Gud morgon här & St. Stephen’s Polska
Here are two 19th c. Swedish Jultide/Christmas melodies played on the fretted dulcimer. Gud Morgon tells a story of children anxious for Juletide morning, but their parents don’t want to get out of bed when it is so early. The children try to wake their parents up three times (same melody) and on the 3rd try they all awake and celebrate w/ St. Stephen’s Polska. St. Stephen’s Day is the day after Jultide when foods, drink, and gifts are to be shared with those people who are less fortunate.
The story of Sam Patch on the Sam Patch Packet Boat
I have had the opportunity to present this work, Diatonisk, 2025-2026, on 19th c. replica Erie Canal packet boats. Several boating companies on the Canal from Syracuse to Lackawanna offer tours w/ music, history lectures, and other onboard entertainment. From Rochester By Water - the Sam Patch, an authentic reproduction of a packet boat honoring 19th c. falls jumper Sam Patch. And then aboard the Seneca Chief from the Buffalo Maritime Center, a full-sized replica of the Erie Canal passenger boat which first crossed the Erie Canal upon its opening in 1825.
This is an original poster I painted & produced for the Scandinavian Folk Festival, Jamestown, NY, 2025. This image is a reflection on community fiddlers, “Spelman,” who I have met and corresponded with in WNY and Sweden.
Playing my 8-string “spelmaner in the snow! Four strings are inside the fretboard and produce a sympathetic drone in harmony with the playing strings above, 2010.
Diatonisk & the Dulcimer book cover, 2007. This is a self produced brief history of the psalmodikon from Sweden and in the U.S. Dennis Dorogi’s psalmodikon & dulcimer collection, included three Swedish psalmodikon found in the area of Jamestown-NY/Erie-PA. How they arrived in that area is a mystery. We do know that when 19th c. immigrant travelers completed their trip down the Erie Canal in now Lackawanna they often then boarded sailboats and eventually steamboats on Lake Erie to travel to Erie, PA, headed south or continued north into the Great Lakes to Chicago.
A Swedish family celebrates Sankta Lucia, a scene w/ psalmodikon music played by Nils R. Caspersson at the Genesee Country Village & Museum, 2022, Mumford, NY. Audience members frequently sang along with the Lucia theme, many singing in Swedish.
Med ljus i hår (With Lights In Her Hair) is an original cd collection of Scandinavian-American Jultide/Christmas music, 2022, collected by request from musicians living in NY and New England, and several other American areas with a few from Sweden & Finland.
Med ljus i hår interior pp detailing each musical piece and the performers of each piece. Close inspection reveals Scandinavian Jultide musical traditions throughout the recording areas including psalmodikon and dulcimer.
I have taught numerous music students how to play the fretted dulcimer. This small group was in Rochester, NY. My most recent was teaching two dulcimer playing workshops @ American Scandinavia House, New York City in early May, 2026. What a wonderful experience.
Two young tomtes approached me at a Scandinavian Heritage Society, Rochester, NY, lutefisk dinner, 2025, and listened to me playing. They were cousins and loved music. I offered my guitar pick and the girl took it and strummed the dulcimer immediately…making music for the very first time!