Sulo Hackman, Cloquet, Minnesota.

Sulo Hackman was born in 1912 on a farm near Duluth.  His father and his mother were both from Finland.  At age 8, Sulo started playing a fiddle made by his father.  His father, Charles, was also a fiddler and corrected Sulo whenever he would not play a tune in the old style.  These recordings are from an out of print cassette called Sulo Hackman and his Musiikkats.

Iva Dingwall. Elk River, MN

Iva Dingwall was born in Elk River, MN in 1877. She played the barn dance fiddle music that her father played when she was growing up.  This recording of her represents the only recordings we have of a Minnesota fiddler born in the 1800's.  Thankfully she also jotted down her accounts of her fathers playing and the tunes and dances that were used.

Detroit Lakes Fiddle Contest

I am including this in the archive just to show how much Scandinavian influenced tunes were in the Senior Division of Northern Minnesota contests, even in the 1990's.

Minnesota State Fiddle Championships 1989-90

Excerpts from the annual contests held in Cotton, Minnesota.

Archie Teigen. Brainerd, Minnesota.

Leonard Finseth. Drammen Township, Wisconsin.

Leonard Finseth was born at the same Drammen Township, Wisconsin farm where he lived all his life. Leonard's father came from Norway, and he married his mother in the early 1900's and they lived at that same farm. Leonard was born in 1911 and passed away in 1991.  He learned to fiddle from his uncle Ed Quall.

Audio courtesy of Larry Finseth and Bruce Seldoff.  Some translations courtesy of Even Traen.

Video courtesy of Larry Finseth with permission from Gary Andresen.