Chicago Spelmanslag

Chicago Spelmanslag is the Chicago area's very own local, "home-town" Scandinavian Folk Band.

Our name comes from a traditional custom common throughout the Scandinavian countries, whereby each town would have its own local band consisting of that town's musicians, who would come together to provide the music for the region's dance parties, festivals, and special events.

In keeping with this custom, our musicians are primarily folk fiddlers from throughout the Chicago area. We also incorporate a variety of other instruments, however, which are less well known, including the nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed fiddle), hardingfele (Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, incorporating 'sympathetic' under-strings), tussefløyte (Norwegian recorder), and munnharpa (jawharp). In addition, we utilize some instruments which are relatively more recent to Scandinavian folk music, such as guitar, string bass, and cello.

Founded in the autumn of 1990 in the wake of a Chicago performance by the Norwegian folk band Dalakopa, we are currently celebrating our 20th year of playing the traditional folk music of Scandinavia. We have been privileged to play for a great variety of folk music and ethnic festivals, both in-town and out of state as well. But what we enjoy most is playing for local folks who share in our passion for the folk music and dance of Norway, Sweden, and the other Scandinavian countries.

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