Location. Location. Location.
As a singer-songwriter with a strong sense of place, I have a feeling that Bill Booth would identify with the much-quoted real estate mantra although his perspective is mainly historical rather than commercial.
In the chorus to his song, Prairie Home, he sings: "You can have your London, New York, Paris, Rome / I've got my own Prairie Home". This is a celebration of life on the land with good neighbours but the verse in Norwegian highlights his very specific viewpoint to this and the other thirteen songs on the album.
The 'home' he refers to may be in the Upper Midwest Region of America but the choice of location has a special significance in that it is where the highest number of Americans of Norwegian origin live.
Booth's bio explains this particular choice of subject matter. He was raised in the rural state of Maine in Northern USA, then lived in New York but made his home Norway after touring there in the early 1980s.
Having embraced the Scandinavian life and culture, the songs on this album, as with his previous album Songs of the Land (2006), are those of an American in Norway telling tales of Norwegians in America. In other words, it serves as an alternative history of the USA with a strong Scandinavian slant.
The helpful sleeve notes explain the inspiration and significance of each track and we learn from these that most of his stories come from 19th century sources. For example, the opening track (Chickamauga) recounts how 800 Norwegian volunteers died in Georgia 1863 ("they called us Scandinavian but America was home").
Another song, Dog Fish Bay, is set in Poulsbro, Washington which was founded by Ole Stubb in 1875 and has grown to become "one of the most Norwegian towns to be found in America".
Other locations include Illinois, the Nevada mountains, Tacoma, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Historical events cover such topics as the gold rush and the American civil war.
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Personalities range from the familiar (Jesse James) to the idiosyncratic - figures such as a Doctor Reidar Wennesland who cared for Norwegian seaman and exotic animals as well as amassing a collection of American Beat Art in California.
The final two songs are the most recent in historical terms. New Bedford Shore is told from the perspective of the skipper of a ship that miraculously escaped a 1962 storm off the coast of Massachusetts in which ten Norwegian seamen of another vessel perished. Slim Jim And The Vagabond Kid is about a popular Norwegian-American singer, Ernest Iverson, who was big in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
Booth has the urbane voice of a natural storyteller and has clearly stumbled upon a rich source of material for his songs. He has a rootsy drawl that more than one critic has likened to Mark Knopfler and his style also has much in common with Dire Straits' laid-back style.
On this record he plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar (acoustic and electric) and is backed by what is obviously an accomplished set of local musicians.
As Scandanavian Americana, this album will probably appeal more to those in Booth's adopted homeland but it is a record with a charm and intelligence that also deserves a wider audience.
Bill Booth homepage.
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