Spirit

Spirit is the maiden voyage of Buster Sledge, a progressive bluegrass trio based in Oslo, where California-born fiddler and lead vocalist Michael Barrett Donovan moved when he married his wife, a native Norwegian. Donovan first met Mikael Jonassen (banjo, vocals) and Jakob Folke Ossum (guitar, vocals) at a welcoming party organised in his honour by Norwegian bluegrass enthusiasts. The Scandinavia-bluegrass connection is not as unnatural as it sounds. In the 18th century, a sizable number of Swedes, Finns and Norwegians fled various forms of persecution alongside Scots-Irish and other Europeans, settling in Appalachia and bringing their respective folkways with them.

Today, Norway hosts a couple of large bluegrass festivals while Jonassen is the first Norwegian to graduate from music school with banjo serving as his principal instrument. Although firmly rooted in traditional American style, Buster Sledge’s approach allows for adventurous exploration of the genre’s outer edges. ‘Coming and Going’, for example, propels the listener on an eight-minute-plus, all instrumental excursion punctuated by odd time signatures and unusual harmonic shifts more commonly encountered at a contemporary chamber recital or jazz concert. The music on Spirit ain’t your father’s bluegrass – and that’s a refreshingly welcome thing.