This event is a Nordic Spotlight, part of Nordic Bridges.
Overview
Tami Nielson brings her sound all the way from New Zealand while Greenlandic band Nive and the Deer Children and Sara Ajnnak from Sweden bring a Nordic fire!
About Sara Ajnnak
Swedish Grammy-nominated artist Sara Ajnnak creates something very personal, the traditional yoik mixed with oriental strings and electronic influences in a contemporary soundscape of the north. Concerts are a journey through time and space as Ajnnak takes hold of feelings with various sounds and moods.
She writes her lyrics in the ume Sámi language, one of the endangered Sámi languages, and in her debut album Suojggat, she uses her traditional vocabulary officially for the first time.
With three albums – Suojggat, Ráhtjat and Gulldalit, Ajnnak has been recognized with several different accolades, like the Västerbotten County Cultural Prize in Music 2018 and the Sámi Council’s cultural scholarship. She appeared as an official Nordic showcase in Helsingborg in 2017 and as an official showcase of Folk Alliance International 2018 in the United States and the Folk Alliance International 2019 in Canada.
About Nive and the Deer Children
Nive is an Inuk singer and actress from Nuuk, Greenland. With her band Nive and the Deer Children, she released two albums on German indie powerhouse Glitterhouse to international acclaim, was awarded the Danish Crown Prince Couple’s Stardust award, won an IMA Independent Music Award in the US, garnered two gold albums, and travelled the world with highly visible stops at SXSW, Iceland Airwaves, Green Man, Pop Montreal and Eurosonic. Nive and the Deer Children is an extended family of like-minded musicians and adventurers combining elements of old dusty 78s, improvisation, hiss and crackle and Nordic melodies with a dose of happy chaos and carefully constructed sound worlds into what Nive coined as Inuit Indie. A third album is due in 2023.
About Tami Neilson
No one forgets the first time they saw Tami Neilson. She can hush a room with an original song that channels the hurting spirit of Patsy Cline or the sensuality of Peggy Lee or bring the audience to its feet on a rockabilly raver. She’s an artist with a natural range whose powerful voice can take on big ballads, golden-age country, heartfelt Gospel, soul-infused R&B, Western swing and old-style rock ‘n’ roll. Neilson encompasses them all and is a personality-powered cyclonic force of nature in stylishly retro attire, long lashes and a stacked-high beehive.
Previous media accolades come from both sides of the Atlantic, including Rolling Stone which called her “a fire-breathing belter on her own terms,” and the Guardian, which asserted that “her powerhouse voice recalls 1950s stars such as Wanda Jackson and Patsy Cline.”
Neilson grew up performing across North America with the Neilson Family Band, working alongside greats such as Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker and Kitty Wells. With her parents, Betty and Ron, and two brothers, Todd (drums) and Jay (bass), she spent years on the road learning her craft. This enabled her to explore her increasing vocal and emotional range and build a deep well of musical influences to draw upon when she started to write her own material.
The early records saw her in a self-created territory between mainstream and alternative country, recorded at home in Canada with brother Jay, an acclaimed producer and songwriter. She has won Best Female Artist, Best Country Album, Best Country Song, an APRA Silver Scroll (songwriting) award and Album of the Year nominations. Her album Dynamite! received rave reviews in Britain’s MOJO and the Guardian named it a Top 10 Best Country Music Album. Neilson’s songs appeared on the Netflix series Wanted and Nashville.
Dates & Times
July 15
7pm – Sara Ajnnak
8pm – Nive and the Deer Children
9:30pm – Tami Neilson