INTERVIEW: Shetlander Kevin Henderson brings his hometown sounds to Nordic Fiddlers Bloc
Photo: From left, Olav Luksengård Mjelva, Kevin Henderson and Anders Hall make up the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by Cindy Byram PR with permission.
The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc, featuring Kevin Henderson, Olav Luksengård Mjelva and Anders Hall, have been playing together for more than a decade, gathering fans throughout Europe, the United States and the world. Now, despite the pandemic, they are back with new music. The trio’s latest album is called Bonfrost, which was actually recorded live during a marathon session in Os, Norway.
The result of their efforts is a wonderful amalgam of traditions and influences, all blending together into a perfectly orchestrated sound that feels simultaneously loose and improvisational. The musicians in the band knew they had something special … and then 2020 happened.
“It’s been really tricky,” Henderson said in a recent phone interview. “All musicians are in the same boat, but obviously with a new album release and all that sort of thing, it’s been difficult in that sort of sense. As I say, we’re all in the same boat, and there’s not much we can do about it.”
The fiddlers have been working on the album for a couple years. They struggled to find time to sit down and make the recording, mostly because the players are involved in several side projects. Henderson said he and Mjelva also have young families, so they need to constantly balance life and work.
“So it’s taken a little bit of time to get together, but we’ve just worked it out,” he said. “We’d been on tour and taken a few days here and there, and just sat down and tried to arrange music when we had the chance. And then finally we got enough material together and finished arrangement wise, so we went into the studio last year and finally got it down. It was good to get it finished.”
That marathon recording session was in early February 2020, a time Henderson now reflects on with a contemplative mind. Right around that time he was playing in the United States on a tour with a piano player, and he was able to get home right before the lockdown began. Then they got the album finished, and the world stopped. “I managed to get home just in time,” he said.
Henderson is originally from Shetland, a network of islands in the far northern reaches of Scotland. Back home, when he was growing up, he took lessons with fiddler master Trevor Hunter, according to his official biography, and then he studied under the great Willie Hunter. This led to stints with Fiddlers’ Bid (as a founding member), Boys of the Lough and Session A9.
“I started coming to Norway quite a bit, and I met Anders at a couple of festivals,” Henderson remembers. “We hung out and enjoyed jamming and socializing, and Anders had had this idea about a fiddle trio playing different styles.”
Hall had already been playing with Mjelva, so the three got together and the synergy began. The Nordic Fiddlers’ Bloc was formed in 2009, and throughout the last 11-12 years, each of the players in the trio has brought their unique take on this iconic instrument to the band. For Henderson, that meant sharing some of his history on Shetland.
“Born and bred Shetlander,” Henderson said proudly. “I stayed in Shetland for 25 years of my life I suppose, and we have a very rich fiddle tradition there. I actually didn’t see myself playing music full time, but I got asked to join a band called Boys of the Lough. Another Shetlander called Aly Bain, a well-known fiddle player, left the band, and I got asked to join. So I moved to Glasgow, and then I was there for a few years before I started coming to Norway a lot. And now I live in Norway.”
Henderson said growing up in Shetland was fantastic, especially because of his interest in fiddle-playing. He characterized his home a very remote group of islands, north of mainland Scotland and west of Norway — which is also how one could define Henderson’s musical sound, north of Scotland, west of Norway.
“I would say our culture has a lot of connections to Scandinavia,” he said. “We have a very rich fiddle tradition. There was lots of folk playing the fiddle when I was young, and we were lucky in the sense that traditional Shetland fiddle is taught in the school system. So I was exposed to it from an early age, and my grandfather was a huge fan of fiddle music. So I was always aware of fiddle music, I suppose, but we have a lot of festivals and things. So it’s kind of a hotbed of music of different styles, and it was a great place to grow up, as I said, a lot of freedom and a lot of music.”
Now Henderson brings those Shetland lessons to Norway and beyond with his fiddle-playing on Bonfrost from the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Nordic Fiddlers Bloc, featuring Kevin Henderson, recently released their new album called Bonfrost. Click here for more information.
