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CD Title: Rallare Artist: Arahb, Olsen and Strom Genre: Classic/Folk: Swedish Release Date: 2006 Rating: 5/5 Björn Arahb, Ragnar Olsen and Pierre Ström have not only created a master piece, but they have captured the spirit of working men around the world! These three professional troubadours, have spent more than 30 years doing research about these ballads as well as performing them all over the Nordic countries.

From Special Collections Dec, 06

In December 2006 and January 2007, we featured this CD as our very first of Special Collections, broadcasted on WOOL.LP, 100.1 fm in BellowsFalls, Vermont.

The show was a huge success and helped launch our own Special Collections productions successfully.

About the Songs
It is simple, with it´s origin in the sadness of the Swedish folk music. For the people isolated far up in the north of Europe, not many outside influences were present. And most probably the Rallare had not met with the 'fine European art music'.

This is why the music is charactered so much by simplicity, contrasting the North-American circumstances with large groups of different people and varied music with afro- latin- etc. influences.

This music belongs to a time before the mp3-files, when most people could not affoard a gramophone, so the only thing they could do was to write poems and compose their own music on the claviature(?) and/ or the guitar.

Three Troubadours
Rallare is the Swedish expression for the English 'navvy', i.e the thousands of men and women who used to work for the railways in the middle and end of the 1800th and the beginning of the 1900th century, in the very northern parts of Sweden and Norway.

These rallare were surrounded by the magnificent mountains of Lapland, which also brought to them the most freezing cold in wintertime. Thus many of them had met with deadly diseases and other difficulties...

Today though, we are left with all the memories and stories, but primarily with these authentical ballads, now more than 100 years old. They are ballads and songs which describe life, the happiness and the disasters of work and working, they are ballads which are rythmically used to accompany work and they are ballads which keep telling us about partying, never ending love and longing…

The three professional troubadours, Björn Arahb (Sweden), Pierre Ström(Sweden) and Ragnar Olsen (Norway) have spent more than 30 years in doing research about these ballads as well as performing them all over the Nordic countries.

'What a great honour to let the American audience listen to our historically authentical and much appreciated ballads performed by three great singers!'