Ditte Andersson Ditte Andersson CD

Ditte Andersson plays and sings traditional music from Sweden. Her voice and the evocative sound of the nyckelharpa reflect the musical mother tongue of her home province, Uppland. The CD was produced by Stephen McArthur and John Ryan.

FROM THE LINER NOTES

"My name is Ditte Andersson, and I live in the city called Uppsala in the province of Uppland in Sweden. I was born in 1954, just outside the city. While I was little, I heard my father playing the trumpet and records of Dizzy Gillespie, my mother singing with guitar accompaniment, and my grandmother playing Beethoven on the piano. I had folk music further back in my family, but I didnt know that then. I started to play the piano with my grandmother at the age of five, and the guitar with my father a little later. I didnt begin playing the nyckelharpa until I was 19.
In Uppland, my part of the country, and where the nyckelharpa has its home, we are very fortunate in the wealth of folk music. There has always been a strong and living tradition. I landed right in the middle of it, with people my own age who played and with many surviving older musicians.
Now, many years later, Ive devoted myself entirely to music. It has given me both fellowship and work. I work full time as a musician, with folk music as the main feature. For a solo recording like this one, the music is very suitable: Swedish folk music is, by tradition, a solo genre. Any accompaniment needed is built into the tunes through rhythm. The musician the spelman brings all the swing that is needed. Listen and swing along!"