was, as I have just discovered, a man named Pawlo Humeniuk, a track of whose, “Urkainska weselia w Americzki” appears on the rather wonderful “Stranded in the USA“, released by the German Trikont label (my love of this label and the obscure yet utterly delightful music they release (klezmer, yodelling, Bavarian folk, disaster songs - browse their site to get an idea) cannot be put into words…)
Anyway, this is a collection of songs recorded by (mainly) European immigrants into the US in the early 20th century for the burgeoning ethnic music market - Upton Sinclair’s “Jungle” gives an insight into the world inhabited by these new Americans, and although the pride in Irishness has been subsumed by rampant hedonism, there are still many proud ethnic groups in the US who celebrate their native cultures (and in some cases act as a repository for traditions wiped out in their homelands by war/politics/modernity (delete as appropriate)) - and strangely, the clearest example I can think of at the moment is the first half an hour of “The Deer Hunter“, with an entire traditional (as far as I can tell) Rusyn wedding translated to late-1960’s Pennsylvania.
Anyway, I digress, this CD is, if you are at all interested in some of the more obscure roots of American popular music (beyond the clear blues and Irish folk that can be heard in traditional country music and all its descendants, including rock’n'roll), packed with Klezmer and Central European (both of which have recently had a renaissance amongst the young in London), but also Italian (in the style of the great crooners - and probably an influence on Sinatra et al), Austrian, Swiss, German, but most interestingly, Finnish. Finnish has never appeared to me (in the little of it I have ever seen written, or even less heard spoken) as the most musical of languages, apart of course from Fredi in 1976:
And yet they are musical, and even if understand less than a single word, there is a sense of yearning that the Finnish songs share with the ditties from the other supposedly more passionate and emotional ethnic groups. Gloomy, yes, but passionately gloomy (if such a thing is possible).
Finns are, beneath that calm exterior, seething whirlpools of torrid passion. В тихом омуте черты водятся, or something. Perhaps this also explains their odd obsession with tango.
The dance, rather than the drink, I assume. Although the mid-90’s adverts were good.
Indeed, the dance. Though perhaps they like the drink too, though it is somewhat low in alcohol content.