Folksongs of Another America: Lost Sounds From Wisconsin's Norwegians

press release: Join Jim Leary, Professor Emeritus of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies at UW-Madison, to learn more about the culture of folk songs and music of Norwegian Wisconsin at the Livsreise Norwegian Heritage Center in Stoughton.

Folklorists working for the Library of Congress in the mid-20th century recorded roughly 2,000 folksongs and tunes in more than 25 languages from performers in the Upper Midwest. These remarkable recordings and their performers have been largely unknown until now.

Jim Leary will introduce some of Wisconsin’s best Norwegian examples, featured in his Grammy nominated Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946 (a book with five CDs and a DVD), recently co-published by the University of Wisconsin Press and music publisher Dust-to-Digital. Illustrated with sounds, still images, and film clips, Leary’s talk will focus on 1940s field recordings made by UW’s Helene Stratman-Thomas with Norwegians in Barron, Dane, Polk, Portage, and Trempealeau Counties.