriend. One day his mum said that it was really time he found a partner, so he had a sauna. In archaic Finland there were no baths or showers, but from the beginning of time there were always saunas. He came out scrubbed and clean, glowing in fact and he looked, pretty good. Illmarinnen’s mother dressed him in new clothes, new boots with gold buckles and sent him off to the north of Finland to woo the most beautiful girl in Pohjola.
Illmarinen succeeded and drove his sleigh home across the frozen marshes with one hand on the reins and the other around the beautiful girl from Pohjola. His life seemed to be going very well and this is the scene which gave me the idea for the tune ‘Illmarinnen’s Ride’ Unfortunately she didn’t stay long, perhaps he should have have saunas a bit more often.
I will be playing this tune on the tour and in order to play all the parts I will use my looper. It is a kind of slängpolska if anybody knows that dance?
Another note about this tour. I will be singing and playing guitar, mandolin, piano and harmonica. Unfortunately, very unfortunately, the cello will not be featured this time due to a serious strain injury. This is something that plagues a lot of cello players. I am sorry about this, I know some people will be dissappointed but I can’t fight nature and have to give it time to heal. I hope you will all still enjoy the shows.
Another note about this tour, mystery guests. Yes, at some of the shows there will be some mystery guests More about that later…