# Live review from Notodden Blues Festival 2019: Photo album, Full concert video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/08/09/livereview-from-notodden-blues-festival-2019-photo-album-full-concert-video/
- Published: 2019-08-09T16:35:23+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**The inclusion of Norwegian bands and local representation increases significantly
on this year’s edition of Notodden Blues Festival. Several smaller clubs are back
in the program and there will be lower ticket prices and a more flexible payment
scheme. Picture: Ladies in the Blues share a scene with Larkin Poe at Notodden Theater
on Friday.**

The Blues Festival at Notodden felt that last year’s program, despite it being one
of the festival’s best programs, led to a deficit. This resulted in the involvement
of the locals, three general meetings and a strategic plan. One of the points was
to invite more Norwegian bands, as well as to invite the local roots and American
community.

![Notodden satser på kortreist musikk](https://i0.wp.com/bluesnews.no/Files/Images/
festivaler/festivaler19/damer_larkin2.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

Female voices have always been on the program, so this year too. Critic favorite
Tove Bøygard (pictured above) has received very good reviews for his latest album,“
Earth”. She has previously received good reviews for “Blågras på Skrindo”, produced
by Jonas Fjeld. Ladies in the Blues, with former blues award winner Rita Engedalen
and partner Margit Bakken, performing this year with the success duo Larkin Poe.
Due to a cancellation, the audience will be served an extra treat at Notodden Theater
this Friday, with festival headliners Larkin Poe coming in as replacements for the
first announced Como Mamas. What is special here is that the front characters of
Larkin Poe, sisters Rebecca and Magan Lowell, will make a rare duo appearance. They
can also be seen with their band in Hovig’s Hangar on Saturday at. 16:00.

 Torhild Sivertsen will be reunited with the Notodden Blues Band, which celebrates
40 years this year. These are concerts where only single tickets are sold, which
is one of the new measures for 2019, when the audience has criticized the fact that
they have had to buy day passes. In addition, the municipality has hired a street
musician, Evy Ann Liljedahl, who “came out” as a street musician at the age of 50(
picture below).

![](https://i0.wp.com/bluesnews.no/Files/Images/festivaler/festivaler19/evyann.jpg?
w=640&ssl=1)

The focus on Norwegian blues, and local blues, is important for the festival in 
2019, so blues master Knut Reiersrud is self-written for the annual stave church
concert in Heddal stave church.
 Local Kåre Virud joins Jan Erik Vold in Vold & 
Virud. Several local features follow as pearls on the famous string. Rolf Raddis
Band is a Norwegian-language band that presents a mix of self-produced blues and
rock with community-engaging lyrics, a band that springs from the progressive music
movement of the 1970s. Telemark band Byting comes with folk rock, and so does Christian
Pallesen from Bø in Telemark. Hardhaus is, as its name suggests, a “hard-hitting
band from Telemark serving original songs on dialect,” according to the festival.
The Boots Band are Notodden’s pioneers of rock-inspired roots-americana-country,
a band that has toured for 21 years. Over the past three years, the Notodden band
Wild Whens has established their own country rock sound and released their debut
album From The Valley in the summer of 2018. Smog is a Skien / Larvik trio playing
blues-rock inspired music from 60s and 70s. Also Knut Hem, known from Reidar Larsen’s
band Storytellers, comes with dobro.

And it should be mentioned that Elvis at Sun, the project that saw the light of 
day in January 2015, will pay tribute to Elvis with Oddbjørn Holla, Morten Omlid
and Finn Tore Tokle in the crew.

Youth have always had to frolic on the scenes at Notodden. In addition to blues 
school, Little Steven’s Blues School, 25-year-old guitarist and vocalist Tora Dahle
Aagaard (pictured above) comes with his blues-inspired pop rock. Maldito, who won
Union Bluescup last year, has members who have all studied at Paul McCartney’s Liverpool
Institute of Performing Arts. This year, they return as Union Bluesband 2019.

Also exciting is the young band Vossa Rebels, who participated in Norwegian talents.
Not many people start with rockabilly and their own tunes until they leave high 
school, but they did. In 2016, they released Bedop. Also Blue Energy, with young
people aged 15-17, the new “superheroes” in the blues environment at Notodden will
perform. Three Bastards BluesBand is a blues-rock band, which, based on punk, among
other things, will draw audiences who go for high octane. Ole Devil & the Spirit
Chasers, psychedelic doomsday blues, with members from the Norwegian noise and metal
scene, will delight young festival participants.

Forsberg confirms that the assessments after the meetings were taken seriously when
this year’s artists were booked.

 * We have measures for all this in our planning of the festival 2019. The booking
   of artists such as DumDum Boys, Bigbang and Ulf Lundell are visible measures 
   when it comes to the latest. We have only received positive feedback on this.
   Ulf Lundell has done a lot of blues on several of their records, Bigbang is a
   band that our audience has shown that they like, and DumDum Boys has approached
   our environment by including blues drummer Richard Gjems on his latest album.
   It is also part of the story that we have tried to include DumDum Boys in our
   program in previous years too, but then it did not fit.

The audience’s desire to bring back more small clubs as part of the festival, lower
ticket prices and camping, a more flexible payment scheme – and more street-level
music, will also be visible changes in 2019, says the festival manager, who thinks
it is not an unnatural things to open up the profile a bit.

![](https://i0.wp.com/bluesnews.no/Files/Images/festivaler/festivaler19/Tora.jpg?
w=640&ssl=1)

 * The blues people are good at pointing out that blues is the origin of all modern
   rhythmic music. It is also nothing new with us, he says, and opens for a clearer
   rock profile on Friday during the festival weekend.

DumDum Boys is part of the chain.

 * We’re still a clear blues festival with artists like Joe Louis Walker, Eric Gales,
   Billy Gibbons, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Monster Mike Welch, Bjørn Berge, Notodden
   Blues Band, Willson, Anthony Geraci & the Boston Blues All-Stars, says Forsberg.

The festival director is right that the relationship between rock and blues is natural
to emphasize. At the Blues Music Awards in the US, the genre mix is ​​clearly reflected.
Four of the award winning artists come to Notodden Blues Festival 1-4. August, two
of which won awards in the blues-rock class. Billy F. Gibbons won the Blues Rock
Album Award of the Year for The Big Bad Blues. Eric Gales won the Blues Rock Artist
class. They will perform with blues legend Joe Louis Walker, who received the award
for best acoustic album.

The strategy plan has been a tool for the festival, which has also worked to develop
the professional competence with participation in subject collections and seminars.

Some of the country’s leading blues guitars come, Vidar Busk and Daniel Eriksen 
with drummer Stig Sjøstrøm. Both Busk and Eriksen have received the Spellemann Prize
and NBF’s blues award, and for many years have been two of the country’s most active
blues artists. Bjørn Berge returns with Bjørn Berge Electric Band and Knut Reiersrud
plays in Heddal Stave Church on July 31st. The free concert on the closing day also
consists of Norwegian artists with Steinar Albrigtsen and friends from Telemark.

Maybe more Norwegian bands and short music are the future of the festival?

![Steinar Albrigtsen og Monika Nordli kan høres på avslutningskonserten søndag.](
https://i0.wp.com/bluesnews.no/Files/Images/festivaler/festivaler19/Steinar-og-Monika.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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